Sustainability Specialist

The Sustainability Specialist acts as the central coordinator for enterprise sustainability governance, regulatory compliance, and cross-functional alignment across the organization. Core missions include managing the enterprise Sustainability & ESG Working Group by setting strategic agendas, facilitating collaboration among corporate functions like Risk, Procurement, IT, and Finance, and rigorously tracking agreed-upon action items. A major focus involves ensuring strong Executive Leadership Team and Board oversight. This entails preparing high-quality board papers, tracking performance against sustainability goals, and arranging specialized director-level ESG training. Additionally, the role leads annual regulatory workflows, such as coordinating Modern Slavery statements, supporting Finance with mandatory climate disclosure standards, and overseeing updates to human rights and climate risk policies. Operationally, the position is also responsible for managing inbound sustainability questionnaires and client RFPs, providing critical content for corporate reports, and ensuring operational business owners reliably record primary ESG data into enterprise reporting systems.

This position offers deep, practical exposure to corporate governance and regulatory compliance within a prominent global financial services firm. The specialist will gain hands-on experience navigating emerging mandatory reporting regimes, such as the Australian climate-related financial disclosures standards and modern slavery legislation. Working closely with senior leadership will sharpen skills in board-level communication, executive consensus-building, and policy formulation. In addition, the role provides an exceptional vantage point for understanding how climate risk integrates into formal enterprise risk management frameworks and institutional procurement chains. Candidates will also build expertise in translating high-level ESG mandates into operational procedures across IT, Human Resources, Legal, and Client Services, expanding their strategic toolkit across corporate infrastructure.

The ideal candidate brings around five to eight years of solid experience in corporate sustainability, ESG reporting, or governance and risk management roles, preferably within financial services or complex corporate environments. A strong functional understanding of modern slavery requirements, AASB climate standards, and GRI frameworks is highly valued. From a technical perspective, exceptional written communication is critical, particularly the ability to synthesize nuanced regulatory details into concise, impactful board papers and executive summaries. Advanced organization and project management capabilities are essential for keeping cross-functional tracks on schedule. Interpersonally, the candidate must be an influential communicator capable of liaising credibly with senior directors and executive sponsors, while maintaining strong collaborative relationships across diverse operational teams.

To stand out, applicants should highlight tangible examples of managing ESG governance bodies or coordinating complex multi-stakeholder disclosure processes, such as modern slavery or climate statements. Demonstrating experience writing directly for executive leadership or board committees will provide a distinct competitive advantage. Tailor your application to reflect a balance between strategic compliance understanding and pragmatic project delivery. Financial services firms value candidates who can show how ESG initiatives align with enterprise risk management and regulatory expectations, rather than purely qualitative sustainability concepts. Be prepared to discuss your methodology for holding senior colleagues accountable for deliverables across functional boundaries, such as engaging procurement on supply chain due diligence or finance on ESG reporting metrics.

The role centers primarily on the intersection of corporate governance, climate-related regulatory risk, and ethical supply chain oversight. Key areas include navigating emerging corporate disclosure frameworks, evaluating climate risks in line with enterprise risk management policies, and operationalizing mandatory transparency guidelines. Social governance forms another major pillar, specifically coordinating the organization-wide Modern Slavery statement and reviewing human rights policies in conjunction with legal and procurement leaders. While community engagement is handled separately by marketing, this role anchors the institutional credibility of the firm's non-financial performance. Governance rigor remains paramount, ensuring that the company maintains auditable, transparent data systems that satisfy both regulatory authorities and institutional client expectations across global markets.

A primary challenge will be driving accountability across decentralized business units where sustainability data collection or action items compete with pressing operational priorities. The specialist must influence senior stakeholders across disparate departments without having direct line authority over them. The regulatory environment is also accelerating rapidly, requiring constant vigilance to anticipate changing compliance mandates and translate them into actionable corporate policies before deadlines hit. Additionally, bridging the gap between high-level executive strategy and day-to-day data entry demands strong diplomancy, patience, and meticulous attention to data integrity across diverse software platforms.

A regular day might begin with reviewing regulatory updates or checking the progress of cross-departmental inputs for the upcoming Modern Slavery submission. The morning could involve drafting a briefing paper for the Executive Leadership Team highlighting climate risk oversight metrics. By midday, the specialist could facilitate a meeting of the cross-functional Sustainability Working Group, guiding division leads through upcoming sustainability action items, reviewing progress on internal targets, and capturing new initiatives. In the afternoon, the focus may shift to reviewing client RFP responses regarding the firm's ESG performance, collaborating with the Finance team on climate-related data systems, or advising procurement specialists on vendor human rights assessments.

This role is well-positioned for career advancement due to its high visibility across the Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors. Strong performers can easily position themselves as future heads of sustainability, chief risk officers in ESG, or specialized ESG compliance directors within the broader financial group. The breadth of cross-functional engagement allows the specialist to pivot laterally into wider Enterprise Risk Management, corporate governance, or sustainable finance and product development. Furthermore, developing mastery over mandatory climate disclosures and corporate governance at a large-scale financial provider builds career capital that is highly transferable across institutional banking, asset management, and global consultancy.

Internally, this role interacts continuously with senior executives, including the Chief Risk Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief People Officer, and the Executive Sponsor of the ESG Working Group. The specialist also regularly interfaces with the Board of Directors through formal reporting. Across business lines, daily engagement involves working group members spanning Risk, Procurement, Legal, People & Culture, Finance, and IT to align operational processes with sustainability goals. Externally, the role coordinates with specialized sustainability consultants, assurance auditors, and client relationship teams to respond to institutional inquiries and RFP demands.