Human Rights & Ethical Trade Manager

Human Rights and Ethical Trading Manager
£40,000 to £53,000 plus benefits (Work Level 6A)
Manchester city centre, hybrid working with some travel to visit both national and international suppliers (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).

We’re looking for a passionate Human Rights and Ethical Trade Manager to join us at Co-op and help us with the delivery of our Human Rights strategy and policies. As the UK’s largest convenience retailer and fair-trade pioneer, we're committed to providing high-quality at great prices to our millions of customers and members, while making sure we source and produce our products in an ethical and sustainable way.

In this role, you’ll work with suppliers in your category areas to make sure people and businesses in our global supply chain are treated fairly. We’ll look to you to provide them with practical guidance and support on driving sustainable improvements to working conditions. It’ll also be up to you to promote an ethical mind-set across our Co-op, while maintaining a strong commercial focus. If you can bring the experience and passion for food that we're after, we can offer you a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference with a business that puts people at the heart of its strategy.

What you’ll do

• Work across defined product categories to identify and mitigate Human Rights risks, working with a wide range of partners to manage sensitive issues
• Build and develop positive relationships with key suppliers and category teams, and arrange cross-functional strategic reviews to assess supplier performance
• Provide practical guidance and training for suppliers and colleagues on driving sustainable improvements to working conditions throughout our global supply chains
• Support our senior Human Rights and ethical trading manager in the development of a long-term Human Rights strategy
• Lead on the delivery of defined projects and supply chain programmes to drive improvement within our supply base
• Keep up to date with emerging issues, industry activity and competitor analysis, sharing insights on issues and trends, and protecting the business' reputation
• Manage and build interactions with key Human Rights and Ethical Trade partners, effectively representing Co-op’s position to industry bodies and on collaborative projects to address systemic Human Rights issues

This role would suit people who have

• Significant experience in an Ethical Trade, Human Rights, or responsible sourcing role
• A strong understanding of Ethical Trade standards, monitoring systems and Human Rights issues
• A commercial approach, with experience of working with category teams and suppliers to improve working conditions globally
• A problem-solving approach to tasks with the ability to analyse data and translate it into actionable and meaningful insight
• Great communication and presentation skills, with the ability to inspire others with your passion for ethics and Human Rights
• A talent for building meaningful relationships with a wide range of partners, and experience working with external stakeholders on collaborative initiatives

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
• YuLife app – rewarding you for exercising with discounts and vouchers for your favourite brands

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.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process.

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at colleagues.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-and-wellbeing