Sustainability Director (maternity cover)

Sustainability has an imagination problem. It’s become reductive, performative, safe. Business has become preoccupied with disclosure and ‘best practice’, being ‘less bad’ is seen as leadership, and sustainability is superficially “at the heart of everything” and “driving a better world”. At RY, we’re on a mission to change all this.

Through a magic blend of technical know-how, strategic thinking and creative flair, we create insightful sustainability strategies, robust and compelling reporting, and effective communications. As the regulations intensify and the persuasive quest for more context-based and impact-driven approaches to sustainability and its measurement gains momentum, there’s never been a more rewarding time to work with leading businesses to ignite action and inspire genuine change.

Radley Yeldar has been at the forefront of the sustainability space for decades, working with some of the world’s largest organisations. As a creative consultancy we’re renowned for our leading sustainability strategy, reporting and wider communications expertise.

Our Sustainability Director is going on maternity leave in November, and we’re looking for a progressive, inspiring and strategic leader to fill the gap for a 10-12 month period. You’ll lead a team of ambitious sustainability strategists, shape our offer in line with ever-evolving market trends, and crucially, spearhead bold and impactful work with progressive and complex global clients. Ultimately, you’ll play a vital role in achieving RY’s vision ‘to create a world that believes in business’.

Remit and responsibilities

- Lead a team of ambitious sustainability strategists and spearhead the continuous evolution of our Sustainability Focus Area. You’ll work with senior colleagues to continually shape our Sustainability Focus Area in-line with sustainability and market trends, and will lead and unite a team of ambitious sustainability strategists. This role will involve direct line management as well as wider leadership.

- Operational management. RY is fast-paced with numerous sustainability-related projects on the go at any one time. You’ll work alongside our ‘workflow’ team to plan the team’s resourcing, qualify pitch requests, and take responsibility for the commercial success of the Sustainability Focus Area.

- Pitch to win. You’ll lead proposals, pitches and new business meetings, working with teams of project managers, creatives and business development partners to win work with new clients and grow existing accounts. You’ll also shape and scope multi-faceted programmes of work for clients across varying sectors.

- Raise our profile. Naturally curious and entrepreneurial, you’ll proactively come up with inspiring ideas and unique points of view, and develop content for thought leadership and marketing material. You’ll draw upon your extensive network, building relationships and speaking at events to champion our thinking.

- Lead on insightful sustainability reporting programmes. You’ll act as a lead strategist on client accounts to deliver insightful, rigorous and engaging sustainability reporting across a range of channels. Balancing rigorous technical knowledge with creative flair and compelling storytelling, your work will span the entire reporting lifecycle: from setting the direction inspired by the latest sustainability developments and themes, to defining the content strategy, advising on alignment with appropriate standards and frameworks, interviewing stakeholders, shaping the content, and partnering with copywriters and creatives to bring it all to life.

- Lead on impactful sustainability strategy work. You’ll deliver progressive sustainability strategies for our clients, with an emphasis on efficacy and impact. Your work will include leading on in-depth double or context-based materiality assessments, developing robust Theory of Change frameworks, and crafting ambitious and communicative strategic frameworks, considering both the content and communications perspective.

- Support clients’ alignment with key frameworks. You’ll work with analysts and strategists to help clients prepare for and align with key reporting and sustainability frameworks, standards and regulations (such as ESRS, ISSB, GRI, TCFD, TNFD and TPT) through gap analysis, benchmarking, value chain mapping and identification of relevant disclosure requirements. You’ll stay abreast of the changes within the global regulatory landscape, sharing your knowledge internally and upskilling the wider team.

- Develop topic-specific communications and campaigns. Whether communicating an organisation’s climate transition plan, or creating a communications plan around specific human rights issues, you’ll lead the development and execution of topic-specific communications and campaigns for clients across a range of sectors.

- Build sustainability knowledge internally. You’ll help upskill the broader RY team around sustainability topics, running Sustainability Sessions and training for colleagues in other functions, e.g. employee experience, brand, digital, film.

- An inspiring leader and effortless team player, you have experience leading and motivating ambitious teams, line managing talented colleagues of all levels, and fostering a joined up, engaged culture.

- You’re an entrepreneurial sustainability professional with a solid background in the agency or consultancy space. You’ve worked with a wide range of clients of different sizes and across multiple sectors and geographies, at various stages of their sustainability journey.

- You have bucketloads of experience advising on and developing clients’ sustainability (and ESG) reporting, from first timers to those leading the pack. You may also have experience inputting into annual reporting.

- You’ve worked with organisations to develop their sustainability strategies and materiality assessments, including double materiality aligned with ESRS.

- You’re totally up to speed with the rapidly evolving landscape of sustainability and ESG frameworks, and have a solid working knowledge of ESRS and ISSB, with demonstrable experience applying these standards with clients. You also know the more established sustainability and reporting standards and frameworks inside out, including GRI, TCFD and TPT, plus familiarity with key ratings, indices and topic-specific frameworks. Ideally, you’re familiar with context-based strategic frameworks too, such as Future-Fit and the Sustainable Development Performance Indicators.

- Creative and imaginative, you’re always considering how to reach wider audiences through impactful communications across a range of channels, and making the complex simple. A master storyteller, you bring a perfect blend of technical expertise and communications flair, allowing you to understand and translate complex information and data into compelling communications.

- You’re familiar with communications strategy and can unearth a brilliant insight and develop a solid strategy, acting as a springboard for the best creative ideas.

- Passionate and convincing, you have an authentic style and you talk, write and present with gravitas. You’re a leading voice in successful pitches, you’re comfortable engaging with very senior clients and acting as their strategic sparring partner, and you create progressive, engaging, and thought-provoking content.

- Commercially astute, you’re adept at identifying and implementing commercial actions that aid the maintenance and growth of RY.

- Adept at multi-tasking and juggling multiple projects in a fast-paced environment, you’re comfortable in chaos and work effectively under pressure. You set the bar for high quality work, with a reputation for delivering excellence at all times.

- You’re a nice person, with oodles of energy and infectious enthusiasm.

If you’re looking for a dynamic and rewarding role in a buzzing consultancy team, working with some of the world’s biggest organisations to progress sustainability, we’d love to hear from you. Please include a cover letter with your application outlining why you'd love to work for RY (not because we’re old fashioned and want to create more work for you, but because we’re looking for a sense of your creativity and communications style).

RY embraces diversity and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.