Job Description

The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities. To achieve our mission, we partner with diverse allies around the world to drive positive change across global supply chains and in many of our most critically important natural landscapes.

Our alliance spans 70 countries and includes farmers and forest communities, companies, governments, civil society, and millions of individuals. Together we work to protect forests and biodiversity, take action on climate, and promote the rights and improve the livelihoods of rural people.

As an international nonprofit organization with more than 30 years of experience in sustainability transformation, we understand that the social and economic well-being of rural communities is tightly connected to ecosystem health. This knowledge has shaped our rigorous programs to advance sustainable land-use and commodity production.

At the Rainforest Alliance we combat climate change, protect forests and biodiversity, promote human rights, and improve livelihoods. The enormity of the social and environmental challenges we are facing requires working together in a broad alliance. This is why we bring farmers, forest communities, companies, and consumers together to change the way the world produces, sources, and consumes.

Why

To protect nature and improve lives it’s becoming increasingly urgent that we approach the way we use our land and produce food and other products in more sustainable ways. For this to succeed we need to fundamentally change the way that businesses operate and source, and the choices we all make as consumers.

How

Our growing global alliance aims to transform our relationship with our natural resources and each other, to create a better future for people and nature together.

The Rainforest Alliance encourages diversity and inclusion across the global organization. With this commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ages, disability and any other protected group.

Markets transformation department

Markets Transformation is the strategic process of intervening in a market to create lasting change in market behavior by removing barriers and/or utilizing opportunities to accelerate the adoption of all sustainable sourcing practices and landscape investment.

The department is comprised of four pillars: Certification-Led Sectors, responsible for maintaining strong relationships with corporate partners and deepening our impact in priority sectors (Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, and Growth sectors of fruits & perishables); Key Markets, responsible for driving the Rainforest Alliance’s share of sustainability market in key geographies; Sector Partnerships, responsible for scaling corporate investments in critical landscapes in palm and forests as well as facilitating improved corporate accountability and impact via uptake of the Accountability Framework; and, Market Innovations, responsible for developing off-the-shelf solutions for key sustainability themes and developing scalable solutions to accelerate impact in our key markets and sectors.

Position summary:

We are looking for a strategic, collaborative and results-oriented Senior Director of Markets Transformation to lead Rainforest Alliance’s corporate engagement agenda to mainstream sustainable business and innovation strategies across food, agriculture and forestry sectors. They will establish a unified strategy to drive transformational corporate commitments and action across supply chains, sustainability goals, regulatory requirements, and consumer engagement strategies. They will be responsible for developing and managing our business engagement across sectors and markets as well as driving shared responsibility along the value chain for more effective and coordinated action towards climate, biodiversity and livelihood impacts. The Senior Director will lead a global team to catalyze and inspire our corporate partners to implement and bring to scale sustainability solutions, knowledge, data and tools to align company commitments with international frameworks, best practices and improved performance.

Responsibilities:

• The Rainforest Alliance’s Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate
• Develop annual workplans and budgets for the Markets Transformation team, ensuring alignment to organizational Enterprise Priorities and Strategic Plan;
• Actively participate in leadership meetings, including Strategic Execution Management Team (SEMT), both in representation of the Markets Transformation department and as a senior leader in the organization to collaboratively address cross-organizational improvements and challenges;
• Drive greater commitment to sustainability by key market actors & segments, drive and leverage demand for specific RA sustainability offerings and services and drive sector strategy cross-functionally to transform our sectors of operation;
• Provide a streamlined vision and efficient approaches to client management, sector strategy, and fee-for-service supply chain solutions to innovate and strengthen our certification program, implement technical services and promote tools such as the Accountability Framework, LandScale and others to help align company sourcing commitments and policies with our mission impacts;
• Ensure the team leverages the Rainforest Alliance’s collective industry access to broaden and diversify corporate partnerships across our suite of offerings;
• Manage engagement with key sector platforms, industry associations and other stakeholders to position Rainforest Alliance as a sustainability partner of choice;
• Establishing the Rainforest Alliance as a key partner and thought-leader through presenting at key industry conferences and senior-level meetings; and
• Manage a large, global team of colleagues around the world to drive sector strategy, excellence in execution and high levels of cross-functional and global teamwork;
• Identify, cultivate and recruit new colleagues embedding Diversity & Inclusion throughout the recruitment experience to improve inclusion, growth, and trust, fostering authenticity and steward existing members whilst structuring the organization with accountability for D&I initiatives; and,
• Carry out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include hiring; mentoring and evaluating; guiding professional development opportunities; and addressing employee relations issues.

Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in Agriculture, Food Sciences, Marketing, Business Administration or related field;
• Minimum 12 years progressive experience in corporate sustainability, business development, sustainable business and innovation consultancy, key account management, program management or related;
• Minimum 5 years of experience managing and leading a global team;
• Experience demonstrating independent decision-making and high levels of responsibility in business development, sales, marketing, sustainable procurement or supply chain management;
• Working knowledge of international commodity supply chains, including tea, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, fruits and forest products;
• Experience setting organizational, departmental and programmatic strategy, including in a cross-functional setting;
• Experience facilitating industry collaboration, cross-sector coalition building, and systems change methodologies at global, national and local levels.
• Proven change management experience;
• Experience in climate, biodiversity and sustainable development strategy;
• Demonstrated success in working with public and private sector companies to drive and leverage demand for sustainable sourcing and procurement;
• Experience in designing and implementing sustainability measures for or within an agriculture/forestry sector and a good understanding of trends in CSR/ Sustainability;
• Experience in negotiating financial and commercial terms with clients;
• Experience managing large, dispersed global teams and mentoring individual staff to drive growth and achievement; and,
• Experience managing large budgets and driving budgetary efficiency; and,
• Demonstrated experience of presenting at industry conferences and high-level meetings.

Competencies

• Enterprise and servant leadership with proven record of collaboration and team work;
• Integrity without reproach;
• Strategic acumen and thought leadership in sustainable business and innovation;
• Able to influence key internal stakeholders without authority and leverage work of Markets Transformation in achieving mission impact;
• Influencing corporate leaders on merits of the Rainforest Alliance programming, problem solving with critical challenges from companies/stakeholders;
• An astute public speaker able to represent the organization at high levels;
• A commitment to high levels of customer service and engagement;
• Demonstrated strategic and innovative thinker and achievement; and,
• Ability to adapt programming to achieve greater mission impact based on knowledge of key sustainability challenges, issues and trends.

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

• Demonstrates transformational leadership qualities with focus on the organization. Builds commitment towards organizational objectives and embeds culture change to drive overall impact; actively engages colleagues and partners in decision making and looks for interdependencies and ways to partner with other functions and departments; approaches challenge and differences with an open mindset;
• Continuously embraces innovation and continuous learning: determines how and where the department can add unique value; encourages team to explore, adapt and take risks to turn problems into opportunities and challenge assumptions;
• Drives a high-performance culture through communication: encourages discussions about our work and impact, shares decisions and provides big picture to enable employees to make informed and wise decisions and feel connected and engaged in the organizations mission through own work; provides ongoing, timely and focused expectations and feedback to demonstrate appreciation and generates integrated forward action;
• Leads with respect and empathy: enhances employee engagement by building trusted and open relationships through listening and learning, discouraging bias or judgement, acknowledges differences between global and local, cultures and perspectives; and, actively promotes opportunities and learning experiences to stretch and develop team members;
• Leads global, sometimes matrixed, teams with authority, confidence and passion; and,
• Demonstrates excellence in compliance and efficiency when working with budgets, employee relations, talent management, organizational policies and procedures.

Salary:

Commensurate with experience.

Deadline: November 12, 2021

Notes:

Only candidates authorized to work in the Netherlands, USA or the UK will be considered

If you have any questions about the job vacancy, please contact the HR department:

re*********@ra.org

How to Apply

Job Types: Full-Time.

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