Product Owner ESG portfolio

Goals

Allow our client to accelerate its Sustainability Transformation by setting ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) strategy in a designated ESG domain in order to achieve 2030 and 2040 targets and ambition.

Act as a squad leader for the designated domain  with two main objectives: (1) report on and (2) develop the performance of the domain.

Main Tasks

Strategy & target definition:

• For the designated ESG domain : define ambitious but realistic targets, based on an in-depth understanding of the strategy and objectives and on the business’ long term needs and strategies. Determine the strategic business direction to best meet business evolving needs – Validated with the business owners and within the governance of the company.
• Define a portfolio of initiatives to achieve the targets, track progress, provide training materials, facilitate community of expertise, ensure resource availability in the designated domain (in full collaboration with BU’s and relevant entities) and animate relevant governance and expert groups to raise  our organizational maturity, not only on ESG but also in data;
• Ensure that the initiatives required to achieve the targets are well budgeted and that resources are mobilized.
• Build and manage consistent information on ESG across the Group, and ultimately also towards our clients. Communicate strategically and summarize complex subjects towards a mixed audience on bpost leadership level in order to achieve specific objectives and desired results
• Shape long term direction and vision by creating new concepts and new models of organizational possibilities. Translate identified trends or connections into priorities.

Domain performance management:

• Review all of the ESG targets that are part of the designated domain
• Propose strategy roadmap and action plan to improve the performance of the designated ESG domain (e.g. E, S or G or Data/reporting) in close collaboration with the various Business Units and the market. Provide actionable and achievable intermediary targets. Be the reference in regulatory developments and reporting in these topics.
• Engage with stakeholders throughout the company and propose and initiate actions to improve or correct the monitored KPI’s. Monitor the progress of sustainability initiatives, track KPIs, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to assess the effectiveness of sustainability strategies
• Be the reference on the domain in the ESG team. Share best practices with owner of other ESG domains in ESG team. Align with the other members of the ESG teams on the common aspects as annual report, rating ownership…
• On a regular basis, align with the ESG group director on the targets and action plans (definition, status…)
• Ensure the follow up on the validated action plan for the domain to ensure that corporate objectives are timely met.

Stakeholder Engagement: 

• Act as a Product Owner in the squad related to the designated domain. Next to them, the squads will include: a central sustainability performance and data expert and other members from the  related business units.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to gather data inputs, understand reporting requirements, and address inquiries related to sustainability data.
• Engage with Stakeholders & motivate them to take actions to improve bpostgroup’s performance in sustainability.
• On a regular basis, align with ESG spocs of the BU’s on the several targets, action plans and status. Ensure they are rolling out the initiative in a way to achieve the ESG group targets as set by ESG committee.
• Ensure others are developing. Invest significant amount of time to help foster the growth and development of others by providing development opportunities (tools, assignments, mentoring, coaching,…). Build effective and cohesive teams committed to deliver on goals.  

Team management:

• Lead, motivate, support, coach and give feedback to the project teams, consisting of several experts.
• Define team tasks, create efficient team processes and planning.
• Follow up on the project teams/project team members and on their deliverables and results.
• Empower project team members to work together.

Data Collection and Management (with the support of data and reporting experts):

• Collect, analyze, and interpret data related to the designated domain and play a crucial role in supporting the organization’s sustainability goals by providing accurate and actionable insights, expertise and support.
• Define which (set of) data  needs to be gathered and organize the data collection for the designated ESG data domain. From various sources, stakeholders and subsidiaries, including internal systems and external databases, ensure data accuracy and reliability.

Data Analysis and reporting (with the support of data and reporting experts):

• Perform in-depth analysis of sustainability data to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.
• Perform gap analysis between our KPI’s and scores of various ratings and comparable companies in the domain of the portfolio.
• Perform benchmarking studies.
• Develop regular sustainability reports, dashboards, and visualizations to communicate key performance indicators (KPIs) to internal and external stakeholders.
• Provide frequent and accurate reporting, supporting decision-making.
• Ensure bpostgroup will report in compliance with CSRD and rating expectations in the designated domain.

Regulatory Compliance:

• Stay updated   with evolving sustainability reporting regulations and standards to ensure accurate and timely compliance (e.g. GRI, ESRS, TCFD, SASB,…) via trainings, webinars, for a…
• Organize cascade information of the regulation aspects that can affect the BU’s.

Specific with DATA/IT agile teams:

• Provide essential thought partnership and guidance at the intersection of business, technology, and operations. This includes :
  • Contribute to a roadmap based on  vision and business strategy by providing right features and insightsCollaborate with a wide range of people to identify and define ESG metrics and disclosure requirements and prioritize, develop and run the features required to meet the needs (for the group and every entity).Lead projects E2E and together with the stakeholders (data owners of data domains and disclosure requirements) in order to build value, improve fast and deliver on expectations.Lead and manage the negotiation to define & prioritize the features to be deliveredTake the lead in defining, prioritizing and managing the Agile Release Truck (ART) feature backlog  Translate business requirements, non-functional requirements and performance requirements in relevant features in the appropriate tools to make them transparent to all people involved in the ART. Define and write the acceptance criteria.Consolidate business requirements where overlap.  Define, in collaboration with the Technical Owner, a vision for the technology, reusable design processes, and support needed to contribute in defining the Business’ unique value proposition.Guide the agile team to ensure proper deliveriesWrite the stories useful to meet the purpose of the domain.Drive PI planning goals.  Define and describe the definition of ready (DOR) and the definition of done (DOD) on domain level and ensure they are met.Monitor quality of deliverables
  • Follow up budget

Technical Expertise

• Education level: Master degree (or Bachelor with equivalent experience)
• 7 years experience in relevant field (E-S-G)
• 2 years of experience in the Business Program Management
• Languages: Thorough knowledge of English and at least Dutch or French
• Solid experience in project management
• Solid knowledge in ESG matters and levers
• In depth experience in data analysis tools such as Excel,
• Solid experience in data visualization tools such as Tableau, Power BI, or others.
• Solid experience in sustainability reporting frameworks (GRI, SASB, CDP, CSRD) and ESG standards is a plus.
• Solid knowledge of database management and data cleansing techniques.
• Solid interpersonal skills
•  In depth communication skills to present complex data findings clearly and concisely
• Solid experience in business management where technology is used to respond to business needs
• Solid experience with IT required – agile tools:  e.g. Jira, confluence, Miro

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