EVP – Sustainability and Transition — Industrial-Equipment Business

The mandate

An industrial-equipment business is redesigning global sourcing for steel fabrications, castings, electronics and high-energy components. Cost and resilience cases are advanced, but product-carbon claims and responsible-sourcing evidence do not yet follow the same bill of materials. Customers increasingly request comparable lifecycle data, while supplier declarations vary in boundary and verification. The EVP – Sustainability and Transition will make the sourcing decision, product claim and transition plan use one traceable evidence chain.

The role covers approximately 1,175 employees and material partners through sustainability strategy, product footprinting, responsible sourcing, transition planning, reporting and customer assurance. Procurement owns supplier commercials, engineering owns specification and operations owns manufacturing. The EVP defines evidence standards, tests trade-offs and ensures that commitments are achievable within those functions’ plans.

Carbon estimates must become decision-grade. Spend averages may indicate hotspots but cannot substantiate a product claim or distinguish two supplier routes with different energy and yield. The leader will set a hierarchy of primary, modelled and proxy data, document boundaries and uncertainty and focus verification where decisions are material. Apparent precision without a defensible method will be rejected.

Supplier transition also involves environmental, labour and human-rights risk beyond carbon. Audit certificates are not a substitute for understanding sub-tier origin, grievance routes, hazardous processes or corrective-action quality. The team will use risk-based diligence, worker and community evidence where appropriate and escalation paths that include improvement, suspension and exit. Abrupt exit may itself harm workers or supply resilience and requires a responsible plan.

Product design offers leverage. Recycled or lower-carbon material is useful only if performance, repairability, service life and recyclability remain credible. The EVP will bring sustainability requirements into engineering changes and qualification gates. A lighter component that fails sooner can increase lifecycle impact even if its manufacturing footprint falls.

Chain-of-custody models need equal scrutiny. Book-and-claim certificates, segregated recycled feedstock and supplier-specific renewable contracts convey different information and cannot be treated as interchangeable. The EVP will define when allocation is permissible, prevent duplicate environmental claims and reconcile certified quantities to procurement and product records before any customer attribution.

Customer communication needs controls. Sales teams should have approved claims, assumptions and version dates and a route for questions outside verified scope. Sustainability-linked tender commitments must enter contract review. The business will correct errors transparently rather than defend an obsolete dataset.

The incumbent plans to leave after completing the annual reporting cycle and will support an orderly replacement. The board wants the successor to preserve mature disclosure while shifting emphasis from reporting activity to sourcing and product decisions. The onsite Manchester role carries regular supplier and site travel.

What you will own

• Establish traceable product and sourcing evidence from bill of materials to approved claim.
• Set carbon-data hierarchy, boundaries, uncertainty, controls and verification priorities.
• Integrate responsible-sourcing diligence into supplier selection and transition.
• Shape engineering and material choices using lifecycle performance and circularity.
• Govern customer, tender and public sustainability statements.
• Build funded transition plans with procurement, operations, technology and finance.
• Escalate material gaps and correct published or customer-provided information.
• Develop sustainability and supplier-assurance capability across the business.

The first 12 months

During the first 75 days, map the top material and supplier hotspots, compare current calculation methods and identify sourcing decisions being made with weak evidence. Review priority claims and customer commitments for boundary or verification risk. Agree with the incumbent which reporting knowledge and external relationships require transfer.

By month six, implement one evidence standard for priority products, complete enhanced diligence on high-risk sourcing moves and place sustainability requirements into supplier and engineering gates. Publish approved claim guidance for commercial teams and secure finance agreement on transition costs and benefits.

At twelve months, cover at least 80% of purchased-material emissions with supplier-specific or technically validated data, reduce footprint on selected product families by 12% against a controlled baseline and close 90% of high-risk supplier actions on time. No material customer claim should require withdrawal, and every approved sourcing transition must show resilience, cost and responsible-impact consequences.

What the sponsor will measure

• Product claims traceable to current technical and supplier evidence.
• Sourcing decisions considering carbon, people, resilience and cost together.
• Uncertainty disclosed instead of hidden behind precise-looking numbers.
• Engineering choices improving full lifecycle performance.
• Commercial teams making claims within verified boundaries.
• Transition plans funded and owned outside the sustainability function.

The person

You bring 18–22 years in sustainability, responsible sourcing, engineering, procurement or industrial transformation. You have implemented product-carbon or lifecycle methods inside manufacturing and changed real supplier or design decisions. Reporting-only experience without operating influence will not meet the requirement.

Your prior scope should include more than £750 million of supply spend or a comparably complex equipment portfolio. Evidence must include a supplier claim you challenged, a responsible exit or improvement plan and a product decision changed by lifecycle analysis. You can work with technical standards, assurance providers, customers and boards without overstating certainty.

Compensation and terms

The base range is £210,000–280,000 plus annual incentive linked to verified transition, product impact, supplier improvement, claim integrity and capability. This permanent onsite Manchester appointment reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor. A notice period up to six months can be considered within the incumbent’s planned transition.

Confidentiality

The business, suppliers, material routes, product footprints and customer claims remain confidential. Detailed data follows qualification, conflicts review and signed confidentiality. Candidates must not contact suppliers, assurance providers or customers to identify the company or test assumptions.