Sustainability Manager

  • Full-time
  • Sub-Department: Continuous Improvement
  • Department: Operations
  • Site Location: Amsterdam

Company Description

Jack Link's is not made up of a bunch of button-up, corporate types. Like our brands and products, we believe in being authentic and genuine. Life is too short to be artificial. We have never done things the way everyone else does. Over the years, for us these facts have always been more than just a way of doing business, it has been a way of life.

What makes working at Jack Link’s so special? Jack Link’s is a company for personal growth, for awesome characters who are real, love speed and with great self discipline. You can feed your wild side while working in a very international and fresh environment. We push hard and take risks - with the unwavering passion to get done what we have set out to do. All backed up by an unflinching eye on quality.

Jack Link’s is a family owned and value driven company. In April 2014 Jack Link’s bought the brands BiFi and Peperami from Unilever. The remainder of the year was used to implement the brands and organisation in a new head office organisation in Amsterdam.  In 2016 the Beef Jerky product was integrated and Jack Link’s EMEA was up and running autonomously. 

Job Description

Jack Link’s EMEA is looking for a driven and strategically minded Sustainability Manager to implement a wide reaching and long term ESG Program across our entire European organization.

The Sustainability Manager will have opportunities to define, design, implement and communicate the Program, both internally and externally, as well as evaluating and providing feedback to key stakeholders on progress. 

The current sustainability approach / agenda is in it’s infancy, but we are clear that we need to wrap a number of important initiatives into an overarching program, as well as assessing whether these will deliver our objective of making significant progress in our company’s overall ambition to reduce as far as possible our impact on the planet, while improving our products, and energizing our people. 

As sustainability manager, you will have the exciting opportunity to further shape the ESG policy and strategy of Jack Link’s EMEA. You will be the pivotal point between all the stakeholders and providers of the sustainability agenda, input and performance, including R&D, Plant Management, Procurement, Human Resources, Finance, etc. You will be the driving force to accelerate efforts and to continuously raise the bar. You will be in a position to take a holistic view, across functional areas, to ensure that the sustainability outcomes are optimal. You report directly to the Managing Director of Jack Link’s EMEA.

To be successful in this role you should be passionate about identifying and creating strategies to improve our ESG agenda.  This will involve making choices between ESG targets such as Carbon Footprint, Recyclability, Animal welfare, and community engagement, where you will be confident to create and lead projects to actively improve these and other topics.

He or she will be a key advisor / consultant for the European Leadership Team and will supply solicited and unsolicited advice to the various functions in of the Jack Link’s business in the EMEA region.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate has 5-10 years experience and a proven track record in:

  • Developing and implementing a sustainability strategy in a food-processing company
  • Balancing various internal and external stakeholders when developing a sustainability strategy
  • Taking fact-based and well informed decisions based on sound analyses including financials
  • Implementing clearly defined sustainability initiatives using strong project management skills
  • Communicating with internal (all functions) and external stakeholders (customers and suppliers)
  • Bringing a strong external mindset and being able to tap in a vast ‘sustainability’ network

Who are we looking for?

  • You are passionate about sustainability aspects, especially about CO2 footprint reduction
  • You have an energetic personality with a proactive mindset and a hands-on approach
  • You get your authority from knowing the details and your ability to zoom out to provide the holistic view
  • You have the ability to create a strategy and (lead to) implement it
  • You have the ability to connect and communicate with internal and external expertise
  • Ideally you have an engineering background
  • You have experience in the ESG area, with Environmental and Sustainability as priority
  • You have strong project management and execution skills, with the ability to set clear priorities
  • You have excellent presentation, social and communication skills
  • You are comfortable operating in the EMEA region
  • You are fluent in English, both verbal and written
  • Fluency in German is a very positive trait for a candidate

Additional Information

Education

University degree, (ideally in a relevant field such as food technology, or a sustainability related field)

Experience

10+ years of relevant experience of which a minimum of 5 years in an end-responsible sustainability management role in a FMCG or Food environment