VP, Sustainability - Performance Acceleration

Acre; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 450,000; Full time

Job summary

Acre is partnering with Mars to appoint a VP, Sustainability - Performance Acceleration who will embed sustainability throughout the enterprise. The role focuses on climate, energy, and data-driven governance, shaping how sustainability is integrated into core business systems and decisions across a diverse operating portfolio.

The executive will lead transformation efforts and guide a high-performing team to accelerate progress.

Qualifications

• Must have a track record of leading sustainability initiatives at large organizations.
• Experience integrating sustainability into business strategy and programs across multiple business units.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to innovate new business processes and systems.
• Proven experience in line management and building high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop strategies to accelerate sustainability performance across Mars' Sustainable in a Generation Plan.
• Lead transformation initiatives including governance, incentives, capabilities, and process embedding.
• Oversee data architecture and Sustainability Mission Control to support governance and audit requirements.
• Run shared programs like Renewables Acceleration and Transformation Programs across business segments.
• Lead a Performance Acceleration team with a strong talent strategy and engagement.
• Represent Mars externally to influence best practices in sustainability and collaboration with coalitions.

Skills

Leadership

Sustainability strategy

Stakeholder management

Data & systems thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Acre is thrilled to partner with Mars, a global leader in snacking, pet care and food, on a search for a leader who will shape how sustainability is embedded across the enterprise.

At Mars, they believe "The world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today." Through their Sustainable in a Generation Plan, we have made bold commitments, including reaching Net Zero emissions, building a circular packaging portfolio, and ensuring that all farmers and workers in our supply chain can thrive.

The VP, Sustainability - Performance Acceleration is a senior enterprise leader responsible for accelerating Mars's progress against these commitments. The role focuses on embedding sustainability into a growing range of business systems, processes, and decisions across our increasingly diverse portfolio of operating entities. This executive will design and lead this transition across the full enterprise to make sustainability an integral part of how Mars operates. Climate is a central focus of the role, with a particular emphasis on carbon and energy. This includes scaling renewable energy across operations and supply chain and strengthening the data and methodologies that underpin our climate commitments.

Key Responsibilities

• Development of strategies to accelerate performance, in collaboration with sustainability and business leaders in the corporate center and business segments, identifying 3-5 major transformations with potential to significantly accelerate our performance against our Sustainable in a Generation Plan ambitions.
• Activation and leadership of select transformation initiatives that come from those strategies, as well as existing initiatives, potentially including our approach to leadership incentives, associate capability, embedding sustainability into business processes and decisions and embedding sustainability in priority functions.
• Sustain, operate and further develop the data and systems architecture that enables governance, planning and the above accelerations through Sustainability Mission Control (SMC). Ensure those systems deliver against the expanding requirements of audit/assurance driven by compliance reporting. Sponsor sustainability within the Mars Digital Core and Capabilities Product Lifecycle Management (cPLM) projects and chair the Methodology Restatement Group (MRG)
• Run select shared service programs that deliver sustainability impact across the business segments, as agreed within the Sustainability Steering Group (SSG), including our renewables program for direct operation as well as supply chain (Renewables Acceleration, RAcc) and the Impact Factor Factory. These shared service programs may cut across impact areas or may be dedicated to one impact pillar e.g. climate.
• Lead an engaged Performance Acceleration team with a strong talent strategy that ensures the team is constituted with the best sustainability leaders in industry, with the majority highly engaged and satisfied with their experience at Mars.
• Serve as a thought leader on the Mars Sustainability Steering Group guiding broader sustainability thinking and approaches across all impact pillars and partnering with the business segments to accelerate performance and generate business value.
• Engage with thought leaders and coalitions externally to ensure Mars thinking on performance acceleration is both informed by and influential to peer company efforts, within the group of ambitious companies seeking to lead on sustainability.

Context and Scope

• Serve on the corporate sustainability leadership team, reporting into the corporate center, partnering with the Vice Presidents responsible for performance on Healthy Planet, Thriving People, and Value Creation.
• Serve on the Mars Sustainability Steering Group, made up of the corporate sustainability leadership team and the heads of sustainability from Petcare, Snacking and Food.
• Represent Mars externally with forward thinking individuals and organizations, with the objective of advancing best practices on embedding and accelerating sustainability within business.
• Lead a team of associates responsible for Digital Core, Sustainability Mission Program, Renewables and Transformation Programs.

Knowledge / Experience

Must Have

• Deep experience in leading key areas of sustainability and a demonstrated aptitude to learn new areas.
• Experience in integrating sustainability into business strategy and programs within business units of Mars or comparable companies.
• Deep experience in how businesses operate and in problem solving and innovating new business processes and systems.
• Strong line management and team leadership experience.

Preferred

• Strong experience in influencing without authority and building teams across business segments and entities.
• Experience partnering and influencing external coalitions and organizations within the sustainability space.
• Experience in a diverse range of business types and regions.

We look forward to reviewing your resume.