Global Product Sustainability Lead

Emerson•Clayton, MO

20h•$140,000 - $180,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As a key player in Emerson’s sustainability initiatives, you will lead the integration of sustainable design strategies across Emerson, driving efforts to reduce emissions and enhance product circularity. You'll oversee the global product carbon footprint program and collaborate with supply chain teams to improve sustainable procurement and transportation practices. This role demands a strategic thinker with a passion for sustainability, a strong technical background, and excellent communication skills. You will have the opportunity to shape the future of sustainable design within Emerson, driving innovation through research collaborations and staying at the forefront of industry trends. Your ability to manage multiple projects, influence global teams, and convey complex sustainability concepts will be key to your success in this dynamic and impactful position. This position can be based in any major Emerson BU HQ location in the United States, enabling the successful candidate to partner with global teams while remaining connected to one of our key office locations.

Requirements

Education in engineering, environmental science, physics, mathematics, materials science or a similar subject
5-7 years of work experience in product design, or product management
Experience in a leadership or managerial role
Experience with Life Cycle Assessment / Product Carbon Footprint methodologies and tools
Proven track record in the design and development of new products
Excellent verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex sustainability topics in a clear and engaging manner
Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously
Authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now and in the future

Nice To Haves

Work experience related to sustainable product design
Knowledge of current trends, best practices, and regulations in sustainable product design
Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills
Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, key to influencing and encouraging teams around the world to implement sustainable design practices
Ability to work collaboratively in a global and diverse team-oriented environment
Creativity and innovation in developing engagement strategies with teams around the world
Analytical skills to measure and report on communication effectiveness
Ability to adapt to changing priorities and work under pressure
Working experience in the industrial automation and technology sector or similar

Responsibilities

Lead the development and drive the adoption of sustainable product and packaging design strategies throughout the company and support product development teams in implementing actions to reduce emissions and improve product circularity.
Work with the product environmental compliance team to integrate regulatory considerations into Emerson’s sustainable product and packaging design strategy and guidelines.
Collaborate with engineering teams to execute improvement projects that can serve as best practice examples.
Continue to enhance Emerson’s sustainable new product and packaging design guidelines.
Identify and prioritize cross-business strategic design initiatives that can deliver material sustainability impact at scale across multiple product lines.
Keep abreast of external sustainable product and packaging design trends and actively participate in external expert industry forums.
Oversee the activities of the central team conducting product carbon footprint analyses.
Provide technical expertise to business-unit teams and collaborate with them in research and specific projects during a project’s execution.
Help lead and expand Emerson's global product carbon footprint program by continuing to improve internal methodologies and external communication collateral in alignment with external best practices and regulatory requirements, streamlining processes to reduce project timelines while maintaining high-quality outputs, working with the IT team to develop a longer-term data architecture plan to scale the product carbon footprint program globally, supporting vendor selection for Emerson’s longer-term product carbon footprint program, driving the adoption of product carbon footprint analyses across Emerson’s major product lines globally, building relationships with external experts and partners.
Collaborate with Scope 3 team to improve data quality and forecasting using PCF insights.
Train and support sales and marketing teams to ensure effective communication of results to external.
Assess and benchmark the data maturity of business units to evaluate readiness for PCF calculations, identify gaps in data availability, quality, and systems, and define actionable roadmaps to improve data readiness and enable scalable deployment.
Act as the primary liaison to the enterprise product data program, ensuring alignment between product sustainability needs and broader data strategy.
Translate PCF requirements into clear data specifications and ensure integration into Emerson’s product data architecture in collaboration with IT and PEC.
Monitor and assess Product Category Rules (PCRs) and relevant external standards to determine applicability across Emerson’s portfolio and ensure methodological consistency.
Collaborate with the Responsible Sourcing team to improve primary data collection practices from suppliers to improve the precision and granularity of Scope 3 upstream emissions.
Assist in developing decarbonization scenario analyses and creating roadmaps for key direct material commodities (e.g., castings, steel, aluminum, plastics, electronics).
Engage with supply chain teams to promote the adoption of sustainable procurement and transportation strategies early in the product and packaging development stages.