--- title: Director of Sustainability Europe canonical: https://csrjobs.club/jobs/wabtec-corporation-director-of-sustainability-europe-04a7 locale: en description: Wabtec Corporation is hiring a Director of Sustainability Europe on CSR Jobs. Discover this in-house sustainability role and apply today. updated: 2026-10-05 company: Wabtec Corporation country: France contract: Full time seniority: Senior missions: ESG reporting, Corporate Carbon Footprint job_type: ESG/Sustainability Reporting Manager, Sustainability Manager posted: 2026-10-05 valid_through: 2026-12-05 apply: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4475812618 source: CSR Jobs --- # Director of Sustainability Europe This role owns Wabtec's sustainability agenda across its European Transit operations. Day to day, you'll navigate EU disclosure rules like CSRD and EU Taxonomy, work with Finance, Legal and EHS to get audit-ready data, and advise business leaders on what each new regulation actually means for them. The stakes are tangible: rail is one of the few transport modes already positioned as a climate solution, and Wabtec supplies the components, brakes and digital systems that keep it running. This is a chance to broker that story with regulators, customers and procurement teams who increasingly score suppliers on sustainability, turning compliance into commercial edge. This suits someone who can hold their own on technical ESG frameworks while sitting comfortably in a leadership meeting, translating acronyms into decisions. You'll need thick skin for matrixed organisations and the patience to build consensus across regions and functions. ## Job FAQs ### What are the main missions and responsibilities of this role? The core mission is to make Wabtec's European operations audit-ready on sustainability while helping business leaders understand what the regulatory wave actually demands. This means coordinating the company's response to CSRD, ESRS, EU Taxonomy, and ISSB-aligned reporting across the Transit business, gathering data from Finance, Legal, EHS and Procurement, stress-testing its reliability, and preparing it for third-party assurance. There's a heavy monitoring component: tracking regulatory developments and translating them into practical advice for regional leadership before deadlines bite. The second pillar is strategic integration. Rather than running sustainability as a standalone side project, this role is expected to embed enterprise sustainability objectives into business initiatives, programmes and performance metrics. **That means influencing how investment decisions, operational plans and commercial strategies get made**, not just reporting on them after the fact. Third, the role carries a customer-facing dimension. As procurement organisations and suppliers increasingly score Wabtec on ESG criteria, this person supports commercial teams in responding to questionnaires and assessments, and builds relationships with customer sustainability and compliance leaders, positioning sustainability as a differentiator rather than a cost centre. ### Key learning opportunities for this job You'd gain deep, practical fluency in the EU's sustainability disclosure architecture (CSRD, ESRS, EU Taxonomy and ISSB) in a live corporate setting, which is a rare skill set to build outside of consulting or a dedicated reporting team. Working through assurance readiness and governance controls would sharpen your understanding of how sustainability data actually gets validated, not just published. Because the role straddles the Transit business and European operations inside a US-headquartered multinational, you'd likely develop a working knowledge of how sustainability expectations differ between European regulators and American corporate governance. That transatlantic perspective is increasingly valuable as global frameworks converge. Soft skills matter too: you'd get exposure to senior executive communication, cross-functional negotiation, and industry networking through forums, conferences and trade associations. **For someone eyeing a future CSO or VP Sustainability role, this is the kind of operating experience that closes the gap between technical expertise and executive influence.** ### How does the ideal candidate look like (experience, skills)? Wabtec is looking for at least eight years of sustainability, ESG or related experience, ideally acquired inside a multinational industrial, manufacturing, transportation or infrastructure group. The ideal candidate has done this work in a matrixed environment before, meaning they know how to influence leaders without direct authority and can navigate competing priorities across regions. Experience with CSRD, ESRS, EU Taxonomy, GRI, ISSB and TCFD isn't just a nice-to-have; the role is explicitly built around disclosure coordination and assurance readiness. Strong analytical and project management skills are table stakes, but the differentiator is communication. This person must be able to explain complex regulatory nuances to a CFO, a plant manager and a customer procurement team, each with very different vocabularies, without losing accuracy. A degree in sustainability, environmental science, engineering, business, finance or public policy is expected; an advanced degree is preferred. Familiarity with sustainability software platforms and ESG data management systems would be a practical advantage, as would prior experience engaging directly with regulators, procurement organisations or industry groups. Experience in a US-headquartered company could help, given Wabtec's dual need to respect global templates while meeting European requirements. EU work authorisation is required. ### Advice to stand out and make a successful application To stand out, go beyond listing ESG frameworks on your CV. Wabtec needs someone who can demonstrate that they've actually **operationalised** CSRD or similar disclosure requirements in a complex, multi-site organisation, not just monitored them from a distance. Pick one or two examples where you coordinated data collection across functions, dealt with assurance providers, and improved the quality or timeliness of reporting, and describe the specific friction you resolved. Because this role is heavily advisory and cross-functional, your application should signal political intelligence as much as technical skill. Wabtec's language around "influencing senior leaders" and "matrixed environments" is a strong hint that they've had candidates who were technically strong but struggled to get traction. If you can show a track record of changing a business decision (a capital allocation, a supplier requirement, a product strategy) because of a sustainability argument, that's worth more than another certification. Finally, prepare for the customer-facing dimension. Wabtec's commercial teams are increasingly under pressure from procurement organisations that score suppliers on ESG. Demonstrating that you understand how sustainability connects to revenue, not just compliance, would align directly with the company's framing. In interview, expect scenario questions about balancing global corporate priorities with regional regulatory demands. ### What aspects of the company's sustainability is this role likely to focus on? The immediate focus is EU regulatory compliance and disclosure (CSRD, ESRS, EU Taxonomy and ISSB-aligned reporting) which means this role sits at the centre of Wabtec's obligation to produce credible, assurance-ready sustainability data for its European operations. That's governance-heavy work, likely touching everything from double materiality assessments to taxonomy eligibility calculations. Beyond compliance, the role connects to Wabtec's product-level sustainability story. As a supplier of equipment, brakes, digital solutions and services for rail, the company's environmental credentials are tied to how its products improve the efficiency, safety and emissions profile of freight and transit rail. **The Director would likely be involved in shaping how those product benefits get quantified and communicated**, especially to customers who evaluate suppliers on lifecycle emissions and circularity. There's also a strategic advisory layer: helping regional leadership anticipate where regulation is heading and build it into business planning early. For an industrial group operating across multiple European jurisdictions with different energy mixes and regulatory timelines, the challenge is less about setting targets and more about making sure execution is consistent, credible and commercially useful. ### What are the main challenges someone in this role might face? The biggest structural challenge is the matrix. Reporting to a Senior Director of Corporate Sustainability while being embedded in European operations means serving two sets of expectations, global templates and regional realities, and that tension can be draining. Data collection across multiple sites, legal entities and functions like Finance and EHS is rarely clean; getting assurance-ready information usually involves chasing people who don't report to you and who have their own deadlines. Regulatory complexity is another hurdle. CSRD and EU Taxonomy are evolving rapidly, and the interpretive guidance can lag behind the timelines. **Wabtec, as a US-headquartered company, may have internal systems and reporting habits built around American or global frameworks that don't map neatly onto European requirements**, so part of the job could be negotiating adjustments rather than simply applying them. Commercially, there's the challenge of balancing ambition with pragmatism. Sustainability teams in industrial companies often have more responsibility than resources, and the Director will need to prioritise ruthlessly, deciding which customer questionnaires to answer in depth, which regulatory workstreams to lead versus support, and where to push for change versus accept incremental progress. ### How could a typical day look like for someone in this position? A typical day might start with a check-in with the Corporate Sustainability team to align on global priorities, followed by a working session with Finance or EHS colleagues on data quality for an upcoming disclosure. Regulatory monitoring is ongoing, so part of the day usually involves scanning for updates (a new interpretation of ESRS, a change to Taxonomy delegated acts) and assessing whether anything needs escalating to regional leadership. Interactions would be varied. You could spend an hour advising a Transit business leader on how a specific regulation affects their operational planning, then join a call with a commercial team preparing a response to a customer's ESG questionnaire. Later, there might be a governance meeting on assurance readiness or a prep session for an industry forum Wabtec is attending. The rhythm probably varies by reporting cycle. During disclosure preparation periods, the role tilts heavily toward coordination, data validation and document review. Outside those windows, it shifts toward strategic advising, stakeholder engagement and proactive regulatory tracking. Travel to Wabtec's European sites in France or Italy is likely occasional, and some international coordination with US colleagues may fall outside standard European hours. ### What are the opportunities for professional growth and development in this role? The role sits within a corporate sustainability function at a company with roughly 30,000 employees, which means there's a visible ladder above it. A successful Director could realistically aim for a VP or regional CSO position, particularly if they demonstrate commercial impact rather than just reporting compliance. Wabtec's size and global footprint also create opportunities for lateral moves into business unit leadership, strategy or government affairs, especially for someone who builds strong relationships across functions. The exposure is a major asset. Sitting between regulatory affairs, customer engagement and corporate strategy gives this person a rare vantage point. **If they can show that sustainability work directly influenced a customer win, a capital decision or a risk mitigation, they become a credible candidate for broader leadership roles.** Less formally, the EU regulatory environment is a seller's market for expertise. Someone who masters CSRD, ESRS and assurance readiness in a multinational industrial context would be highly marketable externally as well, whether to consulting firms, other manufacturers, or companies further behind on their reporting journey. The role also offers a platform for industry visibility through forums and trade associations, which can accelerate both internal and external career prospects. ### The main stakeholders you might be interacting with Internally, the closest working relationship is with the Senior Director of Corporate Sustainability and the broader corporate sustainability team, who set global strategy and governance expectations. Beyond that, the role partners heavily with Finance and Legal on reporting controls and regulatory interpretation, with EHS on environmental data, with Procurement on supplier assessments, and with Government Affairs and Communications on positioning and stakeholder messaging. Regional and Transit business leaders are key stakeholders, they're the audience for the Director's strategic advice and the owners of the operational data the role depends on. Externally, customer sustainability, environmental, compliance and procurement leaders are central. These relationships are commercial as well as technical: customers want assurance that Wabtec meets their ESG standards, and the Director helps shape that narrative. Industry forums, conferences and trade associations provide another stakeholder layer, offering both intelligence-gathering and reputation-building opportunities. There may also be contact with regulators or assurance providers, particularly as CSRD requirements mature. **Balancing these relationships requires the ability to shift register, from technical detail with data teams to strategic framing with executives to pragmatic problem-solving with customers, often within the same day.** --- Source: https://csrjobs.club/jobs/wabtec-corporation-director-of-sustainability-europe-04a7