Consultancy Director

 

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced consultancy professional to take on a leadership role in developing and overseeing our rapidly growing consultancy services, supporting major global companies to deliver on their commitments to sustainable sourcing of agricultural commodities. The Consultancy Director, who will report to the Executive Director, will work in close collaboration with portfolio managers and technical experts. They will be accountable for business development strategy and the effective delivery of our consultancy portfolio by providing overall oversight to a team of portfolio leads, developing and implementing effective project management systems and enabling our portfolio management teams and technical experts to focus on strategy, delivery and technical innovation in their areas.

Proforest is a mission driven organisation with a 20-year track record of supporting the transi-tion to sustainable production and sourcing of agricultural and forest commodities. We are a not-for-profit group with a global presence across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America and work with governments, the private sector and civil society to deliver positive social and environmental outcomes in the places agricultural commodities are produced, ranging from protecting forests to recognising the land rights of indigenous peoples to improving conditions for workers.
Our clients are well-known consumer brands, such as Unilever, Nestle, PepsiCo and Mars, retailers such as Target and Ikea and the world’s largest traders and integrated producers including Cargill, Olam, Wilmar and Cofco. We combine our work for companies with longer-term programmes supported by institutional funders such as DfID, GIZ, Norad and the Global Environment Facility.

• Portfolio oversight: The Consultancy Director is responsible for the effective delivery of our consultancy portfolios within budget and to our quality standards. This involves close collaboration with portfolio managers on issues and decisions related to project management processes such as planning, resource allocation, workload management, monitoring of progress/cost and invoicing.
• Systems and processes: This role works closely with the Operations Director to develop and implement appropriate project management systems to ensure effective and efficient project planning, monitoring, and reporting.
• Business development: A key responsibility is to work closely with portfolio managers to review, develop and monitor the Business Development strategy. This will involve defining approach, setting targets, assessing the required business development efforts in the short and long term as well as signing-off proposals and contracts.
• Line management and team development: The Consultancy Director directly manages a team of portfolio managers and technical experts and provides direction and support on required skills and career development for the wider team.

As we grow, we need someone who can manage the senior technical team, providing the sup-port and oversight needed to ensure they can work optimally. We also need someone who can lead on further developing and implementing project and resource management systems which are efficient but still maintain flexibility for our very variable work. Outstanding interpersonal skills, a proven track record in developing and delivering a consultancy portfolio accompanied with experience in implementing effective project management systems are essential for suc-cess in this role.

The following skills and experience are essential to be successful in this role:

• A demonstrable experience and credible track record in project management within a consultancy environment, preferably within the sustainability sector
• An agile and innovative working style, able to translate business requirements and processes into operational systems
• Strong commercial acumen and negotiation skills with evidence of owning and delivering against revenue targets
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, a recognised team player and leader, able to develop a team

Proforest has an amazing global team of highly motivated staff from over 20 countries working out of offices in the UK, Netherlands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ghana, Brazil, and Colombia. The UK office is in Oxford with a friendly work environment where colleagues work very collaboratively and also socialise outside of the office. Regular internal exchange events bring together colleagues from all the offices for learning and exchange, ensuring a strong sense of a belonging to a global team. We have encouraged flexible working for many years which helps our staff to better manage their work home balance.

Salary:  £60-75,000 dependent on experience
Permanent position based in Oxford, UK with scope to work from home part of the time
Full time/part time – we are happy to discuss some flexibility
Benefits include flexible working, company pension, life insurance

Please send your CV, a cover letter to personnel@proforest.net
Closing Date: 13 September 2020