Traceability and Sustainability Manager

Title: Traceability and Sustainability Manager

Who We Are

We design, develop, and distribute innovative, stylish infant and children’s accessories & travel gear for our own brands and a range of well-known and respected licensed brands and retailers.

Founded in 1968, the company that started with one bootie product has grown into one of the largest distributors of infant and children’s accessories in the U.S. and is woman-owned.

Living and working in the mile-high city, where being active and embracing the contrasts that Denver has to offer, is central to GoldBug.  The team brings a love of the outdoors, the arts, and design to the products we create.  

GoldBug is also dedicated to improving maternal and infant health. We actively invest a portion of our sales and our company resources to support positive maternal and infant health outcomes for all families.

Job Summary

The Traceability and Sustainability Manager is accountable for supporting and executing GoldBug’s initiatives pertaining to environmental compliance, product sustainability, and supply chain traceability programs in collaboration with cross-functional teams. This role represents GoldBug’s initiatives and progress internally, and externally within the supply chain and industry.

This position manages, tracks and reports updates and data related to environmental and traceability programs and applicable regulations. This role also works closely with cross-functional teams, and suppliers to develop positive working relationships, ensuring their comprehension and adherence to GoldBug’s goals, procedures, and requirements.

The Traceability and Sustainability Manager is the subject matter expert, responsible for informing the decision-making process and decision makers, as well as, ensuring that retailer and regulatory sustainability and traceability initiatives are met per defined parameters and within the corresponding timeframes, engaging the appropriate teams and keeping all parties informed.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

• Build, implement, and maintain processes to support sustainability and traceability strategies and customer specific initiatives related to product, packaging, and supply chain.
• Manage data collection, calculation, and reporting for various annual customer and regulatory requirements including GHG emissions through the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Conflict Mineral surveys, extended producer responsibility regulations (EPR), and other environmental reporting expectations.
• Identify, research, and recommend certifications for products and product inputs to support sustainability claims, educating internal teams to the certification criteria.
• Be proactive and stay current on industry trends related to sustainability and supply chain mapping, communicating updates to appropriate internal and external teams.
• Maintain pulse on upcoming state, federal, and international regulations (i.e., emerging chemicals of concern, sustainability, and traceability) and develop and implement plans to keep the company compliant to these laws as they come effective
• Develop and refine internal procedures, supplier guidelines, tools, and training to scale implementation of pilot programs, in partnership with cross-functional teams.
• Collect, evaluate, and verify chain of custody documents.
• Participate in industry led sustainability working groups, workshops, informational webinars, and customer driven training programs.
• Adapt processes to support migration of traceability workflows into technical platform and communicate data management and analysis requirements to internal and third-party tech teams.
• Build and maintain programs to routinely measure supplier readiness to respond to traceability requests and implement CAPs to address gaps in performance working with overseas teams and factories
• Communicate all traceability, sustainability and environmental requirements and updates to suppliers and internal teams, keeping all informed of expectations and ensuring compliance.
• Initiate and roll out the Worldly (formerly Higg) facilities modules to our suppliers and ensure annual completion according to customer specific deadlines this includes coordination and tracking of FEM, vFEM and FSLM.
• Work with Design and Product Development teams on new sourcing to ensure that suppliers have correct certifications before starting business relationships as well as developing current suppliers towards the correct certifications for any claims made.
• Work with overseas teams, product development, and production planning to support material management projects related to supplier discovery, vetting, and nomination, and component standardization.
• Engage with industry organizations, regulators, and customers.

The ideal candidate:

• 3 years of experience in sustainability, supply chain, or relevant work, preferably within the children’s, footwear, apparel, or textile industry.
• Knowledge or experience related to sourcing chain-of-custody documentation (e.g., cotton, recycled polyester), supply chain mapping and/or conflict minerals reporting, UFLPA, etc.
• Strong understanding of and experience with industry best practices in developing and scaling compliance requirements in manufacturing supply chains, including regional/global organizations and certifications supporting fair labor practices or product sustainability.
• Knowledge of global industry trends related to corporate environmental and social responsibility.
• Strong project management, organizational skills, strong data analysis capability, and willingness to undertake diverse projects.
• Ability to create strong and meaningful relationships with stakeholders including internal teams, suppliers, and any other 3rd party organizations to drive change.
• Ability to travel as needed on a limited basis.
• Proficient skills in MS Office suite and other data analysis and visualization programs.
• Experience calculating and submitting GHG emissions through CDP
• Has professional communication skills, a strong set of organizational skills, and has a keen attention to detail.
• Ability to communicate complex, technical topics to non-technical audiences.
• Self-motivated to accomplish tasks on time and the ability to manage time efficiently, and able to predict the next reasonable action.
• Must be okay to work in a dog friendly office

Other job Details:

· Salary Range: $75,000-$85,000

· Status: Full-Time

· Reports to: VP of Product Integrity

· Benefits include: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance Disability Insurance, FSA, 401k with matching, paid vacation, paid sick/personal leave, on-site gym, commuter benefits

Equal Opportunity Employer

GoldBug is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. GoldBug makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time. 

This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. GoldBug makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time. 

Salary : $75,000 - $85,000