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Manager - Climate & Nature

Woolworths Group International • Australia • Added on Oct 2, 2026
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This role coordinates and delivers corporate initiatives focused on supply chain climate resilience, animal welfare standards, and nature preservation across major retail operations. You will sit at the intersection of commercial operations and environmental targets, translating complex climate policies into practical sourcing actions across agricultural categories.

As part of one of Australasia’s largest food retailers, your work directly tackles the high-impact realities of agricultural supply chains. By supporting Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) decarbonisation pathways, biodiversity frameworks, and livestock welfare improvements, you help reshape industry baselines at massive commercial scale.

This suits someone who brings practical grounding in sustainable farming systems and excels at bridging the gap between rigorous scientific frameworks and fast-moving retail procurement teams.

Job FAQs

What are the main missions and responsibilities of this role?

The primary mission in this position is to execute and coordinate key workstreams under the Group's multi-year sustainability roadmap, directly targeting climate and nature risks across Australian and New Zealand supply chains. This includes driving the continuous improvement and operational adoption of Group animal welfare standards across meat, poultry, dairy, and egg procurement. On the climate front, the role supports the practical execution of Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) Net Zero roadmaps, working closely with commercial buyers to improve supply chain resilience. Long-term goals involve assessing nature-related risks, embedding sustainable sourcing frameworks, and delivering high-quality updates and regulatory submissions for senior leadership.

Key learning opportunities for this job

A professional stepping into this role will gain hands-on expertise in implementing complex SBTi FLAG frameworks and emerging Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) concepts within an enterprise supply chain. Working at this scale offers deep exposure to the commercial realities of grocery retail and wholesale agricultural economics. Additionally, you can expect to develop sophisticated stakeholder management skills by navigating cross-functional priorities alongside category buyers, farm-level suppliers, and executive sustainability leadership, while mastering policy submissions in a rapidly tightening regulatory environment.

How does the ideal candidate look like (experience, skills)?

The ideal candidate typically brings around three to five years of solid environmental management or corporate sustainability project experience, ideally centered on food, agriculture, or retail supply chains. A strong practical understanding of sustainable farming practices and animal welfare standards, especially within livestock and meat sectors, is highly advantageous. Beyond technical domain knowledge, this role requires exceptional analytical prowess to convert complex ecological data into pragmatic commercial business cases. Strong relationship-building abilities and clear communication skills are essential for influencing commercial merchandising and sourcing teams.

Advice to stand out and make a successful application

When preparing an application, steer away from purely academic or theoretical concepts of sustainability and instead highlight your experience in commercial application and supply chain engagement. Emphasize any direct work involving primary producers, animal welfare frameworks, or agricultural decarbonization. Demonstrate how you have successfully navigated matrixed corporate organizations to align commercial procurement targets with environmental requirements. If you have experience with SBTi FLAG targets or nature impact metrics, show those tangible outcomes prominently on your resume.

What aspects of the company's sustainability is this role likely to focus on?

The core focus revolves around the environmental and ethical footprints of agricultural supply chains, explicitly targeting Scope 3 FLAG emissions and upstream nature conservation. This involves addressing deforestation, soil health, water stewardship, and the preservation of natural ecosystems connected to key retail commodities. Simultaneously, the role puts heavy emphasis on animal welfare governance, ensuring that farm systems for meat, dairy, and poultry continuously improve against emerging scientific and societal expectations across Australia and New Zealand.

What are the main challenges someone in this role might face?

The primary hurdle lies in balancing ambitious environmental goals with the financial and operational constraints of large-scale retail buying. Sourcing teams operate under margin and volume pressures, meaning nature and climate initiatives must be presented with clear commercial logic rather than top-down mandates. Another significant challenge involves data availability and traceability across fragmented upstream agricultural networks. Navigating evolving methodologies for nature reporting while ensuring supplier compliance across thousands of product lines requires considerable persistence and analytical rigor.

How could a typical day look like for someone in this position?

A typical day could begin with reviewing supply chain data to evaluate progress against FLAG decarbonization milestones, followed by a working session with meat and livestock commercial managers to update welfare audit protocols. In the afternoon, you might shift into strategic analysis, reviewing draft nature risk assessments or monitoring incoming government policy developments. The day often concludes with synthesizing technical findings into executive briefing materials or collaborating with external industry partners on sustainable farming trials.

What are the opportunities for professional growth and development in this role?

Given the strategic centrality of nature and Scope 3 land-use emissions to overall corporate climate commitments, success in this position offers significant visibility across group sustainability and commercial merchandising leadership. Professionals can naturally progress toward senior management roles overseeing broader sustainable sourcing portfolios, nature and biodiversity strategies, or specialized ESG leadership across individual retail banners within the enterprise.

The main stakeholders you might be interacting with

Day-to-day engagement will center on internal commercial category managers and buyers, collaborating closely to embed sustainability standards into ongoing vendor negotiations and supply contracts. You will also frequently interact with the broader group sustainability team, corporate affairs, legal, and executive leadership teams, while externally liaising with agricultural producers, industry peak bodies, animal welfare NGOs, and regulatory authorities.

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