Sr Director, Mission & Sustainability: Health, Communities, Planning, and Strategy

Danone is a purpose-driven organization. Our mission is to bring health through food to as many people as possible.

Why do we exist? The Mission and Sustainability (M&S) team develops and enables the implementation of all of Danone North America’s impact efforts. We connect several integrated impact efforts across our Danone Impact Journey (DIJ): Nature, Health, and Communities.

The M&S team provides strategic oversight, direction, and governance across these topics and ensures a deep collaboration with our Global Danone counterparts. We partner with multiple cross-functional internal stakeholders (e.g., procurement, sales, categories, research and innovation, etc.) and external stakeholders. Our key roles include: developing strategic plans and business cases on ROI/tradeoffs, developing roadmaps, tracking implementation, and providing advisory on best practices.

What will you do?

The Senior Director will be a senior change agent on the M&S leadership team, leading several strategic initiatives through daily cross-functional collaboration with C-suite / senior management teams. This Senior Director holds two distinct roles across both topical and functional expertise:

• [Topical] Lead on Health and Communities strategy within the DIJ for the enterprise
  • Health: Serve as senior advisor to steward quantitative modeling and qualitative problem solving and insights for Health levers, goals, programs, and KPIs. Collaborate with multiple cross-functional senior stakeholders (e.g., Public Affairs, Scientific Affairs, Research and Innovation, Brand teams, Analytics and Insights, etc.) to identify and co-create solutions and influence P&L and implementation roadmap
  • Communities: Drive strategic partnerships with external community partners and nonprofits; set the strategy with Danone’s C-suite on key choices tied to Danone’s B Corporation status and ensure recertification every 3 years
• [Functional] Drive cross-cutting leadership and influence across enterprise-wide DIJ integration in “Planning and Strategy”:
  • Ensuring DIJ actions are integrated into the Danone Business Planning System (DBPS), with key counterparts being senior leaders in the BUs/Categories and Sales/Commercial. These forums span 3-year strategic planning, annual planning, and innovation. This Senior Director will serve as the key advisor to each Category’s Planning and Innovation teams to drive alignment to and delivery of the DIJ within each team’s strategic objectives
  • Partnering with marketing teams to showcase DIJ “shines” within brand impact activations and messaging to consumers, ultimately tied to a brand’s purpose
  • Developing sales enablement strategies to drive commercial value of the DIJ at all levels and owning key sustainability-based relationships with senior retailers for partnership and planning
  • Driving a holistic strategic partnerships strategy across the enterprise with nonprofits and other external partners (e.g., retailers), developing and owning the long-term engagement strategy with each of these stakeholder groups to drive commercial and societal value
  • Building a clear KPI reporting and impact measurement process for all DIJ reporting needs (e.g., with B Corp, retail customers, etc.), driving a complete transformation of impact measurement systems, in close collaboration with our IT, Finance, and Danone Global Stakeholders. In addition, this Director will identify key measurement processes and KPIs that are valuable to customers (retailers), funders, and other partners that rely on rigorous data to drive decision-making

The concentration of effort across these components will ebb and flow depending on overall business needs. This Senior Director will lead a team of two managers/associate managers.

The position is HYBRID in either White Plains, NY OR Broomfield, CO.

The base compensation range for this position is $180,000-$240,000 commensurate with experience. Danone North America additionally offers a performance-based bonus and has a strong benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, Prescription Drug Coverage, 401k Plan, Wellness Program, Life Insurance, Tuition Reimbursement, Flexible Time Off, and Paid Parental Bonding Leave, among other benefit plan options.  

We are looking for an influential senior business leader with a passion and track record for bringing strategy to action and a passion for driving societal impact in a business-forward environment. Someone who can play a large orchestration role across senior leaders in cross functional teams, advising on strategy, implementation, and competitive advantage and growth through impact. Someone with experience across the value chain, particularly within sales and categories/marketing. Someone with high tolerance for dealing with ambiguity and “getting to the answer” without a traditional starting point. Someone who has experience leveraging data, modeling, and insights to influence decision making. Someone who can be thrown into any situation and identify a clear path forward.

Key Experience:

• 15+ years of relevant experience, with minimum 3-5 years at a strategy consulting firm and/or in an internal leadership role in a strategy, sales, categories, analytics, or mission-related team
• B.S./B.A. (required) in Business or Social Impact/Sustainability, or related field
• MBA (preferred) in Strategy and/or Social Impact/Sustainability

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (required):

• Ability to operate independently with limited direction at any stage of the strategy or implementation process
• Expertise in “connecting the dots” across multiple teams, business units, and needs that bridge global and local needs
• Ability to “get to the answer” by identifying creative means of sourcing data and insights, driving rigorous quantitative and qualitative analyses, and identifying cross-category themes; fluency in Excel, modeling, and strategic frameworks
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, particularly in leading senior presentations and cross-functional workshops
• Viewed as the trusted partner to executive stakeholders (both internal and external) with proven effectiveness in influencing and building alignment
• Experience in integrating impact and sustainability topics into the P&L and strategy of other in-house departments: Marketing, Sales, Procurement, Supply Chain, etc.
• Intellectual curiosity and courage to challenge status quo; always leading the mandate for continuous improvement
• Inclination to be flexible and agile on a daily basis; highly organized
• Passion for mission-related topics, with programmatic experience across Health, Communities, or another impact topic
• Ability to travel up to 25%, as needed