Senior Sustainability Manager, Plastics (Secondment) bei Unilever

Job Title: Senior Sustainability Manager, Plastics (Secondment)

Work Level: WL2C

Location: 100VE

JOB PURPOSE

This role focuses on driving forward holistic action on our flexible packaging transition, creating a reuse and refill strategy and managing our stakeholder engagement. The role provides strategic support to the Head of Sustainability – Plastics.

This role sits in the Plastic team within the Corporate Centre Sustainability Function. The team is focused on:

• Setting and driving Unilever’s plastics sustainability strategy.
• Ensuring good governance and performance management of Unilever’s plastic goals.
• Reporting progress in our ARA and through key partners like Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Consumer Goods Forum.
• Driving policy change to incentivise sustainable packaging.
• Shaping the industry to mobilise around our priorities and perspectives, such as EPR and packaging regulations, flexibles and reuse/refill.
• Protecting Unilever’s licence to operate through stakeholder engagement and proactive issues management, ensuring our voice is trusted and respected.
As a team, we strive for high performance, being always focused on delivering results on strategic priorities and seek a team culture is collaborative, fun and energising, empowering all team members to take responsibility for their priorities.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Support Unilever’s flexible packaging transition by creating a coherent strategy – beyond packaging innovation. This includes industry convergence behind Unilever’s strategy, risk mitigation (deforestation, water), IP sharing to unlock innovation, policy development and external disclosure to build trust.
• Alongside R&D, develop and lead Unilever’s strategy to innovate away from plastic sachets, engaging with external partners and peers to drive industry convergence behind Unilever’s strategy, as well as supporting Business Groups and functions to implement strategy.
• Develop Unilever’s strategy on reuse and refill business models ensuring Unilever is competitively positioned for this future transition within the packaging sector. Create a clear framework for ‘what works where’ to guide the business, based on insights from Unilever’s previous pilots, marketing, current multi-brand/retailer city-wide projects.
• Develop a clear strategy and programme to manage our teams core stakeholders, ensuring they are respect and trust Unilever, and support our priorities.
• Lead Unilever’s engagement in the UN Plastics Treaty. Review and refresh our approach to reflect Unilever’s focus on the short term and the geopolitical context.
• Monitor Unilever’s waste picker strategy and partnerships, ensuring the continued engagement of the Corporate Centre Livelihoods team and representing Unilever on the Fair Circularity Initiative Steering Group.
• Manage and develop the Global Sustainability – Assistant Manager to support the delivery of the team’s objectives.

ALL ABOUT YOU

• Strong knowledge of, interest in, and understanding of plastics and packaging, and packaging sustainability issues.
• A strategic and holistic thinker that can drive coherent x-functional action on one of Unilever’s biggest challenges – flexible plastic – to support and accelerate deployment of innovations.
• Good understanding of commercial drivers and ability to engage and influence commercial discussions.
• Passion, confidence and initiative. A self-starter who can work independently and part of cross-functional teams in a matrix organisation.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and interpersonal skills, with experience convening a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to drive action towards collective objectives.
• Exceptional project management stills and writing skills.
• Proven ability to build relationships and influence senior stakeholders critical. Calm under pressure, especially when juggling multiple deliverables.
• Experience of operating in, and managing team members within, a fast paced work environment.

NOTES

Please apply via this portal as e-mail applications may not be processed and include your Future Fit Plan if possible.

By applying for this vacancy, you are confirming that you have made your Line Manager aware of your application and that you are at a point in your career with Unilever where it is appropriate for you to be applying for other positions.   

Should you require additional information or reasonable adjustments to allow you to present your best self during this process, please contact your Talent Partner Chris Carr on [email protected]  

What we offer

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all. 

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (unilever.com).

Location  

In June 2020 we announced our plan to consolidate a number of Unilever’s offices across the South East of England into a new Unilever campus in Kingston-upon-Thames in or around early 2025. However, on the 08 August 2024 we announced to our existing staff our proposal to retain our central Head Office in London, 100 Victoria Embankment (“100VE”) until our lease expires in 2027. As a result of this new proposal, we will be consulting with our existing staff, and new joiners who join during this period of consultation at 100VE, on the proposal made in August 2024. During consultation we will clarify the future location of each team and function. This means your role will either be based in 100VE until 2027 or in Kingston-Upon-Thames from early 2025. As we are yet to commence consultation on the proposal you agree, until such a time when consultation has concluded, your normal place of work as set out in the enclosed Statement of Terms & Conditions will be 100VE. You agree that on the conclusion of the consultation your place of work will be 100VE or 100VE until early 2025 and then Kingston-upon-Thames ("the locations") and you will be notified of which of the locations will be your place of work after that consultation ends.

Relocation to the UK 

Please be aware if you are applying for this role from outside the UK, if successful, your application will be treated as a self-initiated Change Location Outside of Country (CLOC) transfer. This means any relocation costs must be self-funded with the potential to reclaim some specific pre-approved expenses up to £5,000. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you have any questions.