Why choose us?
Choosing to work for SMS means choosing to make a difference. We are changing how businesses and consumers use energy for the better, helping achieve a greener, sustainable, and more affordable energy system for everyone. Through our range of innovative energy solutions, we are delivering the future of smart energy – working closely with private and public sector partners we are playing a critical role in transforming and decarbonising the UK economy by 2050.
What's in it for you?
- 25 personal holiday days per year (with additional 8 public holidays) increasing to 30 personal days after 5 years of service (includes options to buy and sell)
- Hybrid working options.
- Automatic enrolment into the Employee Participation Plan.
- Enhanced Maternity leave. Paternity and Adoption leave.
- 24/7 free and confidential employee assistance service.
- Simplyhealth health plan offers a wide variety of benefits from cashback on everyday healthcare treatments like optical, dental and physio treatments. Discounted gym memberships and free 24/7 online GP.
- Life Insurance (4 x annual salary)
- Pension matching scheme (up to 5% of salary)
- Developing our people is important to us - we support and encourage development by offering internal and external accredited courses, secondments and study support.
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What's the role?
Role Introduction & Value
The Sustainability & Social Value Manager will provide experienced, hands-on delivery support during maternity leave, ensuring continuity across key Sustainability, Social Value and ESG activities.
The role will have a focused delivery remit, with primary responsibility for:
• Sustainability, Social Value and ESG content for tenders, PQQs and commercial submissions;
• Social Value delivery within customer contracts; and
• Sustainability and ESG reporting, data and supporting evidence.
The role will work across the business to coordinate information, produce high-quality outputs and ensure customer, contractual and reporting requirements are met to deadline.
Importance to SMS
This role supports SMS’s commercial and operational priorities by ensuring effective delivery of Sustainability, Social Value and ESG requirements across tenders, customer contracts and reporting.
Scope & Reach
The role will work closely with Commercial, Operations, SHEQ, HR, Finance, and other business functions to deliver agreed outputs. The role will manage multiple priorities and deadlines, taking ownership of assigned deliverables from initial requirement through to completion. The role is primarily delivery-focused, providing practical specialist support and maintaining continuity across established processes, commitments and reporting requirements during the maternity leave period.
Opportunity
This is an opportunity to play a key role in maintaining business-critical Sustainability, Social Value and ESG activity during a period of maternity cover. The role will provide broad exposure across commercial and operational activity, with a particular focus on tenders, customer requirements, contract commitments and corporate reporting.
This role is offered on a 40 hour contract, Monday to Friday, and hybrid working is available (2 days in office 3 days at home on average).
Key responsibilities:
Tenders & Commercial Support
- Lead Sustainability, ESG and Social Value content for tenders, PQQs, bids and commercial submissions, delivering accurate, compelling and evidence-based responses to deadline.
- Coordinate responses to customer Sustainability, ESG and Social Value questionnaires and information requests, working with relevant subject matter experts.
- Interpret customer requirements, identify supporting evidence and translate requirements into clear, commercially relevant responses.
- Manage multiple tender requirements, prioritising activity according to commercial deadlines and business risk.
Social Value
- Coordinate delivery of Social Value commitments across relevant contracts, particularly within the water and metering businesses.
- Support development of an overarching Social Value approach, coordinating stakeholders to ensure a consistent narrative and delivery.
- Maintain oversight of commitments, KPIs and evidence, working with operational, commercial and supply partners to demonstrate delivery.
- Ensure tender commitments are transferred into contract delivery requirements and appropriately monitored and reported.
Sustainability & ESG Reporting
- Coordinate Sustainability, Social Value and ESG reporting, including data collection, validation, analysis, evidence and written content.
- Coordinate ESG information requests and maintain an auditable evidence base for reporting, assurance, ratings and customer due diligence.
General Sustainability & ESG Support
- Provide practical Sustainability and ESG advice relating to business activities, tenders, contracts and customer requirements.
- Support relevant sustainability, decarbonisation and continuous improvement activities.
- Support the Head of Sustainability on specific priorities during the maternity leave period.
- Any other duties as required.
To be considered for this role, we would love you to have:
- Experience of delivering or coordinating Social Value commitments within commercial or contractual environments, including TOMs and Social Value platforms such as LOOP, Thrive or similar.
- Demonstrable experience of developing Sustainability, Social Value and ESG content for tenders, PQQs and customer submissions.
- Strong practical experience of Sustainability and ESG reporting, including managing data, KPIs, evidence and supporting documentation.
- Experience of managing multiple deadlines and competing priorities in a commercially focused environment.
- Experience within energy, utilities, infrastructure or a similarly regulated or commercially focused environment.
- Delivery-focused, organised and able to take ownership of work from requirement through to completion.
- Commercially aware, with an understanding of the importance of tender deadlines, customer requirements and contract commitments.
- Excellent attention to detail, particularly when working with data, evidence and contractual commitments.
- Strong written communicator who can produce high-quality content with limited supervision.
- Pragmatic and solutions-focused, with the ability to work through complex requirements and identify practical solutions.
- Comfortable managing multiple competing deadlines and changing priorities.
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