Director Sustainability

About the Role

Join a mission-driven organization where your leadership directly impacts business growth, community engagement, and environmental sustainability. In this strategic role, you will lead the vision and execution for donation acquisition, inventory management, sustainability initiatives, and operational excellence across the organization. You'll build partnerships, drive innovation, optimize resources, and lead large-scale projects that increase donated goods, reduce waste, and strengthen long-term organizational performance.

Develop long- and short-term business strategies (3-5 years) and oversee execution for Inventory & Sustainability Operations, including the acquisition of consumer and business donations, donation acquisition channels, secondary markets, inventory management, and sustainability initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement strategies and partnerships that increase the quantity and quality of donated goods, strengthen inventory availability, promote responsible resource stewardship, and support organizational sustainability objectives.
• Assess industry trends, market conditions, and emerging opportunities to develop strategies that enhance inventory performance, expand donated goods supply, improve operational effectiveness, advance sustainability initiatives, and support long-term growth.
• Navigate municipal regulations, sustainability initiatives, and public policy opportunities that support responsible donation collection, material diversion, recycling, and community environmental partnerships.
• Support organizational initiatives that increase donated goods generation, improve inventory utilization, reduce waste, enhance resource efficiency, and advance environmental and business performance objectives.
• Partner with Retail, Supply Chain, Facilities, and Mission teams to identify opportunities for process improvement, inventory optimization, environmental impact reduction, operational efficiency, and responsible resource utilization.
• Identify appropriate training and professional development opportunities for self, members of management, and the inventory team. Determine requirements for employee training initiatives to meet employee needs, including staying informed of new technology and processes as well as industry initiatives to drive innovation and efficiency.
• Develop and implement long-range inventory, sustainability, and operational strategies that optimize inventory performance, strengthen resource utilization, improve organizational efficiency, and ensure inventory-related functions achieve or exceed established financial, operational, environmental, and growth objectives.
• Manage organizational design, talent planning, hiring, development, and training of staff. May participate in succession planning discussions and network to source candidates throughout the organization.
• Serve as project owner for high-complexity department, cross-functional, or multi-location projects and improvement initiatives. Set project direction including scope, timeline, and resources. Accountable for decision-making and project success. Manage change through effective planning, communication, and coaching.
• Build and participate in leadership coalitions supporting and implementing organizational change.
• Actively engage with community partners and link activities to business performance.
• Forecast and plan annual operating and capital budgets, implement cost-savings measures, maintain and adjust the operating budget, manage expenses and COGS based on internal or external changes, and communicate budgetary performance.
• Develop departmental procedures, performance metrics, and operating strategies.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree or experience equivalency, and a minimum of 8 years of experience. Extensive experience in positions of progressive responsibility in operational management including strategic planning, project management, change leadership, and budget development is preferred.

Leadership Competencies

• Business Insight: Demonstrates thorough business/industry knowledge and can synthesize business information to respond to changing market dynamics effectively. Proactively monitors external factors and policies that may affect the organization. Uses knowledge to plan work and guide decision-making.
• Courage: Fosters a culture that supports people taking well-reasoned risks, regardless of outcome, and appropriately advocates for decisions that benefit the organization. Confronts actions inconsistent with guiding principles and demonstrates leadership through high-stakes situations, crises, or conditions of uncertainty.
• Customer Focus: Fosters a customer service-focused environment with a sense of urgency and importance of meeting customer needs. Establishes organizational partnerships with key customers and ensures resources and support are focused on meeting customer needs.
• Values Differences: Cultivates an environment that makes all people feel valued and encourages and supports diversity and inclusion. Sponsors and mentors people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Applies understanding of cultural differences to create value and help meet business goals.
• Communicates Effectively: Promotes a free flow of information throughout the organization and demonstrates candor and openness when discussing major organizational initiatives. Creates venues for constructive dialogue and ensures organizational information is cascaded to a wide variety of audiences at all levels.
• Situational Adaptability: Demonstrates flexibility in a changing, competitive environment and initiates change in response to cues in the external environment. Adapts leadership style in response to a broad range of situations and challenges that ingrain flexibility within the organization’s structures, systems, and culture.
• Drives Results: Drives the organization to achieve results that have a direct impact on business performance. Pushes the organization to move forward in difficult circumstances and eliminates obstacles that affect organizational performance.
• Ensures Accountability: Ensures the organization meets commitments and holds leaders accountable for team performance. Sets and monitors goals that align with organizational strategy, creating an environment of accountability for meeting agreed-upon expectations and performance standards.

Physical/Sensory Demands

• Remain stationary for sustained periods of time.
• Ability to move about to accomplish tasks.
• Must be able to operate a computer or similar technology, involving substantial motions of the wrist, hands, and/or fingers.
• Visual acuity to perform activities such as preparing data, operating equipment, or reviewing the thoroughness of work.
• Ability to communicate with others and exchange information.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Pay

When determining placement within the salary range for this position, Goodwill Greater Milwaukee & Chicago considers education, experience, internal equity, market demands, and other qualifying criteria. It is not typical for individuals to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. Certain roles are eligible to participate in an incentive plan. Participation in this plan does not guarantee an incentive payment and is subject to the terms and conditions of the plan, which are subject to change.

Benefits

In addition to compensation, we offer a competitive benefit program that may include medical, dental, vision, short- and long-term disability, life insurance, retirement plan, paid time off (PTO), and more. The specifics of each benefit package will vary depending on factors such as full- or part-time status, contracted, temporary, or other job categories.