Sustainability Solutions Director (SSD)
Sustainability Solutions Director (SSD)
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Inspired is seeking a Sustainability Solutions Director to drive revenue in optimisation, decarbonisation, and energy efficiency services. The role leverages existing client base, with no cold outreach, and focuses on converting qualified leads into long-term partnerships.
You will coordinate with Solution Development and Pre-Sales to deliver compelling business cases, while maintaining client relationships and driving market engagement.
Qualifications
- Proven track record of achieving and exceeding sales targets in B2B environments.
- Desirable: experience in sustainability, energy management, ESG, decarbonisation or net-zero environments.
- Knowledge of UK energy and building regulations, compliance frameworks and sustainability reporting requirements.
- Experience closing deals with contract value of £1m or more.
Responsibilities
- Drive new business revenue across sustainability and building optimisation.
- Qualify warm opportunities from pre-qualified leads and convert to long-term client relationships.
- Act as commercial owner to negotiate and close deals.
- Collaborate with Solution Development & Pre-Sales to build compelling business cases.
- Represent Inspired at industry events and maintain market awareness.
Skills
Tools
Job description
Location: Remote/Kirkham
Vacancy Type: Permanent/Full Time
Inspired is a market leading, technology-enabled provider of energy and sustainability solutions in the UK - supporting businesses to transition to net zero carbon and manage their response to climate change.
Established in 2000, we became the first publicly quoted advisor following a successful AIM debut in 2011. We are now the UK’s number one destination for businesses seeking expert insight and advisory services to help them manage their energy costs, reduce their carbon emissions and prove their net zero carbon and ESG strategies to their investors and customers
We are looking for aSustainability Solutions Director (SSD) to join our successful Optimisationteam. This role ishome basedwith travel to officesrequired.
The SSD – Optimisation & Decarbonisation Solutions is responsible for driving new business revenue across Inspired's sustainability and building optimisation division, selling energy efficiency, smart building, retrofit, decarbonisation and energy generation solutions.
Reporting to the Sales Director – Optimisation, the role works pre-qualified leads generated from Inspired's existing base of c.3,000 energy consultancy customers — there is no requirement for cold outreach or lead generation. The SSD qualifies these warm opportunities, converts them, and develops them into long‑term client relationships in line with the divisional commercial strategy.
The SSD acts as the day-to-day commercial point of contact for clients, bridging client objectives and technical delivery capabilities to ensure solutions deliver measurable energy, carbon and operational performance improvements while meeting commercial, regulatory and sustainability requirements.
The successful candidate's responsibilities will include but not be limited to:
- Deliver against individual new business revenue and margin targets contributing to the divisional sales plan set by the Sales Director.
- Work a steady flow of warm, pre-qualified leads sourced from Inspired's c.3,000 existing energy consultancy customers — no cold prospecting or outbound lead generation is required.
Close new opportunities across:
- Building Management Systems (BMS)
- Smart building technologies
- IoT-enabled building optimisation
- Energy efficiency upgrades
- Retrofit projects
- Decarbonisation programmes – Solar and Battery Energy Storage
- Renewable energy and on‑site generation solutions
- Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified opportunities and manage activity through the full sales cycle, keeping accurate CRM records and forecasts.
- Understand client operational challenges, sustainability objectives and asset performance requirements.
- Position Inspired's solutions as strategic investments that deliver operational savings, improved building performance, enhanced ESG outcomes and regulatory compliance.
Inspired has a dedicated Solution Development and Pre‑Sales team that owns the technical heavy lifting and business case build — energy audits, building performance assessments, sustainability reviews, ROI modelling and technical and commercial proposals. The SSD's role is to convert a strong, well-qualified business case into a closed deal.
- Brief the Solution Development and Pre‑Sales team on client requirements, drivers and decision criteria so they can build a compelling business case.
- Act as the commercial owner of the opportunity — position the business case to client stakeholders, lead commercial negotiation, manage objections and drive to close.
- Maintain enough technical fluency to have credible client conversations, leaving deep engineering, modelling and proposal work to the Pre‑Sales team.
- Feed client and market insight back to the Sales Director and Pre‑Sales team to sharpen the wider proposition.
- Represent Inspired at industry events, conferences, client forums and networking opportunities to generate leads and raise the profile of Inspired's optimisation and decarbonisation capabilities.
- Stay informed on market trends, legislation, competitor activity and emerging technologies, sharing insight with the Sales Director and wider team.
- Act as a trusted advisor to clients on smart buildings, energy efficiency, sustainability and building performance strategies.
- Support marketing and business development initiatives through client presentations, content contribution and industry engagement.
- Ensure a seamless handover from sales to project delivery teams.
- Work closely with project managers, engineers and technical specialists to ensure client expectations, project scope and commercial objectives are clearly documented and understood.
- Stay engaged with clients throughout project delivery to maximise customer satisfaction and identify repeat and follow‑on opportunities.
Success in this role will be measured against:
- New business revenue generated against individual target.
- Gross margin.
- Growth and coverage of qualified sales pipeline.
- Conversion rates and sales cycle velocity.
- CRM hygiene and forecast accuracy.
- Energy savings
- Cost reductions
- Carbon reduction achievements
- ESG and sustainability improvements
- Contribution to market positioning, brand reputation and competitive differentiation.
- Sales Director – Optimisation (line manager)
- Subject Matter Experts:
- Solar and Battery systems
- BMS and IoT
- IoT & Digital Solutions Teams
- Engineering & Technical Delivery Teams
- Sustainability & ESG Advisory Teams
- Marketing & Commercial Leadership
Essential:
- Proven track record of achieving and exceeding sales targets within B2B environments.
Desirable:
- Experience within sustainability, energy management, ESG, decarbonisation or net‑zero environments.
- Knowledge of UK energy and building regulations, compliance frameworks and sustainability reporting requirements.
- Experience working with energy monitoring, controls integration or smart building solution providers.
- Property management
- Facilities management
- Building owners and occupiers
- Developers and asset managers
- Retail, leisure, manufacturing and educational verticals
- Experience closing deals with a contract value of £1m or more.
- Ability to communicate technical solutions in commercial terms and articulate business value to both technical and executive stakeholders.
- Strong consultative selling, negotiation and stakeholder management skills.
- Excellent communication, presentation and influencing abilities.
- Self‑motivated, target‑driven and comfortable working autonomously within a defined commercial strategy.
- Familiarity with smart building and building optimisation technologies sufficient to hold credible client conversations (deep technical expertise sits with the Pre‑Sales team), including:
- Building Management Systems (BMS)
- IoT and connected technologies
- Building automation
- Data analytics and monitoring platforms
- Energy efficiency solutions
- Retrofit programmes
- Training and development opportunities
- Company pension
- Life insurance
- Enhanced maternity and paternity
- Benefits portal, with a wide range of benefits
- 4pm finish on Friday
If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.
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