Sr Director, Global Sustainability

Job Description

Grace is seeking a Global Senior Director of Sustainability to join our Corporate Strategy team! This role reports to the Senior Vice President, Strategy, Planning, and Sustainability located at our Columbia, MD headquarters.

The preferred candidate will lead the Grace’s Sustainability Leadership team, ensuring the strategy and approach has maximum impact and creates long term business value for Grace and our customers by working across business units and functions for products and operations. The Senior Director will provide thought leadership and direction to support the corporate strategy, driving focus and efficiencies across the company.

Responsibilities

• Refinement and execution of a corporate-wide strategy and approach, securing alignment with business and functional leadership.
• Monitor the regulatory and policy landscape and market and global trends to provide perspective, interpretation, and implications for the various business units.
• Provide leadership and direction to the company’s strategy on sustainable operations and product development, ESG-related risk management and the reporting landscape, including voluntary and compliance disclosures.
• Actively develop and manage talent to enhance team capabilities
• Interface and counsel business unit leaders on strategies to enhance sustainable product portfolios, including helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals.
• Develop and lead company-wide network of sustainability practitioners to support the fluency skills, align on goals, and share best practices, including with responsible sourcing and product stewardship.
• Report on progress and align towards company goals to the Grace Sustainability Governance Committee as well as the Sustainability Steering Committee at Standard Industries, a privately held industrial company which Grace was acquired by as a standalone company.
• Work closely with the VP of Sustainability at Standard Industries and across the other OpCos to identify synergies and understand other strategies and approaches and adopt best practices.
• Lead Sustainability Capital Steering Team to ensure that Sustainability capital is most effectively used to advance Grace toward its corporate goal of achieving reductions in carbon emissions, water consumption, and waste generation.
• Lead a team of three direct reports for data collection and management in support of all ESG performance reporting, including readiness for the EU CSRD and other upcoming regulations, and monitor progress against sustainability strategies, objectives, and targets.
• Lead data collection and management in support of responding to customer requests involving ESG matters, including scope emissions, supply chain practices, and product-level environmental footprint information.
• Travel within the US and internationally to company sites or other locations to enable collaboration.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of Bachelors degree in Engineering or Environmental Science or a related discipline and 15+ years of relevant experience.
• Prior experience leading Corporate Sustainability including strategy and program implementation.
• Proven track record of influencing without authority and possessing a clear vision for sustainability’s role within the business.
• Ability to lead and build high-performing teams through a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.  
• Knowledge of sustainability reporting protocols, including Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) for climate and water, Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and Science-Based Targets Initiative.
• Knowledge of GHG emission calculations and verification and environmental and carbon accounting software.
• Knowledge of data management and data analytics processes.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills; ability to effectively present complex topics in a concise manner.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to interface and communicate with cross-functional teams at all levels, and with external stakeholders such as regulators, customers, and the public.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in ESG/sustainability related field.
• Chemical industry experience managing sustainability, engineering, or productivity programs (e.g., energy efficiency; reductions of air emissions, water consumption or waste generation).
• Experience with implementation of management systems to conform with relevant standards (e.g., ISO14000-series; Responsible Care Management System; etc.).
• Knowledge of ESG reporting protocols used by various stakeholders (e.g., EcoVadis, S&P Global ESG; ISS; Just Capital: Sustainalytics; etc.)
• Relevant professional certification (P.E., etc.)
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SAP, and SharePoint, or equivalent.

Benefits