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Programme Director - Low Carbon Home Makeovers

Evolve Energy

Evolve Energy

Administration, Operations
Leeds, UK
Posted on Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Octopus Energy and Lloyds Banking Group are embarking on a new, ground breaking partnership to create a one stop shop for low carbon home makeovers in Leeds. The aim is to help people make their homes cosy in winter, cool in summer, whilst saving money on their bills. And, it will contribute to the UK’s mission critical effort to decarbonise housing.
The partnership will initially run for three years and the objective is to learn how to retrofit homes to land on a successful delivery model. We aim to make a the project a national demonstrator with the lessons scaled to support decarbonisation of housing right across the UK. But the partnership is also being set up to gather learning on how best to carry out whole house retrofit, including for lower income homeowners. The partnership has the support of Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
The programme director will be responsible for setting up the new programme and creating a successful model, from the first contact with customers to procuring and managing the installation of insulation, energy efficiency, heat pumps, solar PV, batteries and partnering with others to facilitate access to appropriate sources of finance.

What you'll do

  • Programme Leadership: You will need to take charge of the programme, rapidly experimenting to come up with a model to successfully retrofit people’s homes, making sure that every element adds up to offer an outstanding service to customers, whilst driving for a commercially self-sustaining business. The programme will have a small, lean team, and the director will need to roll their sleeves up to make it a success. You will need to identify and target different market segments to make the project accessible to all homeowners that can self fund the retrofit measures, either directly or via personal finance. You will need to engage extensively with the local community to test a hyper local approach to marketing and sales.
  • Strategy & Commercial Development: You will need to develop the plan and commercial strategy for the programme. This will need to start small in order to land on a model that works. But once that’s done the programme should work on many hundreds or thousands of homes a year. Your strategy will need to have an obsessive attention to customer service, whilst driving efficiency and working effectively with the supply chain to make it a commercial success. A key part of the programme will be to evaluate what has worked and what hasn’t, working with the Centre for Net Zero, Octopus Energy and Lloyds Banking Group to deliver useful messages for local and central government.
  • Compliance: You will need to ensure that all installations are compliant with best practice requirements and regulations.
  • Collaboration: You will actively collaborate with Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority who are endorsing the work.
  • Partnership Management: Oversee and implement the partnership agreement with Lloyds Banking Group. and Octopus, working with both parent businesses to ensure the partnership runs smoothly and efficiently, being careful with every pound to make sure that anything we spend makes a difference. The programme will be governed by a joint board, comprising the two partners, which you will need to manage.
  • Exit Strategies: Develop and implement an exit strategy to run down the order book by the three year mark if needed.

What you'll need

  • Entrepreneurial Spirit: Proven experience in running startups or demonstrated entrepreneurial drive within the construction, housing or energy sector. Some experience of domestic retrofit is desirable. Confident in swiftly establishing and structuring a new organisation to support the project's goals
  • Commercial Ability: You will have strong commercial experience, and be able to chart a way through to making a commercial success of the business.
  • Customer Service: A track record in overseeing outstanding customer service, sales and marketing. Clients should rave about your work.
  • Leadership & Problem Solving: You must be able to inspire and motivate your small team to deliver exceptional results, coming up with creative ways of tapping into a fledgling market where customer demand is low.
  • Supply Chain Management: Good understanding of supply chain procurement in the construction or retrofit sector. Ability to negotiate favourable deals with suppliers.
  • Compliance and Quality: Experience in ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards, consistently delivering high-quality results.
  • Community Engagement: Experience engaging with neighbourhoods, builders, and construction professionals to build strong relationships and foster community support

Why else you'll love it here

  • Wondering what the salary for this role is? Just ask us! On a call with one of our recruiters it's something we always cover as we genuinely want to match your experience with the correct salary. The reason why we don't advertise is because we honestly have a degree of flexibility and would never want salary to be a reason why someone doesn't apply to Octopus - what's more important to us is finding the right octofit!
  • Octopus Energy is a unique culture. An organisation where people learn, decide, and build quicker. Where people work with autonomy, alongside a wide range of amazing co-owners, on projects that break new ground. We want your hard work to be rewarded with perks you actually care about! We won best company to work for in 2022, on Glassdoor we were voted 50 best places to work in 2022 and our Group CEO, Greg has recorded a podcast about our culture and how we empower our people. We’ve also been placed in the top 10 companies for senior leadership
  • Visit our UK perks hub - Octopus Employee Benefits
While this partnership is arms length from Octopus and Lloyds Banking Group, to give it the space to develop its own model, you’ll have access to learning from across the Octopus business on marking and installing insulation, solar, heat pumps and battery storage, as well as the ability to shape and have access to new and innovative finance products being developed by Lloyds Banking Group. And, the partnership will provide financial support to get the business going.
Lloyds Banking Group are a financial services group with millions of customers in almost every community with a purpose driven approach which is integral to everything we do. Our purpose is Helping Britain Prosper and we do this by creating a more sustainable and inclusive future for people and businesses, shaping finance as a force for good.
Work Schedule and Location: The Project Director will need to work from Leeds to lead engagement with partners and the community. Flexibility will be essential to accommodate engagement with stakeholders and community members - e.g. working some evenings and weekends to help support engagement with the local community.
If you are a dynamic and experienced leader with a passion for sustainable housing initiatives and the drive to make a positive impact on the environment, we invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity. Together, we will pave the way for a greener, more resilient future for our community