Global Product Sustainability Customer Specialist

Leonid Group have been retained by a Global Medical Device organization who are looking to appoint a Global Sustainability Customer Specialist to strengthen its ability to respond to the growing number of sustainability requirements coming from customers, healthcare providers, distributors and public procurement organizations.

The role will sit within the wider sustainability function and will act as a key link between Sustainability, Commercial, Marketing, Product, Supply Chain and Regulatory teams.

The successful candidate will be responsible for translating complex sustainability data, product information and regulatory developments into clear, credible and commercially relevant customer-facing content. This will include supporting tenders and customer questionnaires, developing sustainability sales materials, responding to procurement requirements and helping internal teams communicate the organisation's sustainability credentials effectively.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who combines a strong understanding of product sustainability and stewardship with excellent communication skills and a genuine commercial/customer focus.

Key Responsibilities

Customer & Commercial Sustainability

• Support regional and global commercial teams with sustainability-related tenders, customer questionnaires, procurement requests, audits and supplier assessments.
• Establish and improve processes for managing sustainability information requests across the organisation.
• Develop and maintain standardised responses, FAQs, templates and supporting evidence for recurring customer requirements.
• Work with commercial stakeholders across multiple international markets to understand and respond to evolving customer sustainability expectations.
• Help sales teams confidently communicate sustainability-related product and company information to customers.

Sustainability Data & Market Intelligence

• Build and maintain datasets, metrics and supporting evidence required for customer-facing sustainability responses.
• Gather, validate and organise sustainability information from relevant internal functions.
• Analyse customer requirements and identify recurring sustainability themes, data gaps and emerging expectations.
• Conduct market, competitor and benchmarking analysis covering sustainability strategies, certifications, ratings and customer requirements.
• Turn technical sustainability data into clear insights that can be understood by commercial and non-technical audiences

Product Sustainability & Stewardship

• Act as a sustainability subject matter expert for topics relating to products, packaging, procurement and customer requirements.
• Partner with Product Management, R&D, Packaging, Quality and Regulatory teams to incorporate sustainability considerations into product development and lifecycle decisions.
• Assess the potential need for LCAs, product carbon footprints, sustainability certifications, environmental claims or independent assessments.
• Support teams in identifying sustainability-related data gaps and determining what evidence is required to substantiate customer-facing claims.
• Provide guidance on sustainability trade-offs and help develop appropriate positioning for both new and existing products.

Sustainability Communications & Sales Enablement

• Develop high-quality presentations, customer materials, factsheets, infographics, FAQs and sales enablement tools.
• Support the creation of sustainability value propositions that clearly demonstrate customer and business relevance.
• Work with Marketing and Communications to ensure sustainability messaging is consistent, accurate and credible.
• Help translate corporate sustainability achievements and initiatives into meaningful customer-facing communications.
• Support executive-level presentations and communications where required.

Strategy & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Monitor developments in healthcare sustainability, sustainable procurement, customer expectations and competitor activity.
• Identify emerging trends that could influence customer requirements or commercial opportunities.
• Contribute to the development of internal sustainability knowledge repositories and response processes.
• Build strong relationships across Commercial, Marketing, Product Management, Supply Chain, Procurement, R&D, Quality, Regulatory and Corporate Sustainability.
• Work with external sustainability technology providers and other relevant partners where required.

Background & Experience

Essential:

• Bachelor's degree in Sustainability, Environmental Science, Engineering, Business, Marketing, Communications or a related discipline.
• Significant professional experience in sustainability, ESG, product sustainability, product stewardship, sustainability consulting, commercial excellence, marketing or a related field.
• Proven experience supporting customer sustainability requests, procurement processes, tenders, supplier questionnaires or similar commercial requirements.
• Experience producing high-quality customer-facing presentations, communications and supporting materials.
• Strong ability to work cross-functionally and influence stakeholders without direct authority.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Ability to simplify complex technical, regulatory and sustainability information for non-specialist audiences.

Preferred Experience:

Experience within one or more of the following sectors would be highly advantageous:

• Medical devices
• In vitro diagnostics / laboratory diagnostics
• Life sciences
• Healthcare
• Pharmaceuticals / biopharmaceuticals

Additional experience in healthcare procurement, sustainable procurement or customer sustainability programmes would be particularly valuable.

The successful candidate may also bring knowledge of areas such as:

• Product carbon footprinting and lifecycle assessment
• Circular economy principles
• Sustainable packaging
• Product stewardship
• Sustainable procurement
• ESG reporting
• Sustainability ratings and assessments, including EcoVadis, CDP or SBTi
• Environmental claims and substantiation
• Medical device / IVD regulatory environments

Experience operating within a large, international and matrixed organisation is strongly preferred.

Skills & Capabilities

• Strong knowledge of sustainability, ESG and product stewardship, ideally within a healthcare or regulated product environment.
• Excellent ability to convert technical sustainability information into clear, compelling and commercially relevant messaging.
• Strong written and visual communication skills.
• Comfortable creating executive presentations, tender responses, customer questionnaires, FAQs and sales enablement materials.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret sustainability data and identify meaningful insights.
• Highly organised, with the ability to manage multiple customer requests, deadlines and stakeholder priorities simultaneously.
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills, with the confidence to work across seniority levels and international teams.
• Commercially minded and customer-focused, with a pragmatic approach to solving complex sustainability questions.
• High attention to detail and a strong commitment to accuracy and credibility.

Travel

International travel may be required, expected to be less than 20% of working time.

This position offers the opportunity to play a key role in shaping global product sustainability and customer engagement strategy within a leading international medical device organization.

You will work across sustainability, commercial, product, regulatory and supply chain functions, helping to translate sustainability initiatives into clear, credible and commercially relevant solutions for customers across global healthcare markets. The role provides the opportunity to influence how sustainability is embedded across products and communicated to some of the world's leading healthcare organizations and procurement partners.

The Leonid Group is an international, specialist search and consultancy firm focused on corporate governance and professional services, that specialises in the placement of Legal, Compliance, Trade Compliance & Ethics professionals on an international scale across the Americas, EMEA and APAC. Legal and compliance are both global, with teams worldwide, and our network reflects this. We work with multinational corporations to help structure their departments with the best people, from the Global Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel to the Compliance Analyst and Trade Compliance Specialist.