Procurement Sustainability Manager

The primary mission of the Procurement Sustainability Manager is to lead, structure, and operationalize supplier due diligence and human rights governance across the organization's global supply network. You will be responsible for defining end-to-end screening, risk assessment, and escalation mechanisms to detect human rights issues and ethical non-compliance before and during supplier relationships. On an ongoing basis, you will assess salient human rights risks across complex raw material supply chains, partnering with procurement teams to deploy corrective action plans and remediation strategies. In parallel, you will ensure the company's purchasing processes align smoothly with emerging international due diligence directives and regulatory frameworks. Additionally, you will serve as the internal subject matter expert, delivering training programs to buyers, designing clear KPIs for tracking due diligence progress, and gathering strong data to support external sustainability disclosures and customer inquiries.

This role offers an exceptional vantage point to master the practical implementation of emerging mandatory supply chain due diligence regulations, including the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and German Supply Chain Act (LkSG). You will learn how to translate legal concepts into functional procurement tools and operational standard operating procedures. Working within chemical and industrial manufacturing, you will also gain nuanced technical insights into complex multi-tier supply chains, raw material tracing, and commodity-specific human rights challenges. You will develop advanced methodologies for assessing social risk in higher-risk geographic markets. Moreover, the position provides extensive cross-functional exposure across legal, corporate sustainability, and commercial category management, significantly strengthening your skills in corporate change management and supplier capability building.

The ideal candidate brings at least five years of specialized experience in responsible sourcing, human rights due diligence, or sustainable procurement within an international corporate setting or relevant consultancy. A strong educational background in international law, human rights, sustainability management, or supply chain is typical. Strong technical mastery of human rights frameworks, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and OECD Due Diligence Guidance, is essential. You should have a proven track record of designing risk assessment tools, audit protocols, and supplier engagement initiatives. Beyond technical competencies, exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills are essential. The candidate must be adept at influencing buyers and suppliers without direct authority, translating intricate compliance demands into practical, business-friendly actions.

To stand out, tailor your application around concrete examples where you successfully operationalized human rights frameworks within commercial purchasing functions. Rather than discussing sustainability conceptually, highlight the specific due diligence processes, screening criteria, or corrective action plans you have built and deployed. Demonstrate familiarity with the realities of the chemical and coatings sector, showing an understanding of where upstream labor and environmental risks typically concentrate. Emphasize your ability to navigate both European regulatory expectations and the practical constraints faced by procurement categories. In your cover letter, articulate your approach to change management. Show how you balance constructive challenge with collaborative partnership when engaging commercial teams who may view compliance as an operational burden.

This role sits at the intersection of social sustainability and responsible supply chain governance. While decarbonization remains an essential corporate goal, this role focuses heavily on the "S" and "G" aspects of ESG, ensuring fair labor conditions, health and safety, living wages, and the elimination of modern slavery across third-party networks. A significant focus area will be identifying salient human rights risks in chemical raw materials, packaging, and indirect services. You will design targeted due diligence workflows to evaluate supplier performance, verify ethical standards, and track mitigation outcomes. The position also contributes directly to the transparency and compliance agenda, ensuring the company can verify that its sourcing activities align with rigorous international human rights standards and stakeholder expectations.

A primary challenge will be driving adoption of new due diligence routines among global category buyers who must balance tight commercial deadlines, price volatility, and supply reliability with rigorous sustainability compliance. Fostering a mindset where due diligence is seen as value-protecting rather than administrative friction will require persistent diplomacy. Another significant obstacle lies in multi-tier supply chain visibility. Gaining granular data and verified human rights performance from sub-tier suppliers in the chemical industry is notoriously complex, requiring creative assessment methods and prioritization models. Finally, keeping pace with an evolving and fragmented regulatory environment across multiple regions demands continuous monitoring and agile process updates without overwhelming internal teams.

A regular day might start with reviewing incoming supplier risk screenings and collaborating with a category manager to resolve identified red flags for an onboarding raw material vendor. You might formulate a tailored corrective action plan or advise on risk-mitigation terms before contracting. Midday could be dedicated to designing practical training modules for regional procurement teams, guiding them on how to spot salient human rights risks during on-site supplier reviews and how to navigate due diligence platforms. In the afternoon, you might meet with the sustainability and legal teams to review readiness metrics against upcoming regulatory mandates, analyze supplier audit findings, or prepare documentation for a key industrial client asking for supply chain provenance.

Given the rapid institutionalization of supply chain due diligence globally, mastering this domain within a major industrial company offers excellent long-term career growth. You will establish yourself as an in-demand expert in supply chain human rights and regulatory compliance. From this role, career trajectories could lead to senior leadership positions such as Head of Responsible Sourcing, Global Sustainable Procurement Director, or broader leadership within corporate ESG governance and compliance. Furthermore, the cross-functional visibility of this role allows for potential lateral transitions into strategic sourcing, enterprise risk management, or corporate sustainability strategy.

Your closest daily collaborators will be the global procurement and category management teams. You will work side-by-side with sourcing specialists, buyers, and vendor managers to embed sustainability criteria into daily purchasing decisions and supplier reviews. Internally, you will also interface extensively with the central Sustainability, Legal, Compliance, and Quality departments to ensure seamless alignment on risk thresholds, corporate commitments, and mandatory regulatory reporting. Externally, you will communicate directly with raw material and services suppliers to conduct assessments, evaluate audits, and follow up on corrective action programs, occasionally interacting with audit service providers and industry working groups.