Director, Sustainable Products and Suppliers

Sysco

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Sysco has ambitions to lead the food industry in Sustainability and has set ambitious goals across people, product and planet pillars. To enable this ambition, Sysco is moving to a functionalized Sustainability team across its businesses and geographies. This will help drive value in sustainability, efficiencies and cost reductions as we organize the team into specific roles and focus areas. As part of this new structure, an expanded role is required to lead the global Sustainable Product and Sourcing Center of Excellent (CoE). This role will be responsible for developing and executing against sustainability strategies with the merchandising teams, focused on the USFS, and coordinating with global merchandising team and initiatives in these businesses that drive revenue through offering more sustainable products and sourcing to our customer who are demanding action and shifting volume to more sustainable suppliers. This role requires executive level influence and communication skills to deliver results as well as leadership skills to grow and develop team members. This role will require this leader to: Crafts and executes strategies to progress Sysco’s Sustainability Initiatives, Commitments, and Goals while increasing Suppliers’ Sustainable Practices. Lead engagement with merchandising (including Sysco Brand) to prioritize and coordinate supplier communication Lead engagement with suppliers to enable them to list more sustainable products and improve the sustainability of their current operations Work collaboratively with members of the Global Sustainability team to integrate other supplier topics such as human rights, packaging, regenerative ag and other topics to create one central point of contact for merchandising This leader is focused upstream – and will be partner with Sustainability team members who own downstream (Customer) strategy and communications

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree
Bachelor’s degree or 4 years equivalent experience, preference for degree in Sustainability, Supply Chain, Hospitality, or Business.
7 or more years' experience in project/program management, communications, analytics, with sustainability experience preferred
7 or more years' experience in cross-functional team execution of new strategies/initiatives and associated program management, communications, analytics, with sustainability experience preferred
Solid PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Tableau knowledge and skills
Strategic thinker with ability to work in a matrixed organization.
Diplomatic but persuasive personality capable of aligning stakeholders (internal and external) of varied backgrounds and motivations.
Ability to work productively on independent research, data collection and analysis assignments and as part of a team
Outstanding oral and written communication skills, as well as attention to detail
Strong interpersonal skills and an outstanding ability to communicate with others at all levels of the organization
Energetic, efficient and resourceful team player
Excellent knowledge of product information management and/or Master Data Management.
Competent in Business Modeling and Analysis and comfortable engaging with both Business and Technical Teams
Data management experience, using a variety of tools for data management.
Strong project management skills, with an eye for detail and meeting time-sensitive targets; highly productive, getting plans on paper, tracking of milestones, owning meetings, learning new systems and reporting mechanisms; highly motivated and willing to pivot
Excellent verbal and written communication skills – able to communicate both up and down organizational levels and simplify complicated information to non-technical listeners
Strong Microsoft Office suite experience including PowerPoint, Excel, Word
Curious to learn about new trends, regulations, requirements and standards in sustainability across various markets.
Passionate about sustainability and how companies can positively affect the environment and society.
Ability to collaborate and build alignment and influence among a broad group of internal stakeholders; strong business acumen and ability to translate theory to action.
Strong technical, analytical and problem-solving skills with a track record of delivering high-quality deliverables to tight deadlines
Strong communication skills at all levels of the organization. Ability to take people with you and bring the best out of others.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree Environmental Science, Agriculture, Supply Chain, Business, Hospitality, or related fields
Knowledge of food service distribution and associated supply chains preferred
7 years or more of experience in merchandising, supplier enablement and/or corporate social responsibility or sustainability positions for a public company, a consulting agency or relevant experience preferred
7 year or more of experience in Supplier relationship management/topic onboarding and content collection/validation for both eCommerce and reporting (internal/external) enablement.
Good understanding of various sustainable frameworks and standards e.g. Science Based Target Initiatives as well as 3rd party certification programs, e.g. MSC, Certified Humane, etc.
Awareness of Sustainability regulatory and consumer trends and up to date on relevant global sustainability existing issues and emerging topics.
Some education and/or certification in (one or more): Sustainable Food Systems, Climate Action, SBTi, SASB, GRI, TCFD, CDP, GHG Protocol, or related standards and frameworks.
Knowledge of foodservice preferred.

Responsibilities

Owner of our Sustainable Assortment (One Planet One Table) for USFS – create an assortment that drives value for Sysco: Own and iterate the brand and structure of the assortment Work with other members of the Sustainability team to prioritize assortment changes and upgrades to meet the needs of customers Owns the governance process for new certifications / attributes for our assortment Tracking and communications of assortment performance
Act as central point of contact for USFS Merchandising across all sourcing related topics plastics/packaging, regenerative agriculture, deforestation – enabling reaching our supplier/sourcing focused targets – work with others in the Sustainability team to coordinate merchandising asks: Collaborate with other sustainability leaders to iterate and communicate plans to merchandising Embed sustainability into merchandising through JBP’s, PGM and other processes Share materials that enable suppliers across topics, including trainings (merch and supplier) Lead sessions with Merchandising to educate them on Sustainability Lead regular ELT level updates to Merchandising leaders and other ELT members
Owner of the supplier council which brings together our top suppliers to discuss sustainability and commit to initiatives Own the annual Supplier Sustainability Summit Owner in delivering Sysco’s global scope 3 Category 3.1 emissions targets (currently 67% of supplier emissions with a science based target by 2026) Create a Merchandising and Supplier engagement strategy to reach our goals Engage directly with suppliers on their transition plans and for large suppliers, enable them to set a goal and reduce their emissions Track and report our progress – suggest changes to reach out goal Contribute (but does not own)
Owner of Sustainability data strategy globally, work with the Technology, Reporting, Sales and Merchandising teams to prioritize and develop data systems that enable value driving use cases: Owns the data flows for Sustainability data across topics Owns definition of product attribution in our systems Owns the Sysco Supplier Suite, definition, updated, governance, utilization. Approver on implementation and prioritization of new data and platforms for Sustainability Facilitates Business and Technology Teams to create an enabling data and platform environment – with the main objectives of driving sales and Advises on Business Requirements and road-mapping for planned Sustainability-focused data and tool builds such as platform improvements and reporting updates. Communicates Sustainable Product and Sourcing needs to Technical teams across Sysco and for multiple platforms/integrations (including but not limited to) Leader of Global Products & Sourcing squad which shares best practices across the global team and enables faster, more efficient and scaled solutions to drive revenue of sustainable products and meet our sustainability goals Run a regular meeting with global merchandising leaders to enable them to implement best practices and advise them on timelines / prioritization Assess other markets and identify best practices globally Approver and owner of best practice materials to be used