Amberside Advisors Renewables Lead (Associate / Snr Manager)

About the organisation...

Amberside Advisors Ltd (‘AAL’) specialise in providing project finance consultancy and financial and commercial advisory services to public and private sector organisations. AAL combines market-leading financial modelling capability with experienced project finance expertise, and our services include advisory, refinancing, due diligence, model development, model audit and training. We have worked on more than 2,500 projects to date across a wide range of sectors and global locations, and our clients are well-known companies with billions of pounds of investments.

Part of the Steer Group since July 2022, we serve a global client base through 22 offices across four continents and take great pride in providing high quality advisory, customer service and insight into our clients’ projects. Our core industry sectors are low carbon, transport, decentralised energy, large scale energy and infrastructure, and we regularly advise on major projects ranging across heat networks, wind, solar and biomass, road and rail, schools and hospitals, as well as public service delivery contracts in sectors such as local authorities, healthcare, education and justice.

AAL are an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to eliminating discrimination and encouraging diversity across our employees. In addition, staff wellbeing is a key focus for AAL, and annual events are dedicated to reconnecting with colleagues, welcoming new joiners and having fun together as a team. Furthermore, weekly social events provide an easy and enjoyable way to get to know your peers.

About the role...

This role will report to the Group’s Director, Energy Transition (AAL Head of Commercial Advisory) and will help drive growth in pure-play renewables as part of the wider Energy Transition strategy and team. The successful candidate will bring deep commercial expertise in grid-connected, utility-scale renewable power and will originate and deliver commercially led financial, commercial and technical advisory and due diligence mandates.

This is a key growth area for Amberside, building on its established clean energy platform, existing client base and senior relationships. The role will strengthen our capability across solar, battery energy storage systems (BESS), onshore wind, hydro, biogas, CATO, OFTO, power distribution and other electricity storage and network infrastructure opportunities, while supporting wider Net Zero and Decarbonisation initiatives across the Steer Group globally.

This will be a senior role in the team, with potential line-management responsibilities and a strong emphasis on independent business development. The appointed individual will build relationships with Amberside and Steer’s renewable energy-led clients and external partners, convert those relationships into advisory mandates, and take a leading role in delivering concurrent assignments across both debt and equity transactions.

The role will help to identify and target the highest potential opportunities where we have a presence, spanning the UK, Southern Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, India and the Middle East, with scope to support opportunities in other markets. The individual will work closely with Amberside’s financial modelling and financial advisory teams and Steer’s commercial and technical due diligence specialists, serving a client base likely to include investors, developers, private equity firms, infrastructure funds and corporates. Alongside mandate delivery, the role will include tenders, presentations, reports and the development of new, repeatable service offerings.

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Managing several complex client engagements or components independently –

Managing commercial aspects of an individual engagement to achieve desired levels of quality and profitability.

Executing projects and maintaining a review process to ensure projects are completed to a level that meets the high-quality standards of Amberside Advisors.

Originating and winning renewable power advisory and due diligence mandates, growing the practice through existing client relationships, senior market contacts and new business development.

Leading commercially focused financial, commercial and technical due diligence assignments for grid-connected and utility-scale renewable power projects, including solar, BESS, onshore wind, hydro, biogas, CATO, OFTO, power distribution and electricity storage.

Building independent relationships with investors, developers, private equity firms, infrastructure funds, corporates and external delivery partners across target international markets.

Working collaboratively across Amberside and Steer to combine commercial, financial modelling, financial advisory and technical due diligence expertise into integrated client propositions and high-quality deliverables.

Providing commercial/technical knowledge on projects specifics to junior staff and feeding back any perceived knowledge gaps to senior management to deal with.

Progressing to specialise and contribute to a practice area - developing and maintaining industry knowledge and demonstrating sound knowledge of economic, political and market trends.

Ensuring relevant project team members are accurately charging time to proposal / engagement codes as part of assessing profitability of individual projects.

Contributing towards creating innovative and repeatable solutions which strengthen business performance.

Passing on pertinent market/client knowledge to senior management and colleagues/ teams to aid the development of knowledge.

Ability to understand clients’ needs and translate that into a scope.

Deliver timely and quality outputs. Communicating risk and issue early to appropriate colleagues.

Holding/attending reviews on completion of projects to identify lessons learned and enhance future quality of performance.

Working on Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to maintain any relevant professional status/ accreditation.

Meeting deadlines throughout the AAL Performance Development Cycle for self, including seeking good quality feedback goal setting, providing input into engagement/ project reviews.

Taking action to ensure employee wellbeing is being actively managed in the office.

Exhibiting role model behaviour in line with Amberside Advisors values.

Building constructive working relationships across different teams.

Participate in team meetings to support with resource allocation.

Takes ownership of complex projects.

Being able to step back, see the bigger picture and ability to translate datasets and models into a value-add analysis, including financial models where relevant to project

Ensure projects are “closed down” will all potential marketing opportunities exploited.

Ensures where applicable, that team meets client expectations, budget and profit requirements.

Uses resources effectively and efficiently on project/task.

Effectively manages director expectations of project outcomes.

Developing the team through continuous mentoring.

Comfortable with “working in the grey”.

Requirements

Ideal Professional Experience...

Deep commercial expertise in grid-connected, utility-scale renewable power and energy infrastructure, with relevant experience across technologies such as solar, BESS, onshore wind, hydro, biogas, CATO, OFTO, power distribution or electricity storage.

Private and Public sector experience desirable

Significant experience originating and delivering commercial, financial and/or technical advisory and due diligence mandates across debt and equity transactions.

Line management experience for high performance environment

Exceptional business development and client relationship management skills, with a demonstrable ability to build an advisory pipeline from existing senior relationships and new market contacts.

Strong Project (and resource) and bid Management for tenders (and likely Project Directing)

Working in a commercial/investment or advisory/consulting role in infrastructure services for major projects, in a financial/commercial focussed environment.

Experience in delivery of large-scale infrastructure projects, preferably the low carbon energy sector, including the commercial development and financing of assets.

Experience of project management, business case development, report writing, due diligence, risk and opportunity analysis.

Client-facing experience in providing technical knowledge and expertise to maximise the value of the project for stakeholders.

Qualifications required:

Degree in business administration or relevant field such as economics, law, finance, sciences, engineering. MBA/MSc/MA desirable

ACA/CIMA/CFA/IACCM/CMI/MEI or equivalent membership (optional)

Expert user of Microsoft Office products, including Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook & PowerPoint

The ability to work and communicate as part of a team, and in an effective manner

Skilled at coping well when under pressure from competing priorities and interruptions

Able to apply research skills to solve new issues and make improvements

The role requires working to deadlines, prioritising workload supporting wider team members, while providing a high level of conscientious service at all times to be our clients’ trusted advisor.

About you...

Driving curiosity to solve client problems and respond to a challenge

Belief that solving the world’s energy and climate challenges is something to which we should all respond

Passion for understanding the commercial drivers for a project, combined with the intellectual and communication skills to help clients understand the impact of those drivers

Confidence in using you own initiative and making decisions at pace

Exceptional attention to detail and an ability to translate this to/from an Excel model

Practiced at communicating complex information in a clear and concise manner

Confidence in exhibiting role model behaviour in line with Amberside Advisors values.

Exceptional commercial acumen

Knowledge of the investor sphere in the UK

Managing complexity; ambitious and passionate about decarbonisation and infrastructure investment

You must be self-motivated, a team player and find it easy to adapt to your working environment.

Benefits

Steer’s employee ownership profit share bonus (discretionary), share voting right, and ability to invest in further shares through salary sacrifice

25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) common across all employees with the ability to buy and sell leave; plus up to 5 optional volunteering days (2 paid)

Pension, life assurance, and permanent health insurance (salary protection) and employee assistance programme

Private medical cover after probation period of 6 months and health screening taxable benefits (optional)

Other optional including season ticket loan, cycle to work, Gym discount, eye care, language lessons

Weekly lunch in-person paid for by the company

Team building and sports and social club events and activities

Flexible working hours and work-life balance