Interim Traceability Product Lead

Forest Stewardship Council International; Bonn; Hybride; GBP 90 000 - 130 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Forest Stewardship Council International seeks an Interim Traceability Product Lead to drive the maturity of FSC Traceability platform and related processes. You will coordinate cross-functional teams, align stakeholders, and oversee adoption, governance and continuous improvement across global material flows.

In this role you will manage onboarding waves, translate business needs into technical specifications, and ensure timely delivery with cross-regional and vendor collaboration.

Qualifications

• Leadership in product/program management
• Stakeholder alignment and governance
• Experience translating business needs into tech requirements

Responsabilités

• Coordinate FSC Traceability workstreams across technology, data, onboarding and governance
• Lead capability assessments and resource planning for delivery
• Maintain programme plan, milestones and risk registers
• Ensure platform readiness, performance and vendor delivery
• Engage with internal and external stakeholders including certificate holders and partners
• Develop onboarding, training materials and rollout playbooks
• Prepare governance reports and progress updates

Description du poste

SRI Executive Search has been contracted by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to assist with the search for an exceptional candidate to fill the position of Interim Traceability Product Lead.

About the Forest Stewardship Council International (FSC)

FSC® is trusted by NGOs, businesses, and consumers worldwide to protect healthy, resilient forests for all, forever. The Forest Stewardship Council runs the world’s leading forest certification system and works to mitigate the climate and biodiversity crises by advancing sustainable forest management worldwide. Currently, over 160 million hectares and 70,000+ organizations are certified to our standards. Our mission is to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests.

For more information, please visit: https://fsc.org/en/about-us.

Role Purpose

FSC Trace is a strategic digital platform enabling end-to end traceability of FSC certified material flows to support trusted, data driven claims to tackle false claims and supply chain integrity. We are now in the process of prototyping and scoping the next generation of the platform. It requires a result orientated individual with the ability to bring excellent coordination, stakeholder alignment, continuous product improvement, onboarding support, and tight operational governance. Using a risk-based approach, the objective is to scale adoption across markets and supply chains.

The FSC Traceability Product Lead will play a central role in driving the platform’s maturity, as well as driving the process to ensure all related processes, capabilities and normative requirements across the organization are aligned and put in place. The role has a key responsibility to ensure alignment across internal teams, partners, certificate holders, and technical vendors.

The FSC Traceability Product Lead ensures successful development, operationalization, adoption, and continuous improvement of traceability of FSC certified material flows globally. This includes the FSC Trace platform and the support systems, such as customer care, as well as the broader processes that are related to this work, such as the normative framework. They will steward day to day coordination and timely delivery, oversee implementation workstreams, support stakeholder engagement, and ensure both the platform and the wider traceability program delivers measurable value to FSC’s strategic objectives defined by the Product Director and delivered by the Technology Sponsor.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

Programme & Delivery Coordination

• Coordinate all FSC Traceability workstreams (including technology development, data, business and standards alignment, onboarding, governance, market engagement/customer service).
• Lead the necessary capability assessments and recruitment & resources needs.
• Maintain and update the overall programme plan and roadmap.
• Track and ensure timely delivery of milestones, mitigate risks, make sound business decisions, and consider relevant dependencies.
• Facilitate timely cross team alignment between relevant units at FSC International and regional offices and network partners, as well as key external stakeholders.
• Support vendor management and monitor delivery performance.

Product & Platform Readiness

• Ensure platform stability, performance, and readiness for wider rollouts.
• Translate business requirements into actionable specifications for development teams.
• Validate release notes, change requests, and testing protocols.
• Identify improvement opportunities based on user feedback and operational data.

Stakeholder Management & Engagement

• Serve as the primary coordination point for internal and external stakeholders.
• Prepare materials for internal governance bodies, steering committees, and executive updates.
• Support engagement with certificate holders, partners, certification bodies, and market stakeholders.

Rollout & Adoption Support

• Plan and coordinate onboarding waves, including timelines, communications, and change management activities.
• Work with the training and communications teams to prepare guidance materials, FAQs, and documentation.
• Track adoption metrics and report progress.

Governance, Reporting & Compliance

• Maintain decision logs, governance records, and compliance documentation.
• Ensure privacy, data protection, and certification related requirements are fully respected.
• Prepare progress reports for the leadership and relevant committees.

The following deliverables are required within the first 12 months:

Project Oversight and Delivery

• Lead on the overall project success and the timely deliverables of individual workstreams.
• Lead the FSC Traceability team bring about coordination, collaboration and delivery of milestones.
• Engage with external stakeholders including certificate holders to ensure alignment of needs.
• Risk & Issues Register maintained and reviewed twice monthly.
• Monthly progress reports for leadership and traceability committees.
• Release management schedule for platform updates.

Platform Readiness Deliverables

• Validated backlog and prioritization framework for development teams.
• User acceptance testing (UAT) cycles per release.
• Change request and enhancement documentation.

Rollout Deliverables

• Onboarding playbook, including support processes, templates, and communications assets.
• Training materials updated per new release.
• Stakeholder onboarding dashboard tracking signups, active users, and supply chain coverage.

Stakeholder Engagement Deliverables

• Engagement plan covering certificate holders, certification bodies, and market partners.
• Prepared materials for meetings with regional offices, partners, and the FSC Network.

Governance Deliverables

• Documented governance model for decision making, risk mitigation, and escalation.
• Data protection compliance checklist.
• Operationalization approach, including new required operating procedures and models.

Terms of Appointment

• Reports to: Director of Product
• Collaborates with: Director System Integrity as Product Sponsor and Chief Information and Technology Officer as Technology Sponsor, and other units as applicable.

Role Location

Remote with occasional travel to Bonn, Germany

Rest assured, all information will be handled with the utmost confidentiality.