Overview
In partnership with RenewableUK and Wind Energy Ireland, Murray McIntosh is delighted to be searching for a confident, strategic, and politically astute leader to take the helm as the next Director of RenewableNI (RNI).
Renewable energy is at the heart of Northern Ireland's transition to a cleaner, more secure and affordable energy future - and its role has never been more critical. As the sector grows, so too does the need for strong, visible leadership to guide its direction and influence.
This is a high-profile, multi-faceted role at the forefront of Northern Ireland's clean energy transformation - blending policy leadership, stakeholder engagement, membership development and team management with strong public representation.
As the Director, you'll be the public face of the renewable energy industry in Northern Ireland, influencing government, regulators, and media while growing a thriving membership organisation. You'll oversee a talented, tight-knit team and work in partnership with RenewableUK and Wind Energy Ireland, drawing on their resources and support to create impact in the energy space.
What You'll Do
- Lead RNI's strategic direction and day-to-day operations
- Represent the industry with confidence across media, government, and events
- Manage a diverse range of stakeholders in a politically complex environment
- Grow and retain membership by clearly articulating and delivering member value
- Guide policy positioning across planning, grid, regulation and markets
- Support and develop a small internal team, while delivering through wider partner teams
- Maintain financial oversight of budgets and drive income from membership and events
Experience requirements:
We're looking for a strong communicator, a credible leader, and someone who can operate with agility in a fast-paced, stakeholder-rich environment.
Essential Attributes:
- Proven experience in stakeholder engagement, public affairs and/or communications in with a Northern Ireland lens.
- Strong written and verbal communication
- Politically aware of NI, with the ability to navigate complex policy and market environments
- Commercially minded - able to drive and demonstrate value to members
- Collaborative, adaptable and comfortable working cross-organisationally
- Able to lead a team and manage budgets effectively
Desirable:
- Knowledge of the NI electricity market, energy policy or grid infrastructure
- Background in trade associations, regulatory bodies, or government
- Experience working in media-facing roles or with membership organisations
- Line management - experience leading and coordinating delivery is important
Why Join RNI?
- Be at the heart of Northern Ireland's energy transformation
- Influence real policy change in a uniquely complex and rewarding market
- Alongside a competitive salary, enjoy hybrid working, flexible arrangements, and excellent benefits including:
- 28 days annual leave + 2 charity days
- Private health cover (Vitality)
- 10% employer pension contribution
- Bonus, tech kit, car mileage allowance, and more
Ready to shape the future of renewable energy in NI? Apply now and help drive the clean power transition!
Closing date: 13th July 23:59. No cover letter required.
Interviews: 1st round interviews - w/c 21st July; 2nd round interviews - w/c 28th July
Murray McIntosh is proud to be an equal opportunities employer on behalf of their clients. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability or age.
Murray McIntosh is a specialist Policy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communications and Economics recruitment consultancy, recruiting positions at all levels and across all sectors. Our team boasts over 20 years of experience in this space, with expertise spanning all manner of industry and subject.
Anna Kelly
Principal Consultant – Policy, Public Affairs & Strategic Communications
Murray Mcintosh have been incredibly helpful in delivering a successful candidate for a challenging role at BEAMA. As a small organisation we don’t often lean on agency support and in the past this hasn’t helped us. But we found the right recruitment agent who help recruit fantastic candidates for a specialist role in the energy sector. In a competitive employment market their help has been so valuable and we are so pleased with the result. All candidates they shortlisted we incredibly impressive and we weren’t expecting to be faced with such a hard decision. Huge thanks to the team and we look forward to working with you again.
BEAMA - Yselkla Farmer, Chief Executive Officer at BEAMA
We moved ahead with a retained engagement, offering us the most thorough search with a quicker turnaround than other engagement types we had experienced before.
We first contacted Anna in August 2022. We were looking for help to fill a vacant Policy Advisor role within our team. In a tricky market we had been struggling since the start of the year to find the right candidates through our usual channels. Anna took the time to understand the challenges we’d experienced, the support we needed, and nature of the role, before providing a solution.
We moved ahead with a retained engagement, offering us the most thorough search with a quicker turnaround than other engagement types we had experienced before. Given our needs, this approach seemed like a no-brainer! As an executive non-departmental body, we have quite specific supplier terms, which Anna was able to accommodate. This willingness to be flexible and collaborative to get the terms right enables us to work together in the longer term.
Anna worked with us speedily and met for a role brief to define expectations before establishing a strict timeframe to ensure we could close the vacancy before Christmas. We got going at the end of November with a timeframe of 6 weeks. However, following a one-stage interview process with 5 strong candidates, we made an appointment after just 5 weeks, and the successful candidate has now joined the team and is already an asset!
Ben Hardy - Policy & Government Relations Manager at CITB
We will use the retained search again as they demonstrated that their network and market mapping process uncovers a strong selection of candidates.
We have recently placed our Head of Public Affairs using Murray McIntosh, an important hire for us as we are about to enter a period of transition for the organisation so the role is key support to our Director of Policy and Public Affairs. We had engaged another agency but did not see the quality of candidate we needed.
Lauren talked us through the retained search method and explained how this ensures a thorough search, tied to a timeframe. Our PPA Director found this particularly useful, as we could work around his diary in advance.
We met to brief the role and define expectations on both sides, including a check-in point halfway through the market mapping process to ensure a relevant shortlist was coming together. Lauren was insightful, reliable and very transparent throughout and the process proved to be very efficient.
We started in January. The role was placed 6 weeks later after seeing 6 video interviews on The Lobby platform, inviting 3 candidates for first stage interview, and seeing 2 for a final stage.
We will use the retained search again in future as they demonstrated for us that their network and market mapping process uncovers a strong selection of candidates. That being said, they only introduce those who have demonstrated their interest and commitment to the role, so our time wasn’t wasted by dropouts and the offer process for our favoured candidate was very straightforward.
HR Manager - HR Manager at London chamber of Commerce and Industry
Multiple successful placements across our Public Policy team as well as our Communications and International department.
We started working with Murray McIntosh in 2016, and have since made multiple successful placements across our Public Policy team as well as our Communications and International department. From Economists to niche Tech and Innovation policy roles, to our first permanent Government Affairs hire based in Brussels, they’ve shown a real understanding of the market and our organisational needs,
The MM team always make the effort to understand requirements thoroughly and beyond that, appreciate the importance of culture fit, too.
Working on a retained basis, they develop their process to suit our timescales and always produce shortlists of talented individuals who are well qualified on skillset as well as motivation.
Of our most recent process for a Senior Policy Manager, working on trade policy, our Head of Policy commented on an extremely strong shortlist of stand-out candidates from which it was tough to make a choice!
Katie Milbourn - Director of Group HR at The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd
It was critical that we engaged an agency that could work efficiently and knew how to promote us to a competitive market.
Energy UK has recently been through a restructure and this resulted in a number of key vacancies across our policy and communications teams. This not only presented a challenge for volume candidate attraction but also put pressure on internal administration and interviewing- made even trickier with the challenges the energy industry was facing, resulting in extra time pressures on our managers.
It was critical that we engaged an agency that could work efficiently and knew how to promote us to a competitive market. Having worked with Murray McIntosh for over 7 years, we knew that they had a great network and we put a project plan in place to deliver 10 roles in 10 weeks.
Following a salary benchmarking exercise, we developed a schedule for shortlisting, interviews and even 1st stage interview questions that allowed for unbiased assessment.
Candidates were screened by MM and shortlisted using recorded video interviews which really helped to reduce the impact on managers’ time.
MM understood not just role requirements but our values, including our commitment to D&I. The process was account managed, with regular updates and feedback.
We’ve successfully hired talented and enthusiastic new employees that we are confident will help us provide the best possible service to our members.
Nicola Rowland - Head of HR at Energy UK