VP, Supplier Sustainability

Job Description

The VP of Supplier Sustainability will play a pivotal role in collaborating with our Sustainability colleagues in setting the Sustainability direction and how it translates in the global supply base.

You will be a transformational leader with a globally distributed team, encouraged to drive impact to ensure the successful development and implementation of our sustainability strategy, programs, policies and capabilities to deliver on the commitments in all dimensions of sustainability within the Global Procurement organization.

As a member of the Global Procurement Leadership Team, you will drive the sustainability agenda as a core part of our purpose, strategy, and ways of working both internally and across our entire supply base.

You will be an innovating and inspiring leader for a purpose led business, working to address global sustainable development challenges, and will be passionate about crafting long term value for all partners. You will join forces with our supplier base to co-create a sustainable future to collectively reduce environmental & social impact.

Play your Part in our Team Succeeding

The Supplier Sustainability team is globally dispersed and is part of the wider procurement organization that is center led, functionally driven and fully integrated into the LEGO Group’s systems and processes, connecting the overall business strategy & requirements with the global product categories and regional procurement teams. The VP Supplier Sustainability, will report to the SVP, Chief Procurement Officer, and is a full member of our Procurement LT.

The Procurement organization is mainly based across our hubs and sites; Billund, Singapore, Shanghai, Enfield, London, Shenzhen, and in other manufacturing locations: Czech Republic, Hungary, China and Mexico.

Core Responsibilities

• Provide Strategic Direction and oversight of execution in supplier sustainability goals

• Collaborate closely with the Environmental Sustainability Team to influence supplier related sustainability objectives & targets, and proactively contribute to key aspects of the strategic vision for sustainability & social responsibility across the Group.

• Translate strategies into actionable goals for procurement to integrate sustainable purchasing and supplier engagement, ensuring alignment with partners and effective execution across the organization.

• Deliver successful execution of sustainability projects & programs, on time and consistent to mandate while being responsible for key targets and progress reporting to executive leadership.

• Influence and collaborate with Procurement LT to drive sustainability initiatives, through showcasing the value, tailoring the approach to each procurement segment simplifying processes.

• Create & embed a robust sustainability governance structure including reporting practices and processes across procurement, tracking, and analysing sustainability performance data, and presenting & reporting on progress.

• Develop methodologies to assess the viability and success of supplier initiatives, including monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of sustainability programs to manage risk and opportunities as well as diversity & inclusion within our supply chain.

• Present updates to Key partners (PLT/ ELT / ER/ CSO) on the status of the sustainability program including forecasting of costs, resource planning, and market / regulatory demand drivers.

• Drive continuous process improvement and automation, using data insights & analytics.

• Transformational leadership

Create a vision, educate and inspire teams to motivate change around supplier sustainability & diversity.

• Bring outside-in perspectives and global market intelligence insights (including what other best in class companies do and their approaches); translate them into meaningful actions for the betterment of the function and the organization.

• Develop and maintain effective strategic partnerships with senior executives, through cross collaboration and alignment on supplier sustainability efforts.

• Drive coherence & simplicity in processes for procurement aimed at reducing complexity and increasing efficiency.

• Create an overall capability framework across procurement, identify educational training and capability development opportunities for global procurement encompassing supplier sustainability.

• Become a trusted subject matter expert, educator and thought partner to internal and external partners related to supplier sustainability.

• People & performance management.

Acquire, develop, and grow diverse talent; build and strengthen skills and organizational capabilities.

• Lead, engage and energize the team through coaching and mentorship. Empower them to achieve outstanding results, drive a collaborative / supportive, open, and honest culture, and team spirit.

• Maintain close relationships with sustainability workstream owners, providing regular updates on key developments within each workstream.

• Establish and foster productive and collaborative working relationships with the Procurement Sourcing / Category teams to ;ensure successful deployment and management of the category strategy for sustainability.

• Set direction in accordance with Procurement strategy & business plans, set KPI/ targets and goals, and improve performance.

• Provide vital resources, proactively support removing of obstacles to team success and accomplishments.

• Drive strong and effective collaboration between the team itself spread across the globe and with their global customers.

Do you have what it takes?

• Successful track record of strategic senior leadership within supply chain and procurement with proven leadership experience within supplier sustainability.

• Proven experience in leading and running sustainability initiatives, reporting standards, and frameworks required.

• Deep understanding in the specific challenges in environmental and sustainability regulation and trends and how to overcome challenges in the context of The Lego Group.

• Strong demonstration of energy saving projects and Scope 3 programs. 

• Procurement / supplier management and sourcing background.

• Extensive expertise, having operated at a strategic level with a strong background of success in delivering value and cost savings through continuous improvement, cultivating innovation and sustainability.

• Demonstrated success as a highly collaborative global leader, focused on execution and driving impact through maintaining trust-based relationships and developing and leading hard-working, diverse matrixed teams to successful outcomes.

• Customer focused behaviour with dedicated commitment and a high sense of flexibility and collaboration.

• Intellectual curiosity and entrepreneurial mentality with a desire to constantly learn and find ways to use expertise and build new capabilities across the organisation.

• Capability to influence and engage through effective communication and presentation skills (both verbally and in writing); able to articulate complex information in a clear and simple manner to a variety of audiences.

What’s in it for you?

Here are some of what to expect:

• Family Care Leave – We offer enhanced paid leave options for those important times.

• Insurances – All colleagues are covered by our life and disability insurance which provides protection and peace of mind.

• Wellness – We want you to be your best self, so you'll have access to the Headspace App and lots of wellbeing initiatives and programmes run by local teams where you are based.

• Colleague Discount – We know you'll love to build so from day 1 you will qualify for our generous colleague discount.

• Bonus – We do our best work to succeed together. When goals are reached and if eligible, you'll be rewarded through our bonus scheme.

• Your workplace – When you join the team you'll be assigned a primary workplace location i.e. one of our Offices, stores or factories. Our hybrid work policy means an average of 3 days per week in the office. The hiring team will discuss the policy and role eligibility with you during the recruitment process.

Children are our role models. Their curiosity, creativity and imagination inspire everything we do. We strive to create a diverse, dynamic and inclusive culture of play at the LEGO Group, where everyone feels safe, valued and they belong.

The LEGO Group is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity and equal pay regardless of e.g. race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability or gender identity.

The LEGO Group is fully committed to Children’s Rights and Child Wellbeing across the globe. Candidates offered positions with high engagement with children are required to take part in Child Safeguarding Background Screening, as a condition of the offer. 

Thank you for sharing our global commitment to Children’s Rights.

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