Policy Development and Planning Manager
£37,600 to £40,000 plus great benefits (Work Level 6A)
Manchester City Centre, in this role you'll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and the office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).
Fixed-term contract / secondment until October 2025
We're looking for a Policy Development and Planning Manager to join us and help us to continuously develop our ethics and sustainability policies. In this role, we'll look to you to keep up to date on the external landscape on all ethics and sustainability issues, legislative changes, and new research. You'll engage with experts on different fields, from Fairtrade through to palm-oil, climate, or plastic reduction; you'll connect them to our Co-op and bring them together to inform our strategy.
What you'll do
* Keep up to date and develop a multidisciplinary view on all policy activity within the industry, civil society, NGOs, and government, and translate it into opportunities for Co-op
* Produce in-depth research and reports on upcoming market trends, policy, and legislation
* Build and maintain meaningful relationships with a wide range of internal and external partners to identify trends, spot emerging issues, inform policy development, and protect the Co-op's reputation
* Work closely with key partners across the business to maintain comprehensive up to date policy position statements that accurately capture the Co-op's current and historical position on any given issue
* Support in the development of the annual rolling plan that maps Co-op's ethics, sustainability and policy deliverables and our annual reporting; you'll co-ordinate monitoring and reporting and engage all relevant partners
* Support in the facilitation and management of relevant governance forumsand lead on horizon scanning opportunities
* Support and deliver projects and campaigns as appropriate
* Represent the policy team at industry bodies, conferences, and events
This role would suit people who have
* A strong understanding and passion for food, ethics, and sustainability policy issues
* A background working in the food industry or in the NGO sector of food policy/corporate social responsibility
* Some project management experience, with an understanding of project delivery principles
* Excellent analytical skills and keen attention to detail, with the ability to see the big picture
* Great communication skills, with a talent for building meaningful relationships with a wide range of partners, both internally and externally, at all levels
* The ability to manage their own workload and work to deadlines
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
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 jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-wellbeing
Please note that we may close applications for this role early.
As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes.