Senior Program Manager

Role

Senior Program Manager

Location

New York

Who we are

ELEVATE, an LRQA Company

At ELEVATE, we offer a unique and impactful career journey in ESG and responsible sourcing to develop our team members to become industry change agents.  Join our team for a truly international experience.  With 24+ offices globally (and still growing), you will have exposure to real issues that span the globe. Fasten your seatbelt for an energetic and dynamic experience where you will enable clients to meet the challenge of navigating risk across the value chain.

Who you are

Are you thrilled by the idea of working in a business that aims tackle the world’s biggest social responsibility and ESG challenges? Do you want to work:

• on environmental, social and governance issues
• with an amazing team of like-minded creative thinkers
• in a fast-paced dynamic environment
• for some of the biggest and most forward-looking brands in the world

Job overview at a glance

Large corporations with global supply chains are increasingly asking themselves whether their social responsibility programs are organized to meet the new higher standard of due diligence that seems to be emerging out of more rigorous enforcement of forced labor laws, Companies are trying to determine whether their existing teams have the skills and/or agility necessary to move their responsible sourcing programs fast enough to the new end state.   ELEVATE offers companies around the world several options ranging from short term staffing to medium to longer terms outsourcing.

A major US retail grocery chain has engaged ELEVATE to design, build and manage their supply chain responsible sourcing program.  The senior program manager will be responsible for operationalizing the plan, putting in place the team, establishing a strong working relationship with the client and managing the client P&L.

Responsibilities

ELEVATE is proposing that Retailer outsource its RS program management to ELEVATE.  In the process, ELEVATE will build Retailer’s capacity to improve visibility over its supply chain, identify the areas of risk more regularly that require additional follow-up, work on meaningful and actionable reporting for the RS team, but also with an eye towards providing sourcing better information, provide flexibility in the team’s ability to respond to varying issues, while helping Retailer shift from a more reactive to a more proactive stance.  ELEVATE will work with Retailer to develop a clear understanding of the cost of ownership, both current, desired and what the organization finds acceptable.  This will involve rigorous prioritization of all aspects of RS and not just the audit program.

Initially, ELEVATE will identify and hire two full-time staff to Retailer to work with ELEVATE’s Advisory team to support in the analysis and operationalization of recommendations and work on resetting the audit program and making sure that there is a clear justifiable and directed rationale for what factories are audited and when.  ELEVATE will also put in place the scheduling methodology that shifts the program from audit to scope to audit to risk, while also introducing a series of other mechanisms to gain visibility.

The Retailer/ELEVATE team will join forces with the current full-time Retailer staff to help navigate the various departments at Retailer to help address data requirements, communicate with internal departments, particularly the sourcing team and individual supplier and commodity owners.  It is important to note that ELEVATE is proposing that it manage the program, including day-to-day monitoring program issues and implementation. Retailer would provide a directional framework for the program. ELEVATE would agree 90 day agendas with Retailer management and ELEVATE will manage the execution within parameters of a pre-agreed service level agreement (“SLA”).  It will be important that the Retailer team members and Program Leads are all completely aligned and towards that end, there would be weekly status meetings with the program management team.

Program LeadAt a high level, the Outsource Program Senior Manager will be the client central point of contact at ELEVATE.  This Lead will focus on the Responsible Sourcing as a whole, all elements and tools that may be introduced to drive program effectiveness and proactiveness.  Responsibilities will include taking the segmentation and responsible sourcing strategy work and operationalizing, recognizing that the ultimate solution is unlikely to be just a one size fits all audit program.   The Program manager would be responsible for defining the reporting packages, key performance indicators, both related to Retailer program effectiveness and ELEVATE operational performance.

The program manager will be responsible for:

• Successfully standing up the new outsource program
• Achieving a high degree of alignment with the customer and achieve exceptional levels of customer satisfaction to meet annual revenue growth and EBIT budget targets
• Work with the Advisory team to operationalize the program roadmap
• Establish the tactical plan and create the right level of focus for the program team to be successful
• Partner with the with the HR team to identify the right candidate analysts for our client to support their particular requirements.
• Developing a highly skilled analyst team that are interested in job diversity, are customer centric in outlook, fully understand and support the goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degrees or above in any disciplines
• Minimum 8 years' relevant working experience, preferably in Sustainability/ Compliance Team in brands, agent/ trading office or manufacturing Industry
• Strong understanding the retailer sourcing function and ways of working
• In-depth knowledge in supply chain ecosystem, social auditing to codes of conduct and industry schemes, manufacturing experience and practices
• Solid experience in Supplier training, Capacity Building/ Remediation program to drive Supplier improvement
• Strong data analytics and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication
• Able to work under pressure, results oriented, self-motivated, responsive, and detail-minded
• Ability to work independently

Equal Opportunity Employer

ELEVATE is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by local law. Personal data provided by applicants will be treated as confidential information and will be used exclusively for employment purposes only.  Only short-listed candidates will be notified.  Applicants who are not invited for an interview may consider their applications filed for future reference.

To learn more about career opportunities at ELEVATE, please visit our Careers Page here: https://www.elevatelimited.com/careers/

Updated: Dec 2022