Head of Strategic Initiatives, OVO

12 Month Fixed Term Contract, Maternity Cover

Salary not provided

You’ll be eligible for an on-target bonus of 15%. We have one OVO bonus plan that focuses on the collective performance of our people to deliver our Plan Zero goal

SQL

Excel

Senior and Expert level

London

More information about location

1+ day a week in office

Powering human progress with clean affordable energy for everyone

Open for applications

Meet the team

Powering human progress with clean affordable energy for everyone

1001+ employees

B2CEnergySustainability

Open for applications

Meet the team

Salary not provided

You’ll be eligible for an on-target bonus of 15%. We have one OVO bonus plan that focuses on the collective performance of our people to deliver our Plan Zero goal

SQL

Excel

Senior and Expert level

London

More information about location

1+ day a week in office

1001+ employees

B2CEnergySustainability

Company mission

We launched in 2009 to make energy better. Over 4 million members, 5 million trees planted, and Plan Zero launched in 2019. We help UK homes reduce bills and carbon with smart tech and expert support. We believe energy can be better for customers, wallets, and the planet, uniting brilliant people to help decarbonise homes and simplify energy management.

Job

Company

Role

Who you are

Have 6–10 years of experience in scale ups; ideally a mix of operating roles, likely to also have spent time in VC, Growth Equity, Investment Banking, and/or Consulting
Are financially fluent and analytically dangerous: Excel, SQL, dashboards, financial models
Have led highly visible initiatives that have changed the trajectory of a company
Understand what breaks at scale and how to fix it
Are comfortable being dropped into messy problems with no playbook
Know how to push and drive outcomes with empathy
Thrive in ambiguity, move at pace, and own outcomes

What the job involves

We’re hiring a Head of Strategic Initiatives: a strategic operator, execution obsessed, and a trusted partner throughout the organisation
This is not a ‘deck builder’ role. You will identify, lead, and land some of the most important initiatives in the business; simplifying how we work, supercharging how we scale, and unlocking value through data, technology, and operational excellence
You will need to know what good looks like, have a strong opinion on how world class technology-led businesses should operate, and the credibility to influence people across multiple levels of the organisation
Lead business-critical, cross-functional projects, from idea to execution to outcomes
Cut through complexity to redesign how the organisation operates: faster, leaner, better
Build organisational momentum behind bold decisions and help turn strategy into reality
Model impact, size opportunities, and get under the skin of what is really going on in the business
Use data to influence, challenge, and guide decision-making, especially when the situation is uncomfortable or ambiguous
Bring both commercial and customer lenses to every analysis, articulating P&L impact and customer value
Champion scalable processes and high-performance ways of working
Codify what great looks like by drawing on best practice from world-class consumer-facing technology companies
Help shift the company mindset from reactive to proactive, from bloated to focused
Be in the room, collaborating and influencing leaders throughout the organisation to shape what great looks like
Build deep trust and credibility across Product, Technology, Commercial, Operations, Finance, and People teams
Drive alignment without needing hierarchy, because your work and thinking speak for themselves
Reporting to: Director, Strategic Initiatives
Team: Strategic Initiatives

Salary benchmarks

Our take

On average, home energy represents 26% of our carbon footprint. Ovo Energy wants to bring this to zero by providing cheaper, greener and simpler energy to customers. It's analysing meter data to deliver easy, personalised actions, turning electric vehicles into power stations with clever chargers, and building energy-efficient heaters. For households, it's offering is organised into four different energy plans, that include interest rewards on energy credit balance.

In 2020, OVO completed the acquisition of SSE Energy Services' retail arm for £500 million, meaning that the challenger brand now has around 4 million customers in the UK.

While helping Ovo members halve their carbon footprints, the company is also working towards becoming a net zero carbon business by 2035. The challenges ahead for the company include encouraging consumer behaviour change, shifting towards subscription models for home energy use.

Freddie

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Meet the team

Kate Cottrell, Smart Meter Engineer

Our mission

Supporting our customers on the journey to zero carbon by delivering exceptional customer service and promoting energy efficiency.

Insights

Top investors

43% female employees

14% employee growth in 12 months

Glassdoor (2.5)

Trustpilot (4.6)

Company

Employee endorsements

Inspiring mission

"The mission to provide Green energy to all customers, and to enable all our customers to start on a journey towards zero carbon living is written in..."

Browse all endorsements

Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)

Jul 2023

$270m

GROWTH EQUITY VC

Feb 2019

$270m

GROWTH EQUITY VC

Total funding: $581.9m

Company benefits

On-target bonus up to 15%. We have one OVO bonus plan that focuses on the collective performance of our people to deliver our Plan Zero goal
Flex Pay: 9% on top of your salary - 4% of this is auto enrolled into your pension, and the remaining 5% is yours to do what you like with. You can use this to buy from our extensive range of flexible benefits, including our green benefits which we've put at the heart of our offering, add to your pension or even take it as cash
34 days of holiday (including bank holidays)
For your health: With benefits like a healthcare cash plan or private medical insurance depending on your career level, critical illness cover, life assurance, health assessments, and more
For your wellbeing: With gym membership, travel insurance, workplace ISA, will writing services, dental insurance, and more
For your lifestyle: With extra holiday buying, discount dining, home & tech loans, and supporting your favourite charities with give-as-you-earn donations
For your home: Get up to £400 towards any OVO Energy plan, plus great discounts on solar, smart thermostats and EV chargers
For your commute: Nab a great deal on ultra-low emission car leasing, plus our cycle to work scheme and public transport season ticket loans
For your belonging: To find better ways to support our people, we need to listen to each other’s experiences and find ways to build a truly inclusive and diverse workplace. As part of this, we have 8 Belonging Networks at OVO. Led by our people, for our people - so when you join OVO, you can play a part - big or small - with any of the Networks. It's up to you

Company HQ

Bristol, UK

Articles

Plan Zero

OVO's Path to Zero

Diversity & Inclusion at OVO

Flexible Working at OVO

Leadership

David Buttress

(CEO)

CEO of OVO, the UK’s 3rd largest energy supplier. Joined in May 2024.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at OVO

Louise Bailey (Belonging Lead)

We run inclusive training and unconscious bias workshops for employees and interviewers
We provide mental health support, through different networks, having mental health first aiders within the business and running initiatives like our "wellbeing Wednesdays" to promote this.
We have dedicated Early Years programmes with a focus on underrepresented groups, offering different training opportunities within the business.
We invest in tools, like Textio, and focused I&D job boards to help us reduce bias in our job postings and recruitment activity.
Commitment in improving diversity across our Tech Teams and working with companies to improve the tech ecosystem as a whole, specifically have committed to at least 30% Women in Tech at OVO by 2026
We've signed up to numerous charters, like the Tech Talent Charter, Race at Work Charter and Trans in the City, to show our continuing commitment to improving I&D within OVO and the wider community
Within OVO we have multiple belonging networks and communities set up, to offer support and forums for everybody
Read more about our commitments to improving Diversity & Inclusion at OVO in our linked belonging report

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