As the dedicated lead for corporate and product responsibility, you will steer environmental metrics and legal frameworks across personal care and natural cosmetics manufacturing. The role bridges hands-on carbon accounting with strong compliance oversight, ensuring the business anticipates regulatory demands and meets rigorous retail partner expectations.
Operating within a private-label chemical and cosmetics environment, your work directly influences the decarbonization and eco-design of everyday consumer items. By calculating CCF and PCF, managing incoming EUDR obligations, and guiding sustainable formulations, you help ensure that private-label products meet stringent modern sustainability standards.
This suits someone who blends strong analytical rigor in carbon accounting with an agile, problem-solving mindset suited to a mid-sized German manufacturing environment.
Job FAQs
What are the main missions and responsibilities of this role?
The Sustainability & Compliance Manager will be primarily tasked with advancing the company's overarching ESG roadmap while maintaining legal and environmental compliance. A central component involves managing greenhouse gas accounting, specifically calculating both the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) and Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) for proprietary lines and private-label client portfolios.
Beyond emissions modeling, you will oversee compliance operations, notably implementing new regulatory requirements like the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and maintaining the legal compliance registry (Rechtskataster). The position also acts as the primary advisory node for internal departments and external brand partners, coordinating responses to intricate ESG questionnaires, audits, and certifications.
Key learning opportunities for this job
In this role, you will gain significant practical knowledge of full-lifecycle cosmetics formulation and the intricacies of chemical contract manufacturing. Delivering PCF assessments in a multi-product formulation environment offers deep technical exposure to life cycle assessment methodologies and raw material supply chain mapping.
Additionally, managing upcoming European frameworks firsthand, particularly EUDR implementation and emerging CSRD reporting readiness, will build high-value regulatory expertise. You will also improve your capabilities in client-facing ESG advisory, translating technical environmental metrics into commercial advantages for retail customers.
How does the ideal candidate look like (experience, skills)?
The ideal candidate brings an academic background in sustainability management, environmental engineering, or related scientific fields, combined with professional exposure to corporate ESG frameworks and regulatory registries. Practical familiarity with carbon accounting standards (such as GHG Protocol) and European regulations (EUDR, REACH, or CSRD) is highly advantageous.
Given the manufacturing context, the role requires strong proficiency in quantitative data handling using Excel and preferably ERP systems like SAP. Fluent German and English communication skills are essential to manage both internal operational teams and international retail clients with equal clarity.
Advice to stand out and make a successful application
To stand out, highlight specific experience with PCF calculations or supply chain traceability, particularly concerning plant-based ingredients, palm oil derivatives, or chemical feedstocks relevant to personal care products. Demonstrating familiarity with deforestation regulations (EUDR) will immediately set your profile apart.
Emphasize your practical, solutions-oriented approach to problem-solving within mid-sized businesses (Mittelstand). Rather than just highlighting academic knowledge of frameworks, convey how you have previously engaged operational teams (such as procurement, R&D, and quality control) to embed sustainability criteria into daily routines.
What aspects of the company's sustainability is this role likely to focus on?
The sustainability efforts in this role center heavily on sustainable sourcing and product footprinting within cosmetic formulations. Given the product portfolio covering natural cosmetics, sun care, and body care, assessing raw material provenance, palm oil sustainability, and packaging recyclability will be core priorities.
Operationally, the position focuses on decarbonizing manufacturing processes, verifying deforestation-free supply chains under EUDR, and transparently communicating ESG milestones through channels like LinkedIn and customer sustainability portals.
What are the main challenges someone in this role might face?
A primary challenge will be establishing reliable primary data pipelines across a complex supply base of raw cosmetic ingredients and packaging suppliers. Gathering accurate upstream data for detailed PCF calculations often encounters vendor delays or incomplete documentation.
Another significant challenge lies in balancing commercial production deadlines with stringent, evolving compliance demands such as EUDR. In a mid-sized enterprise, managing multiple regulatory requirements simultaneously while driving strategic initiatives requires exceptional self-organization and prioritization.
How could a typical day look like for someone in this position?
A regular day could start with analyzing raw material batch data to update life cycle assessments for an upcoming private-label sun care line. You might then lead a quick alignment meeting with quality assurance and procurement to review supplier compliance documentation required for EUDR verification.
In the afternoon, you might draft responses to an extensive customer ESG questionnaire from a major retail partner, followed by updating the compliance register. The day could conclude by preparing visual content or data summaries for internal sustainability training or external reporting on LinkedIn.
What are the opportunities for professional growth and development in this role?
This position offers a strong pathway to becoming a recognized ESG subject matter expert in chemical manufacturing and FMCG personal care. Given the visibility of compliance and sustainability across executive leadership and key clients, strong performance will establish you as a strategic leader within the business.
As regulatory mandates expand across the EU, successfully establishing the company's compliance frameworks and carbon accounting infrastructure opens opportunities to expand the role, potentially leading an expanded sustainability function or taking on strategic operational oversight.
The main stakeholders you might be interacting with
Internally, you will collaborate closely with Research & Development (R&D), Quality Management, Regulatory Affairs, and Procurement to evaluate ingredients, packaging, and supplier performance. You will also interface directly with executive leadership to guide strategic ESG decisions.
Externally, your primary contacts include corporate sustainability officers and category buyers from major drugstore chains and retail brand clients. Additionally, you will coordinate with auditing bodies, raw material suppliers, and external compliance consultants.
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