Sustainability Consulting Director

As a Sustainability Consulting Director, you will bring deep expertise, strategic leadership, and commercial acumen to the team. You will be a specialist in sustainability reporting with an in-depth knowledge of the regulatory landscape and best practice. Acting as a trusted advisor, you will lead high-profile client engagements, drive business growth, represent Emperor externally, and support junior consultants. You will also support the evolution of our Sustainability proposition to ensure it remains competitive and commercially successful.

Success in this role means being able to look beyond the strategic work delivered to the bigger picture of how the proposition, the offers, and its people are evolving to meet the needs of the business and clients effectively and efficiently.

The role

A Sustainability Consulting Director will be focused on:

• Harnessing your deep expertise to deliver high-quality strategic work: Providing strategic counsel to clients, guiding them through complex sustainability strategy and reporting challenges, and delivering impactful solutions.
• Driving new business growth and conversion: Identifying and building business growth opportunities, leading and shaping pitches and strengthening client relationships.
• Stepping back from projects to take a commercial view with the Proposition lead: Developing the proposition and solutions, ensuring they continue to meet evolving client needs and market demands; developing junior consultants and supporting training for the broader Emperor account management and client teams, helping to allocate consultants to ensure project profitability; collaborating with other consultants to deliver cross-proposition, more rounded solutions.
• Building Emperor's market presence: Shaping Emperor's strategic point of view, building your own and Emperor's external reputation, and contributing to events and thought leadership.

What you'll be doing in this role

• Support the Proposition Lead in shaping and evolving the proposition, ensuring it remains relevant to market needs and is commercially viable
• Lead high-profile client engagements, with particular focus on sustainability reporting and regulatory guidance, providing strategic consultancy and acting as a trusted advisor and senior consulting lead within the business. Working across both standalone SRs and broader reporting suites, confident in supporting clients to balance both regulatory requirements and compelling storytelling.
• Lead business development efforts - driving pitches, shaping proposals, and securing new opportunities. Confident at shaping a pitch-ready POV and able to lead a team of creatives and client services colleagues
• Develop strong external relationships and represent Emperor externally as a thought leader
• Stay ahead of industry developments, regulations, and best practices, to help shape Emperor's strategic response - and mentor and train junior team members, upskilling the consulting team on sustainability regulation
• Mentor and develop a team of consultants, fostering a high-performance culture. Work with the Proposition Lead to help allocate other consultants appropriately to ensure profitable, flourishing relationships with clients.

What you'll need to be successful in this role

• 9-10+ years of experience in a sustainability consulting role, with previous experience in a similar agency/consultancy environment as a Senior Sustainability Consultant, Associate Director, or Director.
• Proven experience developing and leading sustainability reporting for large listed and private businesses.
• Strong up-to-date knowledge of the sustainability regulatory environment, with experience aligning reporting to established sustainability frameworks (e.g. GRI, TCFD, ESRS, TNFD).
• Proven experience and success in winning new business, with ability to confidently shape pitch POVs and responses, deliver a winning presentation in the room (and ideally, lead a pitch team).
• A confident communicator with exceptional verbal, written, and presentation skills. You can hold a room at C-suite level, and clearly articulate sustainability reporting requirements and principles to both specialists and non-specialists, influencing decision-makers and driving client buy-in.
• Strong commercial awareness, with the ability to identify new business opportunities, expand client relationships, and proactively contribute to client development and consultancy growth.
• Exceptional client relationship skills with ability to work closely with C-suite level executives and senior leadership teams to advise, influence and deliver sustainability reporting, strategy, and comms.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced agency environment, handling multiple clients simultaneously while ensuring high-quality, strategic advice.
• This is a hybrid role working on-site in London 3 days per week.
• Demonstrate our values - We're in it together, We own it, We aim higher, and We find a smarter way.

It's a bonus if you have

• Experience with more technical sustainability projects, such as conducting materiality assessments.
• Well-rounded experience across sustainability strategy, reporting and campaigns/comms, helping clients not only implement but also communicate their efforts effectively to all levels of stakeholders, as well as integrating sustainability into their brand.
• People management experience

Next Steps

If you are successfully shortlisted for the role, the recruitment team will be in touch via email, and the process will begin from there. We endeavour to contact you within 5 working days of your application, however, this may vary depending on the volume of applications we receive. Good Luck!

As an employer, we are committed to ensuring the representation of people from all backgrounds regardless of their gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, or any other aspect which makes them unique. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds to apply and would encourage you to let us know if there are steps we can take to ensure that your recruitment process enables you to present yourself in a way that makes you comfortable.