Nationwide Building Society was built upon a social purpose and 135 years on, we remain committed to helping build society Nationwide. We believe we have a responsibility to maximise economic, social and environmental value, and our responsible business agenda is a key part of Nationwide’s strategic plan. To be successful it’s vital that we are clear with all our suppliers what we expect of them today, tomorrow and into the future to help us achieve our ambitions and targets.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Responsible Business Team within Business Services. The Responsible Business Consultant role will be part of a team that’s focussed on delivering our Nationwide Procurement for Mutual Good programme to build a greener, more inclusive, and more ethical supply chain. You will support in operating and improving processes to ensure suppliers meet Nationwide’s responsible business standards and championing responsible purchasing practices across the Society.

This is a great opportunity for the right candidate to bring their knowledge of sustainability and their drive to execute to Nationwide, helping us explore, assess, and implement innovative ideas to ensure our supply chain is aligned to Nationwide’s responsible business ambitions and to report on our progress.

What you’ll be doing

On a day-to-day basis you’ll be accountable for:

• Implementing and embedding our Procurement for Mutual Good programme
• Communicating the programme to Procurement, across the Society and to suppliers
• Driving our EcoVadis programme - our tool for rating supplier sustainability performance
• Running and enhancing our responsible business due diligence at supplier onboarding and providing ongoing monitoring
• Training colleagues in Procurement with supplier relationship management responsibilities on key responsible business topics through in-person and virtual sessions
• Supporting the Procurement team with incorporating relevant sustainability questions in tenders and scoring responses
• Creating and updating content on Procurement for Mutual Good, including but not limited to Grow, webpages, Annual Report & Accounts, ESG rating responses, etc.
• Liaising with Procurement and relationship owners across the business on specific supplier and contract sustainability requirements
• Undertaking research, analysis and collating into engaging reporting
• Planning and coordinating key projects
• Collating and sharing best practice examples from across the supply chain
• Representing the business within forums, events, and networks
• Actively seeking internal and external recognition and award for Procurement for Mutual Good

About you

• Knowledge of supply chain sustainability best practice
• Enthusiastic and passionate about sustainability in procurement
• Strong planner and organiser with the ability to manage multiple competing priorities and deliverables, including managing others to complete their activities within assigned projects
• Diligent in following processes whilst identifying opportunities to improve them
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to build effective partnerships with internal and external stakeholders
• Collaborative and a team player
• Strong written communication skills
• Good presentational skills
• Solid analytical skills to support the analysis and interpretation of sustainability data
• Proficient in MS Excel and Word
• Creative thinker
• Drive to make a positive impact and see results

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
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
• 25 days holiday