Job Description

The Program Manager of Sustainability (Product Life Cycle) is a dynamic and results-driven team member who will lead projects, develop, and implement the necessary project management tools with outstanding people and team centric competencies with a focus on product life cycle impact, low carbon design and packaging, retail recycling and returns driving ultimately a circular economy model while collaborating with external and internal customers. Key activities for this position include delivering initiatives in the product second life process, executing paths towards green design and green packaging, driving sustainability efforts, collaborating with the sales, service and customer teams as well as manufacturing to build processes that design out waste, keeps our products and materials in use and regenerating natural systems to build a circular economy. The role is expected to play a critical role in executing sustainability as a key value proposition for our business.

The Program Manager (Product Life Cycle) will set the direction and pace to operationalize the key tenets of the Prosperity elements of our sustainability strategy, by working closely with sales, service, customers, product lines and the operations team. Being able to look at industry trends and customer expectations and translate them into what it means for WD’s products and the life cycle is a critical success factor for this role.

Passion for a greener planet and demonstrated change management experience will help bring greater value to this role.

To be successful in this role you have to be:

• A passionate and result-oriented leader with demonstrated success in achieving results in a cross-functional matrix environment
• Demonstrate Outstanding external and internal customer service and communication skills
• A trail blazer who can execute a defined roadmap for product life cycle sustainability elements and circular economy
• Organized with excellent attention to detail and the ability to work and deliver in a fast-paced environment.
• Knowledge of WD’s product portfolio and the industry is preferred
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to drive conflict resolution
• A pioneering spirit that delivers Sustainability Initiatives while demonstrating high emotional intelligence, people engagement skills and ability to be a strong team member and project leader.

Qualifications

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams such BU’s, Product teams, Factories, and Sales teams, internal and external customers to achieve green design and product lifecycle objectives
• Project Manage and deliver initiatives to achieve product life cycle, recycling, circular economy and green design.
• Determine patterns around product life cycle carbon and other sustainability parameters and translate them into systems’ requirements and recommend platforms
• Determine mechanisms to embed Sustainability and Green Design elements into the Product Design process, collaborating with the BU teams
• Drive operationalization of product flows that enable re-use and recyclability of packing materials, recovery of components
• Execute business cases for re-use/recycle
• Identify and drive rare earth material conservation initiatives
• Execute roadmap of transitioning from a linear economy to a circular economy
• Identify and develop tools and approaches to enable R&D and product/packaging development teams to help them understand the environmental impact of their ingredients, materials, and packaging choices across the product lifecycle.
• Serve as a “connector” and share best practices across diverse business segments on sustainable product design and development.
• Ideate, define and cross-functionally align sustainability priorities with other corporate functions namely HR, IT, Quality, CSR

Education Requirements:

• B.S./B.A. degree required (in relevant area such as Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, or allied discipline), with at least 8 years of experience in product development, service operations or manufacturing
• MBA or any other relevant degree /certification in electronics/material sciences/ environmental sciences/sustainability