Business Support Manager (Sustainable Procurement Manager)

Nationwide is seeking a Business Support Manager (Sustainable Procurement Manager) to coordinate their Procurement for Mutual Good programme, focusing on ESG matters within the supply chain. Responsibilities include managing ESG due diligence, enhancing processes, and supporting third-party suppliers. The role supports hybrid working, requiring at least two days per week in the London, Swindon, or Northampton office, while also allowing significant home working flexibility.
Description

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Responsible Business team within Procurement and play a key role in delivering our Procurement for Mutual Good programme, for a more inclusive, ethical, and environmentally responsible supply chain.

You’ll be responsible for coordinating our approach to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) matters in the supply chain, with particular focus on climate change, nature, labour rights, and human rights. This includes embedding ESG into supply-related policies, processes and systems so that environmental and social impacts and opportunities are considered when determining what we outsource and how we work with third party suppliers. You will manage and evolve our approach to ESG due diligence, ensure colleagues and third parties have the tools and guidance needed, and provide narrative on our approach for ESG disclosures and ratings.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, based at either our London, Swindon, or Northampton office. Whilst these locations are where we are primarily looking to fill the role, if you’re an internal applicant based in a different location we would welcome your application and if successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this could work for this specific role. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

On a day-to-day basis, you will be responsible for:
• Coordinating the Procurement for Mutual Good programme, ensuring projects are delivered at pace to evolve our approach.
• Managing and enhancing our ESG due diligence processes, liaising with colleagues and third-party suppliers to agree schedules and action plans to address any gaps in performance identified.
• Direction and management of our EcoVadis programme, including identification of changes and trends in performance and ensuring third parties maintain valid scorecards.
• Introducing and operating supply / category specific expectations to manage climate, nature, labour rights and human rights risks.
• Helping to drive progress towards our transition plan and net zero ambitions in the supply chain.
• Supporting sourcing and supplier relationship management colleagues with integrating responsible business into specifications, tenders, contracts, and ways of working through clear framework, templates, training and guidance, and access to data.
• Managing and enhancing our approach to supporting third-party suppliers to meet our ESG expectations, including producing collateral, organising events, and identifying opportunities to recognise and share leadership.
• Regularly reviewing progress against our goals for the year, escalating concerns, and defining and taking action to try and bring us back on track as appropriate.
• Drafting quality content for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures and ratings, including but not limited to TCFD, Modern Slavery Act, CDP, and UNGC.
• Creating and co-ordinating materials for a number of internal and external meetings and events, including Third Party Risk Forum and Climate Change Risk Committee.

About you
• Experienced in sustainable procurement and supply chain.
• Knowledgeable on corporate ESG / sustainability practices and regulations.
• Strong interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills, to gain support and drive action by colleagues and third-party suppliers.
• Proficient in MS Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Confident communicator, both written and verbal, with the ability to make complex topics simple for a wide audience.
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities.

Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together. You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.
• Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room. It’s also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
• Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
• Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.

We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you’re sending an application into a black hole. We review each application individually. So, it’s a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:
• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
• Life assurance worth 8x your salary
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Wellhub – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness.
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
• 25 days holiday, pro rata

What makes us different

Nationwide is the world’s largest building society. With over 15 million customers, we have a relationship with almost a quarter of the UK’s population. We’ve got the scale to compete with the big banks, but we’re not a bank.

As a building society, we’re owned by our members – that’s our customers who have their current account, mortgage or savings with us. It means we can do things differently to deliver our Purpose – Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society.

When you work at Nationwide, you can experience that difference for yourself. You’ll be part of a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation that offers rewarding career experiences and a highly competitive range of benefits to match. You’ll also be joining us at an important time as we seek to reach more and more people in the UK. We want everyone in the UK to know that they don’t have to bank with a bank. They can choose a modern mutual instead.

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

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