Director-level / Senior Sustainability Strategist

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Radley Yeldar has been at the forefront of the sustainability space for decades. As a creative consultancy we're renowned for our leading sustainability strategy, reporting and engagement expertise. With limitless opportunities to work with some of the world's most exciting and complex organisations, we're looking for a senior hire (either Senior Strategist or Director-level, depending on experience) to enhance our market-leading sustainability offer, with an emphasis on reporting.

The pace of change in the sustainability reporting space is unprecedented. CSRD and ISSB are turning heads, regulatory deadlines loom and business is scrambling to keep pace. At the same time, the backlash against ESG is amplifying, and the compelling quest for more context-based approaches to sustainability and its measurement intensifies. Against this fast-moving backdrop and strong emphasis on disclosure, we at RY believe effective communication has never been more critical. Underpinned by rigorous evidence, sustainability reporting should tell a clear, compelling story, inspire change and ignite action.

Using our magic blend of technical expertise, strategic thinking and creative storytelling, you'll lead the charge on sustainability reporting work for some of our biggest and most complex clients, collaborating with designers, project managers and strategists across the agency. Ultimately, you'll play a vital role in achieving RY's vision 'to create a world that believes in business'

Remit and responsibilities

Your primary remit will focus on our reporting offer:

• 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 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 appropriate standards and frameworks, interviewing stakeholders, and partnering with copywriters and creatives to bring it all to life.
• Input into sustainability requirements of annual and integrated reporting. You'll bring your magic blend of sustainability expertise, technical capabilities and storytelling to support the increasing sustainability requirements of our annual and integrated reporting clients.
• Stay ahead of relevant frameworks, standards and regulations. You'll work with our team of strategists to keep abreast of the changes to the reporting landscape, frameworks and regulations. You'll apply them to our client work as needed, and share your learnings internally to upskill the wider team.
• Support clients' alignment with key frameworks. You'll work with analysts and strategists to help clients prepare for and align with key reporting frameworks, standards and regulations (such as ESRS, ISSB, GRI, TCFD and PAI) through gap analysis, benchmarking, value chain mapping and identification of relevant disclosure requirements.

You'll also be involved in our strategy and engagement work:

• Work on high profile sustainability strategy work. Deliver pioneering and progressive sustainability strategies for our clients - from in-depth double or context-based materiality assessments to rigorous strategic frameworks and targets.
• Contribute to 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 contribute to the development of topic-specific communications and campaigns for clients across a range of sectors.

Other essential responsibilities include:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Requirements

• You're an entrepreneurial sustainability professional with a solid background in the agency or consultancy space, and demonstrable experience in corporate sustainability issues.
• 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'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, the IIRC Framework and TCFD, plus ratings and indices. Ideally, you're familiar with context-based strategic frameworks too, such as Future-Fit and the Sustainable Development Performance Indicators.
• 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. Preferably you have worked with organisations to develop their sustainability strategies, materiality assessments and wider communications, too.
• You're passionate about sustainability and take a proactive interest in the evolution of key topics, such as biodiversity, human rights, circularity, etc, as well as the associated frameworks and regulations.
• 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 brilliant creative ideas.
• An inspiring leader and effortless team player, you motivate the team and foster a joined up, engaged culture. People gravitate towards you. Please note: there is the opportunity for this role to involve some line management responsibilities.
• Passionate and convincing, you have an authentic style and you talk, write and present confidently. You're a leading voice in successful pitches, you're comfortable engaging very senior clients, and you create engaging, 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