Associate Director (Economist) - EMEA Macro Consulting

About Oxford Economics
Oxford Economics is a global advisory firm founded in 1981 in partnership with Oxford University's business college. We specialize in economic forecasting, modeling, and advisory services for companies, financial institutions, and governments worldwide. With offices in key locations around the globe, we employ a diverse team of economists, consultants, and industry experts, making us a leader in economic analysis and advisory services with limitless opportunities for career development.

About the Associate Director, EMEA Macro Consulting role
We are seeking an Associate Director, EMEA Macro Consulting to join our rapidly expanding EMEA macro consultancy team based in our Belfast office. The team tackles a wide range of questions raised by our clients, from helping our clients to understand and model the macroeconomic environment and risks and what this means for their organisation and the wider market in which they operate, to using Oxford Economics’ suite of models and forecasts to predict an organisation’s future sales and alternate scenarios.

The EMEA Macro Consulting Team has team members located across OE’s offices in Belfast, London, Oxford and Dubai.

The Associate Director will act as line manager for seven existing team members, ranging from an experienced Lead Economist & Senior Economists, Economists and Assistant Economists. The Associate Director will typically have responsibility for overseeing around six projects at a time. Consulting projects usually run for between two and six months on average, and culminate in a report or presentation to a client, and/or delivery of quantitative analysis and a model. At any one time there are around 10-15 projects in progress across the wider EMEA Macro Consulting Team, which currently comprises approximately 16 staff, three of whom are Associate Directors.

Associate Directors lead on all aspects of a client engagement for larger projects, from designing the methodology and writing a proposal, through to project, client and team management, leading the analysis, and communicating the results to the client. Project teams typically also include one or two senior economists and, when necessary, involve collaboration with external partners/experts and other OE consulting teams, OE country and industry experts, plus have direct input from the Director of EMEA Macro Consulting and Managing Director of Global Macro Consulting. Other projects may be led by a Lead or Senior Economist, and where this is the case, the Associate Director provides support to the project manager, and quality assurance of analysis and outputs.

In addition to the above, a core part of the role will involve leading on growing OE’s Macro Consulting revenue in the UK and Continental Europe, especially economic-based commercial advisory for the corporate sector and in particular to broad sectors like B2C. This will include proactive business development outreach, designing and delivering sales campaigns, generating leads, undertaking sales trips to meet and present to prospects, managing client accounts, writing proposals and development of sales collateral. Support will be provided by the Director of EMEA Macro Consulting, OE’s subscription and consulting business development teams based in the UK and Continental Europe, and OE’s marketing team.

The post-holder will report to the Director of EMEA Macro Consulting, who is also based in Belfast.

Job Description
Key elements of the role include the following:
Project managing and overseeing a number of consulting projects simultaneously;
Ensuring robust and rigorous economic analysis in the delivery of consultancy projects;
Handling clients and potential clients effectively and developing Oxford Economics’ relationship with them;
Leading the production of consulting proposals, project reports and presentations;
Planning and structuring projects, and coordinating input from a range of team members, ensuring sufficient time for quality assurance by more senior team members;
Line management of seven team members (potentially growing in future depending on revenue growth), ensuring resources are allocated efficiently and to support personal development, and creating a dynamic working and team culture that strives for excellence;
Being entrepreneurial and proactive in the identification and pursuit of new business opportunities;
Specific responsibility for developing and implementing a business development plan to grow UK and Continental Europe macro consulting revenue;
A revenue and sales target for the UK and Continental Europe;
Responsibility for team and project financials; and
Contributing across the EMEA Macro Consulting Team and Oxford Economics more widely.

Person Specification
This exciting role would suit a dynamic and ambitious individual with at least eight years’ experience as a professional economist and/or consultant. The successful candidate will be rigorous, adaptable and creative in seeking solutions to difficult economic questions, have excellent team management skills, and be highly entrepreneurial. If successful, there is scope for further career development and promotion to become Director of Macro Consulting for the UK and Continental Europe.

Associate Directors should also have the following attributes:

Essential
Substantial experience of quantitative economic analysis and the use of a variety of data;
A track-record of successfully developing and executing advanced quantitative project analysis;
Strong background in and theoretical understanding of macroeconomics;
Evidence of being proactive and creative in using economics to answer (external, internal or policymaker) clients’ questions;
Very strong written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain economic concepts and quantitative results, as well as their implications, to non-specialists;
Experience of project & client management and team/line management;
Strong organisational skills and time management;
Extensive experience of client-facing work, business development, writing proposals and the ability to develop commercial relationships with potential clients;
Excellent attention to detail and a commitment to going the extra mile to produce rigorous, accurate work, within the constraints of the time and resources available; and
An entrepreneurial mindset.

Desirable
A post-graduate degree in economics;
Experience with macroeconomic modelling; and
Familiarity with analytical techniques such as forecasting and scenario analysis.

Oxford Economics is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local law.