Water & Waste Stewardship Manager

City: Slough

About the role

Our Sustainability team sits within the Supply function, working cross-functionally across our global operations. We turn ambition into action; shaping how our brands, products and operations work to protect, heal and nurture the world we all share. From tackling climate change and reducing our environmental footprint, to driving circular design, responsible sourcing and social impact, our work helps ensure that cleaner, healthier living is accessible for everyone. This newly created role will own the operational water and waste agenda, providing strategic direction and oversight to drive stewardship programmes across our manufacturing sites. Partnering with Regional and Site Directors, EHS and relevant site teams, you will identify opportunities, advise on challenges and co-create high-impact strategies that are owned and delivered through the operations team. Your focus will be on driving best-practice initiatives that step-change our operational water and waste stewardship performance in priority locations.

Location & travel: This position is based in the UK (Slough) and requires up to 40% travel.

Your responsibilities:

• Lead the assessment of water and waste related risks and opportunities in the Supply chain and direct operations, including identifying and monitoring sites in water stressed regions.
• Oversee the water and waste stewardship initiatives contributing towards our Water Positive and waste efficiency ambitions, leading the design, development and integration into operational plans and activity.
• Partner with internal teams e.g. Corporate Affairs, RPS, EHS, Engineering and Quality to develop and advance water and waste stewardship programmes in priority locations.
• Translate complex data and technical details into actionable recommendations for water and waste efficiency and reduction, developing clear and transparent communications to inform decisions/investment.
• Advocate for sustainable innovation, recommending new technologies, tools, and methodologies that can improve water and waste performance.
• Support senior leaders to drive accountability on priority water and waste stewardship programmes and targets.
• Develop and deliver water and waste stewardship playbook and training.
• Collaborate with the EHS and RPS compliance team to ensure consistent standards and knowledge sharing.
• Continuously monitor industry trends and regulatory changes, ensuring Reckitt remains ahead of approaches to water and waste stewardship and industry best practices.
• Liaise with external stakeholders, including regulators, industry bodies, clients, and partners, to strengthen the company’s water and waste stewardship efforts and foster meaningful collaborations.
• Partner with Sustainability Reporting team to improve data management, performance tracking, controls and reporting to improve visibility, accuracy and support water and waste related disclosures and benchmarks, e.g. CDP.

The experience we're looking for:

• Solid understanding and experience of working in supply function.
• A minimum of 8 years of experience in environmental engineering or sustainability leadership, ideally within a global manufacturing, FMCG or industrial setting.
• Proven ability to develop and execute strategies that deliver measurable business and environmental outcomes across multiple geographies.
• Experience of working with NGO partners.
• A track record of successful project management, delivering complex sustainability programmes on time and within budget.

The skills for success:

• Deep technical knowledge of water and waste stewardship, management and treatment strategies, best practices and regulatory frameworks.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
• A degree in Engineering, Environmental Science, Sustainability, or a related field is highly desirable. A postgraduate qualification or professional certifications in environmental engineering or sustainability management is beneficial.
• A strategic thinker with the ability to balance long-term sustainability goals with short-term business priorities.
• Solid operational understanding.
• Results-driven, collaborative and with a ‘can-do’ attitude.
• Open-minded and creative in finding innovative, effective solutions to complex sustainability/operational challenges.
• Be a self-starter, motivated, proactive, and self-sufficient and comfortable working independently and remotely.
• Able to build effective working relationships that deliver results in a wide range of environments and cultures.
• Have excellent communications skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to adapt communications to various audiences and translate complex technical details into digestible comms.
• Able to put theory into practice by developing clear and pragmatic strategies that can be integrated into business processes.
• Strong analytical and change management skills, comfortable working with big data and complex systems.

What we offer:

With inclusion at the heart of everything we do, working alongside our four global Employee Resource Groups, we support our people at every step of their career journey, helping them to succeed in their own individual way. We invest in the wellbeing of our people through parental benefits, an Employee Assistance Program to promote mental health, and life insurance for all employees globally. We have a range of other benefits in line with the local market. Through our global share plans we offer the opportunity to save and share in Reckitt's potential future successes. For eligible roles, we also offer short-term incentives to recognise, appreciate and reward your work for delivering outstanding results. You will be rewarded in line with Reckitt's pay for performance philosophy.

Equality:

We recognise that in real life, great people don't always 'tick all the boxes'. That's why we hire for potential as well as experience. Even if you don't meet every point on the job description, if this role and our company feels like a good fit for you, we still want to hear from you. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, disability or medical condition; colour, ethnicity, race, citizenship, and national origin; religion, faith; pregnancy, family status and caring responsibilities; sexual orientation; sex, gender identity, gender expression, and transgender identity; protected veteran status; size or any other basis protected by appropriate law.