Associate Director, Natural Economy
? We’re hiring: Associate Director, Natural Economy
? Bristol or London | Hybrid | 2+ days in the office
?Competitive salary, depending on experience
Eunomia is looking for an experienced sustainability consulting leader with a strong track record of business development to lead and grow our Natural Economy practice, with responsibility for its P&L, people, delivery and growth.
This is a senior leadership role with responsibility for the strategy, commercial performance, people and delivery of a multidisciplinary practice working across natural capital, biodiversity, climate resilience and adaptation, sustainable land use and agriculture, food systems, water and nature finance.
We already have a strong portfolio of work with government, NGOs and other public-sector clients. A key part of this role will be to build on that foundation while personally driving growth across our markets, particularly developing a significantly stronger private-sector business through new propositions, senior client relationships and new business wins.
The Opportunity
You will lead a multidisciplinary Natural Economy team and shape the next stage of its development. Our work spans:
- Natural capital, biodiversity, nature finance and nature-based solutions.
- Climate resilience and adaptation.
- Sustainable land use and agriculture.
- Sustainable food systems and diets.
- Integrated water and catchment management.
- Environmental policy, regulation, evaluation and foresight.
- Corporate nature strategy, including nature-related risks, impacts, dependencies and transition.
You do not need to be a technical specialist in all of these areas. We are looking for someone with depth in one or more areas, combined with the breadth and leadership ability to bring together specialist teams and develop an integrated Natural Economy offer.
What you'll do
- Set and deliver the growth strategy for the Natural Economy practice and take responsibility for its commercial performance.
- Lead and develop a high-performing multidisciplinary team, working closely with our Managing Consultants, Principal Consultants and technical leads.
- Strengthen Eunomia's established public-sector and NGO work while identifying priority areas for private-sector growth.
- Develop propositions that translate our policy, research and technical expertise into commercially compelling services for business.
- Build senior client relationships and develop strategic accounts across public, NGO/donor and private-sector markets.
- Lead and support major bids and proposals and oversee the practice's pipeline and business development activity.
- Ensure consistently high standards of project delivery and provide senior oversight for strategically important or higher-risk assignments.
- Identify emerging policy, market and scientific developments and use these to shape new services and areas of growth.
- Represent Eunomia externally, contribute to thought leadership and strengthen our profile across Natural Economy policy and markets.
- Work across Eunomia's UK and international teams to develop integrated client solutions.
What we're looking for
- Strong experience in environmental or sustainability consulting, or advisory work.
- Deep expertise in at least one relevant Natural Economy area - for example natural capital, biodiversity, nature finance, climate adaptation, land use, agriculture and food systems, water or ecosystem services - together with the ability to work credibly across a broader multidisciplinary portfolio.
- Experience leading people and a consulting team, service line or business area, with responsibility for both commercial and delivery performance.
- A strong track record of winning work, developing client relationships and leading complex projects or bids.
- Direct experience of P&L responsibility for a consulting team, practice, service line or comparable business unit, including revenue, margin and forecasting.
- The ability to engage credibly with senior stakeholders across government, business, NGOs and other organisations.
- A good understanding of how environmental policy, regulation and market developments create risks and opportunities for organisations.
- An entrepreneurial mindset and the ability to identify new markets, services and client opportunities.
- Strong communication, influencing and relationship-building skills.
What makes the role distinctive
This is an opportunity to take leadership of an established multidisciplinary team while having significant scope to shape its future direction. You will inherit strong capabilities and client relationships across environmental policy and research, while helping Eunomia develop the next generation of services for businesses responding to nature, climate, land, food and water challenges.
What do you get in return
?Competitive salary, depending on experience
?️ Enjoy every other Friday off with our 9-day fortnight working pattern (that's 26 extra days off per year!)
???? Enhanced family friendly leave
?️ 24 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year worked (up to 30 days) plus bank holidays
? Enjoy a 3-month part paid sabbatical when you reach 5 years
? Work from anywhere in the world for 4 weeks every year
? Excellent private medical insurance
?️ Life insurance of 4x your annual salary
? Group Income Protection