Nature Manager

Manchester City Centre, in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between
home, the office and visiting suppliers (find out more about our hybrid working policy at
colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy). 

We’re looking for a passionate Nature Manager to join Co-op’s Ethics, Sustainability and Policy
team. This exciting role is for you to set out and lead our Co-op Nature plan, strategy and
policy development. We’ll look to you to drive your own projects, lead relationships with
external partners and deliver environmental and social benefits. You’ll work and implement the
strategy across the full wider team, making sure that our Co-op is making a positive impact for
our suppliers, producers, and communities. 

What you’ll do

• Lead key strategies and policy development and be the lead for multiple external industry
  working groups, nature commitments and targets
• Be the subject matter expert on nature and biodiversity frameworks including TNFD and SBTN
• Support our Sustainable Sourcing and Sustainability agenda, identifying challenges and
  developing mitigation strategies
• Lead relationships with key external partners on project delivery to meet nature positive
  goals
• Provide internal cross functional support to create and support current agendas and new
  opportunities to evolve the sustainability strategy
• Maintain knowledge of emerging issues and challenges related to nature and biodiversity
  issues in relation to ingredient sourcing
• Make sure we are compliant with appropriate standards, policies, and regulations
• Represent the Ethics, Sustainability and Policy team at relevant industry events, industry
  working groups and conferences
• Lead development of collation of annual sustainability data collation, monitoring of
  targets and commitments
• Co-ordinate visits to producers, communities, suppliers, and programmes, including overseas

This role would suit people who have

• Passion and working knowledge of food ethics, sustainability, and food supply chains,
  including working with suppliers and dynamics within the food system
• Strong commercial acumen and able to take a pragmatic approach
• Experience of navigating emerging frameworks, complex policy, scientific issues and
  standards and translating them into a business context 
• Excellent relationship building skills, with the ability to work with a variety of internal
  teams and external suppliers and partners 
• Good experience in developing strategy, policy, working with supply chain and
  sustainability data
• Great organisational skills and experience of owning and managing time bound projects and
  working in cross functional team on collaborative projects, requiring disciplined governance
  and quality documentation, to budget

Why Co-op? 

If you have the skills that we need, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits
package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other
discounts on Co-op products and services).

• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays 
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• Coaching and training to support your career development
• Wagestream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest
co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our
Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business
helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities. 

Building a diverse environment

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a
disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your
needs. We’re also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we’ll always offer an
interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria
for a job.

We’ll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you
apply.

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if
you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

Please note that we may close applications for this role early. 

As part of your application, you’ll need to complete an online assessment. This
assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes.