Account Director

Job Introduction

Job Description for Account Director:

With the nuclear industry perfectly positioned to strengthen the UK’s place in the world as a scientific superpower, NNL is recruiting to ensure we play our part.

NNLs relationship with the nuclear new build community is key to our ongoing success and we have a critical role to play in fulfilling and delivering new technology to meet the UK’s net zero ambitions. This role will support and manage key new build programmes across several different technology areas.

You will work in partnership with colleagues across NNL and the wider sector to enable the laboratory to demonstrate Leadership through the realisation of opportunities to provide specialist technical services and support to meet the requirements of this complex and challenging field.

Accountable to the Vice President – Government and New Build and a member of the Customer Experience directorate you will work collaboratively across NNL to advance our strategic ambitions. This will include working closely with the multidisciplinary team responsible for the development and implementation of our clean energy strategy.

While your focus will be on the identification and securing of clean energy related opportunities in the new build area, it is also expected that you will also play a role in ensuring the success of the broader portfolio.

You will work closely to establish and strengthen relationships with key customers and agencies that have interest in this area. As a result, you will have a style that engenders the confidence of senior stakeholders within the new build community and stakeholders in the wider sector. You will understand the implications of HMG priorities and policy (such as Net Zero, Build Back Better) on the development of new nuclear technologies, including development and response to emerging reactor and fuel cycle technologies.

As an area of focus for NNL, the post holder will be required to develop and adapt their approach as our environment and understanding of the role we can play in new reactor deployment evolves.

Role Responsibility

Main Responsibilities for Account Director:

• Growth Accountability
  • Generate new business through a relationship-based sales approach with reactor vendors and the wider New Build supply chain.
  • Develop business case(s) to support investment.
  • Maintain a pipeline of opportunities for the New Build Portfolio.
  • Populate the sales funnel and feed opportunities into the business and resource planning processes.
• Financial Accountability
  • Manage and deliver the P&L for the New Build Portfolio.
  • Submit bids for contracts in line with NNL governance.
  • Set and deliver challenging annual and multi-year budgets.
• Customer Accountability
  • Nurture operational customer accounts to develop long term relationships and generate new business.
  • Liaise between New Build customers and cross functional internal teams to ensure the timely and successful delivery of solutions according to customer needs.
  • Be the escalation point for customer issues.
• Leadership Accountability
  • Provide inspirational leadership across the portfolio actively demonstrating NNL’s values and behaviours.
  • Be a trusted authority on the New Build portfolio.
  • Promote the value of the portfolio across both internal and external stakeholders including NNL executive, HMG, wider nuclear sector and UK industry.

The Ideal Candidate

Essential Criteria for Account Director:

• Track record in winning and growing customer business.
• Track record of nurturing customer relationships internally and externally.
• Proven account management experience.
• Experience of developing strategies for commercial growth.
• Customer relationship management at senior operational level.
• Successful preparation and delivery of business cases.
• Ability to Influence senior stakeholders.
• Ability to understand a complex portfolio of projects and programmes whilst paying strict attention to detail.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills with an ability to build strong collaborative relationships.
• Be a role model for NNL’s values and behaviours.
• Proven ability to lead and inspire others to achieve goals.
• Strong business and commercial acumen.
• Knowledge / experience in nuclear reactor new build area – familiarization with reactor vendors and technologies.
• Ability to obtain SC level security clearance (this includes but is not limited to identity, employment, financial and criminal record checks plus 5 years’ worth of UK residency).

About the Company

Grounded in robust science and decades of experience, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) is the authoritative voice in the UK and beyond for technological development within the nuclear power sector.

Our unparalleled understanding of the science, challenges and opportunities makes us an unrivalled authority and partner in the field, providing experts, technologies, and access to cutting-edge facilities to organisations around the world.

Harnessing potential technologies and translating them into to industry-ready solutions means our pioneering approach spearheads international improvement and technological progress.

We work on projects as small as drilling a hole to analyse underground wastes with our integrated micro drilling technology, or as large as developing state-of-the-art power systems for spacecraft, based on radioactive materials

NNL has a vision for Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (ED&I) where NNL aims to be an inclusive workplace that attracts diverse talent through transparent and equal policies and procedures. We want you and the diverse mix of people that we employ, customers that we service and stakeholders that we influence to feel valued. We encourage a workplace culture where everyone can thrive with a sense of belonging.

Recruitment Agency Notice

We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List (PSL) for the provision of recruitment services. Only agencies on our PSL may provide CVs and only when the role is released to them by our recruitment team. We will not accept unsolicited CVs from suppliers not currently on our PSL. We explicitly reserve the right to add candidate details from unsolicited CVs from non-PSL agencies into our own candidate database and to pursue/hire such candidate(s) without any obligation, financial or otherwise, to the agency concerned.

National Nuclear Laboratory