Senior/Principal Consultant - Low Carbon Fuels

Ricardo; London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading consulting firm is seeking a Senior/Principal Consultant specializing in low carbon fuels. The role involves leading complex projects, engaging with stakeholders, and contributing to sustainability initiatives across Europe. Candidates should have a strong background in science or engineering, along with consultancy experience in the energy sector.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Support for physical and mental health

Inclusive workplace culture

Qualifications

• Experience in consultancy, particularly with European Commission or UK Government projects.
• Understanding of low-carbon fuel production pathways.
• Experience with techno-economic analysis.

Responsibilities

• Lead projects on low carbon fuels for transport.
• Develop technical proposals and provide thought leadership.
• Manage and coach junior team members.

Skills

Data analysis

Communication

Technical assessment

Policy analysis

Education

BSc, MSc, or PhD in Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Word

R

Python

Job description

Overview

Role: Senior/Principal Consultant - Low Carbon Fuels

Location: London, Oxford, Manchester (UK) and Madrid (Spain) - Hybrid

Role ID: 2025-2865

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Clean Energy and Environmental Solutions (CEES), one of Ricardo plc’s operating units, offers leading sustainability consultancy services to customers around the world. We operate across the energy, transport, climate, chemical risk sectors, drawing on our decades of engineering, environmental and economic expertise.

Are you passionate about sustainability, climate action, and driving change in transport? Do you want to work on high-profile projects for European institutions, national governments, multinational corporations and NGOs? If so, we’d love to hear from you!

We are seeking a Senior or Principal consultant to join our Sustainable Transport team, supporting projects on low-carbon fuels.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to developing and delivering our growing portfolio of low carbon fuels projects within the Sustainable Transport team on behalf of a mixture of private organisations, industry associations and public sector clients.
• Lead multi-disciplinary teams in delivering complex consulting projects related to low carbon fuels for transport, involving technical assessments, policy analysis, and stakeholder engagement to shape regulatory approaches in the UK, Europe, and globally.
• Senior-level expert quality assurance and technical review of project deliverables.
• Lead the development of technical proposals primarily within the low carbon fuels area but with ad hoc support across the wider team.
• Provide thought leadership on low carbon fuels policy and strategy. Identify and pursue new business opportunities within the low carbon fuels sector.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of sector technology developments, trends, challenges and regulations.
• Manage, supervise and/or coach junior members of the team to help them achieve their full potential.

Key Competencies and Experience

• A first or upper second-class BSc, MSc, or PhD in Science, Engineering, or a related field. A background in chemical engineering, chemistry, or process engineering, particularly with a focus on low-carbon fuels is highly desirable.
• Previous experience in consultancy is required, particularly in projects for the European Commission and/or UK Government.
• Understanding of biomass or recycled-carbon feedstocks and/or low-carbon fuel production pathways (biofuels, e-fuels, recycled carbon fuels) is required.
• Experience with techno-economic analysis and market dynamics influencing low-carbon fuel adoption is required.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks such as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, SAF Mandate, ReFuelEU, and CORSIA is highly desirable.
• Experience developing quantitative models and scenarios for transport technology and fuel deployment is highly desirable.
• Knowledge of lifecycle assessments (LCA) and sustainability frameworks for evaluating environmental impact is highly desirable.

Skills and behaviours

• Strong interest in transport and energy policy.
• Ability to synthesize data to support evidence-based solutions.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to simplify technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and Word.
• Fluency in English (Spanish required for roles in Madrid; additional languages are a plus).
• Strong data analysis skills (experience with Excel, R, or Python is desirable).

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.

Work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

Benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.

Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team [e-mail] if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.

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