Product Sustainability Assessment Specialist

The core mission is to make Coloplast's product sustainability evidence technically credible and decision-useful. Day to day, that means running life cycle assessments and product environmental impact assessments across climate and other impact categories, maintaining the LCA methodologies, tools, datasets and emission factors that underpin them, and continuously improving those foundations so they are consistent and scalable across a growing product portfolio.

Beyond the modelling itself, the role carries a translation mandate. The specialist is expected to supply environmental impact evidence, methodological guidance and practical tools to R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Product and Project Management, and to support quality assurance of product-related Scope 3 accounting and product KPI progress.

Longer term, the role feeds Coloplast's Impact4 strategic commitments and its 2030 product sustainability ambitions. A significant thread is harmonising product impact assessment guidance for medical devices, interpreting evolving scientific, payer, customer and market expectations and turning them into recommendations the business can act on.

The most obvious growth area is depth in LCA practice within a regulated medical device context, where ISO 14040/44, ISO 14067 and PEF frameworks meet real product portfolios and payer scrutiny. Working with SimaPro, Sphera or OpenLCA and their associated databases at scale would sharpen both modelling discipline and data quality judgement.

The role also offers exposure to the commercial side of sustainability evidence, developing assessments for customers, payers, healthcare professionals, public tenders or regulatory submissions. That is a skill set relatively few LCA specialists acquire early, and it could open doors to market access, regulatory or commercial sustainability roles.

Finally, sitting within a Global Sustainability team under Global Operations, with direct report to the Head of Sustainability Product Impact, suggests mentorship from senior practitioners and visibility across Environment, Health and Safety and the wider Impact4 agenda.

The baseline is a Master's degree or equivalent in engineering, environmental science, chemistry, sustainability or materials science, plus at least three years of hands-on experience in LCA, environmental footprinting or sustainability analytics. Practical fluency with leading LCA platforms and strong knowledge of ISO 14040/44, ISO 14067 and PEF are effectively table stakes.

What likely differentiates candidates is the analytical translation layer: experience working with complex datasets, emission factors, modelling assumptions and decision-support tools, and a demonstrable ability to convert that complexity into clear recommendations for product and business stakeholders. Someone who can defend an assumption in front of an engineer and explain its implications to a marketing lead.

Experience in MedTech, healthcare, pharmaceuticals or another regulated industry is an advantage, as is prior collaboration on sustainability evidence for customers, payers, healthcare professionals, public tenders or regulatory submissions. Professional English proficiency is required, and the team values curiosity, integrity, collaboration and transparency.

Because the role is technical and the application window is continuous with review happening as applications arrive, moving early matters. Tailor the CV around specific LCA projects, name the platforms used, the standards applied, the impact categories covered and, importantly, what decision your assessment informed. Vague mentions of 'sustainability reporting' will not land here.

In the cover letter, address the translation challenge directly: give one concrete example of taking a complex environmental assessment and turning it into a recommendation that changed a product, portfolio or procurement decision. The job description stresses decision-relevant outputs repeatedly, so mirror that language with evidence, not enthusiasm.

Before any interview, study Coloplast's Impact4 commitments and its 2030 product sustainability ambitions, and think about how LCA evidence would need to be harmonised across a diverse device portfolio spanning ostomy, continence, wound care, urology and voice and respiratory care. Contacting the hiring manager, Kostyantyn Pivnenko, with a focused technical question could also distinguish you.

This role sits squarely on the environmental pillar of Coloplast's ESG work, with a strong product-level climate focus. The most direct intersection is product carbon footprinting and Scope 3 accounting, since the specialist maintains the calculation methodology and quality assurance for environmental impact data used in product-related Scope 3 reporting and product KPI progress.

Beyond climate, the role covers other relevant impact categories through LCA and product environmental impact assessment, and it supports the harmonisation of assessment guidance for medical devices. That means engaging with evolving scientific, payer, customer and market expectations, a governance-adjacent activity that connects environmental evidence to market access and tender requirements.

There is also a supplier dimension: defining data requirements, quality standards and validation approaches for product-related supplier environmental data. In practice, the role likely shapes how Coloplast measures and reduces the footprint of its portfolio while keeping the evidence defensible for external audiences.

The central tension is between rigour and usability. LCA work demands transparent assumptions and strong methodology, but product teams, procurement and market access need fast, clear answers. Holding that line, neither over-simplifying nor drowning stakeholders in modelling detail, is likely the hardest part of the job day to day.

Data quality is another probable obstacle. Product-related supplier environmental data is notoriously patchy, and the role is explicitly tasked with defining data requirements and validation approaches. Progress may be slow where suppliers cannot provide reliable figures, and the specialist will need to manage expectations without compromising credibility.

Finally, medical devices are a heterogeneous, regulated product category with no single agreed assessment template. Harmonising guidance across that environment, while scientific, payer and customer expectations keep moving, requires patience and strong cross-functional influencing skills.

A typical day would likely split between modelling work and stakeholder interaction. Extended blocks might be spent in an LCA platform, refining a product assessment, updating emission factors, validating datasets or documenting assumptions so the methodology stays auditable. Interspersed are meetings with R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement or Product and Project Management, where the specialist supplies impact evidence, methodological guidance or practical tools for a development or portfolio decision.

There would also be recurring work on the quality assurance side: checking product-related Scope 3 calculations, reviewing product KPI progress, and defining or validating supplier environmental data requirements. Some days would be weighted towards methodology improvement and technical guidance documents; others towards translating findings into recommendations for Marketing, Market Access or external-facing assessments.

Variability probably comes from product development cycles and tender or customer deadlines, which can pull the role towards fast-turnaround evidence requests. The mix of deep technical work and cross-functional collaboration seems central to the position.

Within Coloplast's Global Sustainability team, a specialist who builds credibility across R&D, Operations and commercial functions could grow towards leading product sustainability or LCA methodology at a portfolio or programme level. The team sits in Global Quality, Regulatory Affairs and Sustainability under Global Operations, which offers lateral paths into regulatory affairs, quality, EHS or broader sustainability strategy.

The Impact4 roadmap connection raises the visibility of the work. Initiatives tied to strategic commitments tend to attract senior attention, and someone who delivers decision-relevant evidence for portfolio decisions could become a natural candidate for broader roles in sustainability strategy or business integration.

Deepening technical authority is another route: owning the harmonisation of medical device impact assessment guidance could position the holder as a recognised internal expert, with external visibility through customer, payer and tender-facing assessments. Long tenure could also bring opportunities to mentor newer sustainability professionals.

The immediate stakeholder is the Head of Sustainability Product Impact, to whom the role reports directly, plus the wider Global Sustainability team that owns the sustainability strategy and Environment, Health and Safety agenda. Within that team, collaboration on methodology, data quality and Impact4 delivery would be routine.

Cross-functionally, the role interfaces extensively with R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Product and Project Management for product development and portfolio decisions, and with Marketing and Market Access on translating evidence for customers, payers and healthcare professionals. Supplier contacts matter too, since the specialist defines data requirements and validation approaches for product-related supplier environmental data.

Externally, stakeholders could include healthcare professionals, public tender bodies and regulatory audiences depending on how assessments are used. The nature of these interactions ranges from technical exchange with engineers to persuasive, plain-language communication with commercial and external parties.