Whats the role about? 

Our Founder, John Spedan Lewis, established the John Lewis Partnership to be a better way of doing business. Through our Partnership approach, we recognise the value of people over profits, and are committed to driving positive social change through investment in our Partners and our communities. We have ambition to scale up our work in human rights  to ensure human rights are respected across our supply chains and we lead the market in our approach. 

In this role you will be responsible for supporting the delivery of the strategy for Sustainability & Ethics (S&E), in line with the wider business strategy which will influence Customers, Partners, suppliers and the constitution. You will support delivery of the Partnership’s S&E strategy through our leading programme, the Waitrose Foundation.

The Waitrose Foundation was created in 2005 to help improve lives and create better opportunities for the people and communities who grow, pick and pack our fresh produce. We rely on farms all over the world to bring our customers fresh, tasty, nutritious food year-round and we want to improve the lives of those living in rural communities, whose hard work helps fill our shelves. That’s why we launched the Foundation. 

The Foundation has so far invested more than £14 million into community projects and every time a customer buys a product with the Waitrose & Partners Foundation logo, a portion of the sale is invested back into the country of origin.

Through this role you will be developing policies, horizon scanning, developing guidance for other teams, managing data and supporting the reporting and assurance process for the Waitrose Foundation. You will use your expertise to engage with key stakeholders, enhancing and differentiating the Partnership’s position as a market leader in Corporate Responsibility, and publicly representing the Partnership if required. 

You work with the Sustainability & Ethics team and Partners across the Partnership to deliver the commercial and market advantage that the Waitrose Foundation  provides to the Partnership. You will be customer focused with the aim that customers are more engaged than ever, responding positively to our initiatives and challenging us to go further. 

What will you be doing? 

• Focusing on a specific area of Sustainability & Ethics, using and developing your expertise to support the development and execution of work plans in that area.  You will also have the opportunity to support in different areas of the team as desired and required. 

• Be responsible for supporting members of the S&E team in responding to strategic priorities to unlock our commercial advantage, and take the lead on this in certain areas.

• Provide research for internal and external horizon scanning, strategy formulation and policy development. Be responsible for completing robust data collection and ensuring reporting mechanisms are in place.

• Work with the Manager, Ethical trade, to delivery the day to day running of the Waitrose Foundation, including sitting on Foundation Steering Groups and supporting the Global Board effectiveness

• Engage with supplier partners to ensure maximum shared value and ownership of the Foundation

• Manage the third party delivery partners for the Foundation to ensure effective programme implementation

• Ensure governance, due diligence and financial processes are in place to support the effective running of the Waitrose Foundation

• Promote best practice sharing through the Centre of Excellence; ensure Global Fund used to tackle systemic issues

• Deliver reporting and assurance against Waitrose Foundation targets

What you’ll have:

• Degree level qualification or significant relevant experience in relevant area of expertise

• Good IT and data management skills

• Good written and verbal communicator 

• Excellent organisational skills 

• Strong interest in and passion for sustainability

• Strong attention to detail 

• Experience in leading the delivery of successful strategic projects

• Relevant industry experience in one or more relevant areas of Sustainability & Ethics (Social Impact, Health, Circular Economy, Climate, Environment, Ethical Trade, Raw Materials Sourcing, or Agriculture/Aquaculture  & Fisheries) 

What else can you bring?

• Sustainability-related qualification 

• Knowledge of application of Sustainability & Ethics in a retail context

Please note:

- As a business we encourage flexible working. We have a number of different ways to work flexibly, so at your interview feel free to talk about what flexibility means to you. There are no guarantees, however, examples of how our Partners already work flexibly include part-time, job share, home working and compressed hours.

- The application form consists of a CV upload, an online test followed by application questions. Your application is not complete until all steps are completed.