Carrièremogelijkheden
Sustainability Manager, Design & Product Development
Ref #:
W173518
Department:
Strategic Planning & Business Development
City:
New York
State/Province:
New York
Location:
United States
Workspace Description
Pay Range: The pay range for this job is $65000 - $129225 annually; actual pay is dependent on experience and geographic location.
Benefits: Base pay is only one part of our employee value proposition, which includes a robust benefits package, above-market time off, hybrid working arrangements, incentive compensation, where applicable, and varied learning opportunities.
Pay Range Max
129225
Pay Range Min
65000
Company Description
Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world's most widely recognized families of consumer brands.
At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.
At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.
Position Overview
The Sustainability Manager, Design & Product Development, will be responsible for embedding preferred materials and circularity into the end-to-end product creation process—from concept through development, commercialization, and communication. This role partners closely with Design, Merchandising, Product Management/Development, Sourcing, Marketing and Communications to convert Ralph Lauren’s preferred materials and circular product creation strategy into our product portfolio and track progress against enterprise goals and commitments. The ideal candidate combines strong product, preferred materials and standard expertise with program management rigor and a highly collaborative, influence driven approach.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Drive integration of preferred materials & circular design
- Partner cross functionally with Design, Merchandising, Product Management/Development, Sourcing, Marketing, and Communications to integrate preferred material and product opportunities into seasonal line planning, development calendars, and marketing plans—including for special projects. ·
- Review, analyze, and recommend preferred materials and circular product creation opportunities at key development cycle milestones, facilitating prioritization, decision making, piloting and scaled adoption through analysis of environmental impact risks and opportunities, supply chain readiness, and consumer communication implications.
- Lead meetings and strategy sessions to continue building the company’s product sustainability pipeline by setting agendas, preparing read-outs, facilitating discussion and decision making, and documenting next steps.
- Manage product sustainability initiative tracker (inputs, ownership, status, KPIs), streamline workflows, and enable clear ongoing visibility for partners; drive tidy data practices and on-time updates.
- Lead development, evolution and execution of the strategy for Circular Principles training (live/e-learning, toolkits, office hours); drive adoption with key partners in design, product development, and sourcing; and provide ongoing support and refreshers.
- Identify bottlenecks to preferred materials and circular design adoption, propose pragmatic process or technical enhancements (PLM attributes, SmartSheet automations, brief templates, checklists, gate criteria) to streamline and enable continuous improvement, and partner within the Sustainability team and cross-functionally (e.g. with IT, data analytics) to implement those solutions.
- Interface directly and regularly with Design, Product Development and R&D teams to influence decision making, build trust, and bring opportunities to life.
Steward materials standards & certification strategy
- Continuously evaluate emerging environmental standards and certification schemes, as well as relevant consumer trends; synthesize implications for our portfolio and make adoption recommendations (e.g., recycled and regenerative content, packaging materials, chain of custody assurance).
- Partner cross functionally to ensure substantiation and documentation capabilities are in place for consumer-facing claims, copy, or marketing assets.
- Support governance and reporting on corporate goals commitments · Track progress on product circularity goals using clear definitions, standardized measurement rules, and documentation to enable internal updates and external reporting.
- Oversee maintenance of the company’s preferred materials commitments; identify gaps as they arise and engage cross-functionally to develop and execute plans for closing gaps.
Experience, Skills & Knowledge
Required Experience, Skills & Knowledge
- Demonstrated experience in product sustainability within apparel/footwear/consumer goods or adjacent categories, with direct experience working in or partnering with design, product development and merchandising teams.
- Proven ability to translate sustainability opportunities into actionable plans and drive adoption in a large-scale enterprise, as well as to lead and influence without direct authority.
- Program & meeting management excellence: experience leading cross-functional engagement, agenda setting, next-steps communication, progress and decision tracking, and problem solving.
- Demonstrated expertise in preferred materials and certifications (e.g., recycled and regenerative content, chain of custody, and other textile and materials standards).
- Strong understanding of circular design concepts (durability, repairability, monomateriality, design for recycling) and how to operationalize them in briefs, BOMs, and PLM. · Openness to use and familiarity with emerging AI tools used in corporate settings. · Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Textile/Industrial Design, Sustainability, or related; Master’s a plus.
Additional Preferred Experience, Skills & Knowledge
- Experience developing and delivering effective and inspiring training/enablement content for creative and product audiences; strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Familiarity with LCA concepts/tools and materials impact datasets; experience with product claims substantiation.
- Working knowledge of emerging eco-design and product policy trends (e.g., eco-design, Digital Product Passport, Extended Producer Responsibility for textiles) and their implications for product design, development and consumer-facing claims.
Ralph Lauren will consider for employment
qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in a manner consistent
with the requirements of the law, including any applicable fair chance laws.
Please note background checks will be evaluated individually.
