ESG Data Specialist

The core mission is to make RIIS Group's ESG data reliable enough to act on. Day to day this means gathering consumption, emissions and supplier figures from colleagues in Denmark, Germany and India, checking them against the GHG protocol, and keeping the climate and environmental accounts current. Recurring compliance work runs in parallel: reporting through Data Exchange Platforms, answering customer ESG requests, and tracking new legal and market requirements as they arrive. Beyond the reporting cycle, the role carries a development mandate. You will help build and refine reporting processes, define how data is structured and validated, and push data quality upward so that each reporting round is less manual than the last. The VSME reporting work sits here too, translating a framework into a repeatable internal routine. The third strand is analysis with a purpose. RIIS expects this person to spot patterns in the data and convert them into concrete recommendations, so the role feeds directly into decisions about climate, environment and responsible business conduct rather than stopping at submission deadlines.

You would gain hands-on depth in two frameworks that shape European sustainability reporting right now: the GHG protocol for climate accounts and VSME, the voluntary standard aimed at companies outside the largest listed bracket. Working through full reporting cycles, from raw data collection to a finished disclosure, builds a skill set that is in short supply. The international setup adds exposure that a single-country role would not. Producing data across Danish, German and Indian operations means learning how reporting requirements, supplier practices and data maturity differ by market, and how to reconcile them into one picture. You would also likely touch adjacent topics such as EUDR and PPWR if those become part of RIIS's obligations, plus supplier data exchange platforms. Mentorship comes mainly from the ESG Compliance & Sustainability Manager, with whom the role works closely, and from the wider business. Because the organisation is flat and the ESG function is still developing, you would probably see how strategy gets formed at close range, which is useful preparation for a future lead role.

RIIS states that educational background is not decisive, which shifts weight onto experience. Expect roughly two to three years in ESG, ideally including climate accounting under the GHG protocol and reporting against VSME or a comparable framework. Familiarity with ESG requirements, transparency expectations and the business logic behind reporting matters more than a particular degree. On the technical side, confident Excel use is explicitly requested. The role also calls for structure, independence and attention to detail, since data quality and follow-up are named as priorities. The ability to find order in large, messy data sets and then explain what you found to non-specialists is the profile RIIS describes. Knowledge of management systems, supplier data exchange platforms, EUDR and PPWR is listed as an advantage rather than a requirement. Given the company's project-based work in retail and interiors, an interest in how materials and supplier choices translate into footprint would fit well, even if that experience came from a different sector.

Because RIIS is explicit that your degree does not decide the outcome, your application should lead with what you have actually done with ESG data. Name the frameworks you have worked in, the size and type of data sets you handled, and the reporting cycles you completed. If you have used a supplier data exchange platform or built the structure for one, say so early, as that is listed as a plus. A short note on how you would approach RIIS's specific situation would separate you from generic applicants. This is a project-based design and build business operating across many countries, so its emissions and material data sit with suppliers and individual projects, not a single production line. Showing that you have thought about how to collect and validate data in that kind of distributed setup demonstrates the analytical instinct the posting asks for. The role works closely with the ESG Compliance & Sustainability Manager, so mentioning the collaborative side, how you keep colleagues engaged in delivering data without formal authority over them, is worth a paragraph. Applications are reviewed as they arrive and the position closes once the right match is found, so submitting early is a practical advantage.

The role anchors RIIS Group's climate and environmental accounting, so much of the focus would land on the company's own footprint and the data behind it: energy, materials and emissions across projects, offices and operations in Denmark, Germany and India. GHG protocol alignment is the stated backbone, which suggests scopes 1, 2 and increasingly 3, where a project-based interior business carries most of its impact through purchased goods and supplier activity. Reporting and compliance form the second focus area. VSME reporting, Data Exchange Platform submissions and responses to customer ESG requests mean this role translates external expectations into structured disclosures. As a supplier to retail, hospitality and workplace clients, RIIS faces growing demands from customers for verified sustainability information, so this position sits on a commercially relevant edge of ESG. Governance runs alongside the environmental work. Handling new legal requirements and market-driven demands, such as EUDR and PPWR if they apply, puts the role in the compliance chain. The social dimension appears mainly through responsible business conduct and cross-border collaboration, with colleagues and suppliers in several regions.

Data quality is the obvious hurdle. RIIS works across 45-plus countries, with local offices in Germany and India, and much of its footprint comes from suppliers and individual projects. Getting consistent, complete figures out of a distributed, project-based business, then keeping them comparable over time, is harder than reporting inside a single plant. The function is still being built, and the posting talks about creating structure and lifting data quality rather than maintaining an existing system. That means ambiguity: some processes may not exist yet, and the ESG Data Specialist will likely have to define them. Working without a fully established playbook suits some people and frustrates others. Influence is another factor. This role depends on colleagues across departments and countries to supply data on time, without line authority over them. Chasing inputs, following up and keeping people engaged while deadlines press is a recurring test, and new legal requirements will keep adding scope to an already broad remit.

A typical day would mix analysis and coordination. You might start by consolidating and checking incoming data, hunting down gaps or anomalies in the climate and environmental accounts, and updating the structures that hold it. Excel work is central, as is the patient process of validating figures before they feed into reporting. Meetings fill much of the rest. There would be regular contact with the ESG Compliance & Sustainability Manager to align priorities, and conversations with colleagues in operations, purchasing or project teams who hold pieces of the data. Occasional coordination with the Flensburg and Pune offices is plausible, given the group's international footprint and the cross-border nature of ESG reporting. Variability comes with the reporting calendar and compliance deadlines. Near submission points, the rhythm shifts toward completing disclosures and answering customer requests. Between those peaks, the work leans toward development projects: improving how data is collected, testing a new process, or working through what an upcoming regulation such as PPWR will require from the business.

The clearest path is within the ESG function itself. As RIIS's reporting matures and VSME work becomes routine, a person who built that structure is a natural candidate for broader responsibility, potentially moving toward a lead or manager role as the team and its obligations grow. The close working relationship with the ESG Compliance & Sustainability Manager gives visibility into that level of work. The international footprint offers lateral movement too. RIIS operates in Denmark, Germany and India and serves clients across Europe, the Middle East, North America, India and Australia, so exposure to different markets and reporting regimes accumulates quickly. Over time that breadth supports moves into supplier sustainability, compliance or broader ESG strategy. Development also comes from the nature of the work itself. Each new regulation, from VSME to EUDR or PPWR, is a learning cycle, and taking ownership of initiatives in a flat organisation means the role can expand by initiative rather than by promotion. Small companies tend to reward visible contribution with more scope.

The closest relationship is with the ESG Compliance & Sustainability Manager, Karoline Schou, who is named as the contact for role questions. She sets direction for ESG compliance and sustainability work, so this collaboration shapes priorities, reviews output and provides the main source of guidance. The second group is internal colleagues across the business. Since RIIS collects ESG data from its operations in Denmark, Germany and India, the role will work with people in operations, purchasing and project teams who hold the underlying figures. Those interactions are mostly about obtaining data, clarifying requirements and following up on quality, and they require clear communication with people who are not ESG specialists. External stakeholders matter as well. Customers in retail, hospitality and other sectors increasingly ask for ESG information, so the role responds to those requests, often through supplier data exchange platforms. Suppliers who provide material and product data are another counterpart. Occasional contact with auditors or bodies tied to reporting frameworks is plausible as the compliance work deepens.