Specialist (Sr.) ESG Management

This role owns the company-wide ESG strategy end-to-end: refining it across the environmental, social and governance pillars, setting targets and the KPI architecture, and running the roadmap and governance that keep it on track. Day to day, that means steering the ESG programme (tracking initiatives, dependencies, risks and escalations) and building the CO₂ reduction pathways and investment roadmap together with the relevant functions, then holding them to delivery. A large share of the work is data and reporting. You design and operate the ESG data and reporting model: metric definitions, data flows, responsibilities, controls, evidence and quality assurance. You standardise and continuously improve energy, emissions and ESG reporting, and you own the sustainability report in substance and process, from drafting and approval through to design, coordinating internal stakeholders and external partners. You also manage the EcoVadis rating, the UN Global Compact participation and comparable assessments and customer standards. Finally, the role is the central technical interface to the outside. You assess regulatory and market developments and translate them into decision-ready options for management, and you drive implementation with Legal, Compliance, Finance and the affected business areas, including work plans, work packages and audit-proof evidence. Together with Communications, you develop targeted information and awareness measures for employees and external stakeholders.

You would gain deep, hands-on exposure to CSRD/ESRS implementation in a real industrial setting, moving beyond theory into KPI definitions, data flows, controls and audit-ready evidence. Building the CO₂ reduction pathways with operations and engineering would sharpen your grasp of Scope 1 to 3 accounting in a complex, multi-site manufacturing context. Because IDT Biologika operates under FDA, EMA and ANVISA standards, you would learn how ESG intersects with a heavily regulated quality environment, a rare and transferable skill. Managing EcoVadis, the UN Global Compact and customer assessments would teach you how ratings methodologies actually work and where scores are won or lost. On the softer side, you would develop governance and committee management, decision-oriented communication to executives, and the ability to steer cross-functional teams without formal authority. Coordinating with the parent company and shareholders also offers insight into group-level ESG expectations and investor reporting, which few roles at this level provide.

The profile is unusually specific: at least five years in ESG or sustainability with a strong bias toward reporting, ESG data management or decarbonisation, not general communications or volunteering coordination. A degree in sustainability management, business or environmental engineering, finance/accounting, natural sciences or data management is expected, and an additional commercial, technical or data-related qualification is a plus. On the technical side, the candidate needs working command of ESRS/CSRD fundamentals and the GHG Protocol including Scope 1 to 3, plus demonstrable experience building ESG data models with controls, evidence trails and data-quality assurance. Equally important is programme and project management: roadmapping, governance, risk and action tracking, and process and control design. Very good German and English are mandatory. What likely tips the decision is temperament. They want someone with analytical depth, structured precision, sound judgement, implementation strength and the ability to prioritise, and, importantly, someone who can lead cross-functional workstreams in a matrix without disciplinary authority. Stakeholder orientation, conflict capability and communication up to management level are framed as core, not optional.

Given that IDT Biologika is a CDMO operating under FDA, EMA and ANVISA standards, your application should signal that you understand regulated manufacturing environments and how ESG obligations interact with quality, legal and finance functions. Rather than repeating the job ad, map your past achievements onto their specific asks: building ESG data models with controls, running cross-functional programmes without disciplinary authority, and owning a sustainability report end-to-end. Quantify where possible, e.g. how many KPIs you defined, which CSRD/ESRS workstreams you led, or how an EcoVadis score moved under your watch. Because the role is explicitly the central interface to the parent company, shareholders and customers, prepare a short narrative on how you have managed multiple stakeholder agendas at once, ideally in a matrix or life-sciences setting. German and English fluency is non-negotiable, so write your cover letter in German if you are applying to the Dessau site, and be ready to switch languages in the interview. In interviews, expect questions probing judgement and prioritisation rather than technical recitation. A strong move is to bring one concrete example of a decarbonisation roadmap you built with operations or engineering, including how you handled resistance and how you kept the evidence audit-proof. Showing you can translate ESRS jargon into decisions management actually acts on will set you apart.

The centre of gravity is environmental and reporting: corporate carbon footprint work, CO₂ reduction pathways, energy and emissions reporting, and a CSRD/ESRS-aligned sustainability report. For a manufacturer with large-scale vaccine and biologics production, energy intensity, Scope 1 and 2 emissions from facilities, and Scope 3 from supply chains are likely the material hotspots the role would quantify and address. On the governance side, the focus is on building the control environment around ESG data (definitions, evidence, assurance) and on regulatory readiness across ESRS, the GHG Protocol and customer-driven standards. The EcoVadis rating and UN Global Compact participation suggest an emphasis on external validation and credibility rather than purely internal targets. The social pillar appears lighter but present, mainly through employee awareness and sensitisation measures developed with Communications. Given the company's mission, vaccines and cell and gene therapeutics protecting human health, there is a natural social narrative around access to medicine and patient impact, which the sustainability report could leverage.

The hardest part is likely the data reality. CDMOs generate ESG-relevant data across many functions (energy, waste, procurement, HR, quality) and it is rarely clean, comparable or centrally owned. Building a control framework and evidence trail from that starting point, while satisfying ESRS and GHG Protocol expectations, is a multi-year effort that must show results sooner. A second challenge is influence without authority. The role explicitly steers cross-functional workstreams in a matrix, so progress depends on convincing Legal, Compliance, Finance and operations to prioritise ESG tasks alongside their own regulated deadlines. In a pharma manufacturing environment, where quality and supply continuity dominate, sustainability can easily be deprioritised. Finally, external pressure is compounding. Customers, shareholders and the parent company will all send assessments and questionnaires, each with different formats and timelines, and the CSRD reporting cycle is unforgiving. Balancing regulatory rigour, market expectations and internal capacity, while keeping management informed and decisions grounded, is the defining tension of this job.

A typical day would be a mix of programme steering and analytical work. It could start with a check on the ESG roadmap: reviewing open work packages, flagging risks or dependencies, and preparing for an upcoming governance or steering committee. You might then sit with Finance or Legal to align on a reporting requirement or evidence trail, or with operations and engineering to push a decarbonisation measure forward. Much of the week involves stakeholder coordination. You might respond to a parent-company questionnaire or a customer assessment, brief Communications on an employee awareness campaign, or prepare a decision paper for management summarising a new regulatory development and its implications. Data work (refining a KPI definition, checking a data flow, validating a figure before publication) is a constant background task. During reporting season, the rhythm shifts toward drafting, review cycles and design coordination for the sustainability report. There is variability too: an unexpected customer questionnaire or a shifting regulatory timeline can reorder priorities quickly, so the ability to reprioritise is part of the daily reality.

This is a genuinely senior individual-contributor role with a clear mandate: you are building the company-wide ESG function, not inheriting it. That means you can shape the KPI architecture, the governance rhythm and the reporting model, which becomes a strong portfolio asset for future CSO or Head of ESG roles. Successfully standing up a CSRD-aligned reporting system in a mid-sized CDMO is a marketable, concrete achievement. Growth can also come laterally. Because you work across Legal, Compliance, Finance and operations, you gain visibility into how a pharmaceutical manufacturer really runs, which opens doors toward quality, regulatory affairs, finance or operations leadership if you ever want to pivot. The investor-facing work with the parent company and shareholders gives you board-adjacent exposure rare at this career stage. Finally, the external-facing work (EcoVadis, UN Global Compact, customer assessments) builds a network and reputation in the broader ESG ecosystem. Over time, that external credibility can translate into speaking, benchmarking or advisory opportunities beyond the company.

Internally, the primary stakeholders are the executive management, whom you advise on regulatory and market developments, impacts, risks and options; and the functions you steer, Legal, Compliance, Finance and the operational areas generating ESG data. You would also work closely with Communications on employee and external awareness measures, and with energy and engineering teams on the CO₂ reduction and investment roadmap. Externally, you are described as the central technical interface outward. That means the parent company and shareholders, whose requests and assessments you coordinate; customers, who increasingly impose their own ESG standards and questionnaires; and sister companies within the group. Rating and framework bodies matter too, notably EcoVadis and the UN Global Compact, as do external partners involved in producing the sustainability report. The nature of these interactions varies: with management it is advisory and decision-oriented; with peers it is collaborative and often persuasive; with external parties it is representational and sometimes negotiating. Success depends on reading each audience and adjusting tone and depth accordingly.