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Senior Environmental Sustainability Manager

Heidelberg Materials Germany Added on Jul 8, 2026
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This role acts as the primary global conduit between the central group sustainability office and a vast network of country-level ESG coordinators. You will maintain oversight of environmental management systems, ensuring that international operations adhere to rigorous corporate standards while navigating local compliance complexities across multiple continents. Your focus remains on standardizing risk assessments, incident management, and reporting frameworks to provide a clear view of the group’s environmental footprint.

Working for a heavy industrial giant like Heidelberg Materials means this position is at the absolute front line of the circular economy transition. By harmonizing global environmental governance, you directly enable the company’s high-stakes mission to produce carbon-neutral building materials. Your expertise helps accelerate the adoption of best-in-class environmental practices in sectors traditionally difficult to decarbonize, such as cement and concrete production.

This suits someone who possesses significant experience in heavy industrial environmental management and thrives on building bridges between technical site requirements and high-level corporate strategy. You should be comfortable influencing stakeholders across diverse cultures and complex organizational hierarchies.

Perguntas frequentes da vaga

What are the main missions and responsibilities of this role?

The core mission revolves around driving the implementation of group-wide environmental standards. You will serve as a central expert providing guidance on compliance, risk management, and performance improvement across nearly 3,000 locations worldwide. This involves translating complex regulations into actionable business guidance and ensuring that every site is aligned with the group's environmental management frameworks. You will also be responsible for monitoring and analyzing performance trends to inform executive decision-making. Your role includes overseeing environmental audits and corrective action programs, while also facilitating a global knowledge-sharing network among environmental professionals to scale innovation and best practices throughout the organization.

Key learning opportunities for this job

In this position, you will gain unparalleled exposure to large-scale industrial sustainability governance within one of the world's largest building material manufacturers. You will deepen your expertise in navigating the 'Net Zero' transition for a heavy industry sector, which involves learning about cutting-edge carbon capture technologies and circular economy business models applied at scale. Furthermore, the role offers a masterclass in international stakeholder management and change leadership. Coordinating ESG targets across 50 countries will sharpen your ability to manage regulatory diversity and cultural nuances in environmental reporting. You will likely engage with global industry associations, providing a high-level view of how international environmental policy is shaped.

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

The successful candidate should hold a university degree in Environmental Engineering or Environmental Sciences. Crucially, we are looking for someone with several years of experience specifically within heavy industrial environments like cement, mining, or chemical manufacturing. You must demonstrate a proven track record of managing Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and complex environmental governance structures at a regional or global level. Beyond technical expertise, the ideal profile is an exceptional communicator who can influence without direct authority. You must be comfortable with data-driven decision-making and possess the analytical skills to identify trends across a global portfolio. Proficiency in English is essential, as is the flexibility to travel internationally to visit operational sites and engage with country teams.

Advice to stand out and make a successful application

To stand out, move beyond generic sustainability concepts and demonstrate a deep understanding of the specific environmental risks associated with the building materials industry. Highlight your experience in operational compliance and how you have successfully managed incidents or audits in a heavy industrial context. Showing that you understand the transition from traditional manufacturing to circular economy models will be highly valued. Tailor your application by showcasing your ability to translate group-level strategy into local operational excellence. Use concrete examples of where you have led cross-functional projects or built global networks. Emphasize your leadership style—Heidelberg Materials values experts who are not just technicians but also strategic partners who can drive cultural change across a decentralized organization.

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

The role focuses heavily on the operational environmental footprint and compliance pillars of the broader ESG strategy. While many sustainability roles are purely about reporting, this one is about the 'E' in ESG on the ground. It covers biodiversity, water management, waste reduction, and emissions monitoring across thousands of production sites. You will be a key player in the company’s Net Zero roadmap by ensuring that local sites have the frameworks in place to measure and reduce their impact effectively. This involves aligning site-level environmental performance with the group's ambitious targets for low-carbon products and resource-efficient production methods.

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

One of the primary challenges will be the scale and decentralization of the organization. With nearly 3,000 locations, ensuring consistent application of environmental standards across diverse legal jurisdictions can be difficult. You will need to balance strict corporate requirements with the realities of local infrastructure and varying levels of regional maturity in sustainability practices. Additionally, maintaining momentum for environmental improvements in a high-pressure industrial environment requires resilience. You may face challenges in data collection and reporting accuracy from different regions, necessitating a high degree of persistence and the ability to build trust with local site managers who are focused on production targets.

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

A typical day begins with global coordination meetings, perhaps connecting with ESG heads in Asia or North America to discuss a local compliance challenge or a risk mitigation program. You might spend your midday analyzing environmental performance data at the Group level, identifying sites that require additional strategic support or training. The afternoon could involve drafting new internal environmental standards or collaborating with the Vice President of Sustainability on a strategic project. You would likely participate in a workshop to share best practices between regions, followed by a session reviewing the implications of new European environmental regulations on the company's global operations.

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

This role is a high-visibility position reporting directly to the Vice President of Sustainability, offering a clear path toward executive leadership in the ESG space. Success here could lead to global director roles within the sustainability department or strategic leadership positions within specialized business units like Cement or Aggregates. Given the company’s focus on research and development for green building materials, you might also have opportunities to transition into product-focused sustainability roles or circular economy leadership. The international nature of the role provides a platform to build a global reputation as an expert in industrial environmental governance.

The main stakeholders you might be interacting with

Your most frequent interaction will be with the Country ESG Coordinators, who look to you for guidance and support. You will act as their voice at the headquarters while ensuring they implement group strategy. Within the HQ, you will collaborate closely with Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) teams, as well as Legal and Operations departments. Externally, you will represent the group in industry associations and with environmental regulators. You will also interact with external auditors and potentially with advocacy groups or local stakeholders during site-level consultations, serving as a technical ambassador for Heidelberg Materials' environmental commitments.

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