Senior Assurance Coordinator

Salary : if hired in London – 47’200 GBP, if in Geneva – 82,600 CHF, if in Delhi – 2,466,550 INR, if in Lahore - 5,491,950 PKR, commensurate with relevant experience and skills

Application closing date : 6 th January 2025

About the Job
Are you purpose-led and ready to embark on a journey to shape the future of sustainable cotton? Join us at Better Cotton as Senior Assurance Coordinator and contribute to a global team responsible for delivering assurance and certification activities for the world’s largest cotton sustainability initiative – we support more sustainable farming practices and farm livelihoods for nearly 3 million farmers in the Better Cotton network in 23 countries around the world.

As Senior Assurance Coordinator, you play a key role in coordinating the assurance and certification programme by helping Better Cotton to update current assurance and audit-related procedures, and develop new procedures and systems needed under a third-party certification model. This will be a busy and challenging role with plenty of opportunities to work on diverse tasks and projects. The role will be a mix of leading/coordination and project work.

The Challenge
Looking ahead to 2030, we are targeting reducing GHG emissions from cotton production by half, big cuts in synthetic pesticide use, improve soil health across our network, improve farm income and support women’s empowerment among farmers and farm workers.

As Senior Assurance Coordinator, you will be responsible for working with the wider Assurance team to deliver a robust and credible assurance system with a particular focus on supply chains and chain of custody.

Areas that play to your strengths

(All the responsibilities we’ll trust you with)

We are seeking a motivated Senior Assurance Coordinator to join our Assurance Team. In this role, you will be responsible for:

Assurance Activities

1. Coordinate on-going 2 nd party monitoring activities for supply chain actors
2. Collaborate with internal teams on procurement and contracting for assurance activities e.g. commissioning audits
3. Contribute to Certification Body Monitoring by developing procedures and analysing performance
4. Manage and resolve complaints and incident management
5. Contribute to development of a risk assessment process to direct assurance activities in relation to the Chain of Custody (CoC)

Subject Matter Expertise – Chain of Custody

1. Work closely with the Better Cotton Standards team to act as main contact point for Chain of Custody Standard development
2. Ensure that the Chain of Custody Standard remains relevant from an assurance perspective
3. Manage the implementation of Brand Certification from an assurance perspective
4. Innovate and contribute as part of wider organisation efforts to expand the scope of the Chain of Custody Standard

Training

1. Support delivery of training for Chain of Custody Standard to Certification Bodies and auditors
2. Manage the development of training materials for the Chain of Custody Standard
3. Deliver user training on how to use the Better Cotton assurance platforms

Claims monitoring and verification system development

1. Innovate and implement assurance programme for claims monitoring and verification
2. Assess opportunities to use technology and other advancements to develop our assurance tools beyond audits and in-person monitoring.
3. Work with assurance management team to identify a strategy to implement any innovations including cost/benefits

Data and Systems

1. Supervise existing systems for monitoring CoC assurance activities
2. Engage as a member of project team developing Certification and Assessment System development in collaboration with external Service provider
3. Collaborate with internal teams to supervise on implementation and interactions with internal and external systems
4. Manage data analysis for supply chain to provide insight in standards and Certification Body performance

Administration and Management

1. Responsibility for planning and chairing meetings
2. Engage effectively to overall team performance
3. Potential line management responsibilities

We are looking for someone who has

the following skills, knowledge, and experience:

1. 5+ years’ working experience with at least 2 years in a relevant field
2. Knowledge and/or experience in certification particularly with a focus on supply chain/chain of custody, and claims
3. Excellent organisational skills and capacity to handle a set of different priorities on several projects running in parallel
4. Excellent written and spoken English
5. Strong ethics and integrity
6. Good IT skills, including but not limited to MS Office suite (PowerPoint, Word and Excel)
7. Ability to work with people from different cultures
8. University degree, or equivalent higher education qualification, in a relevant field
9. Advanced numerical skills and experience in analysing large data sets
10. Experience with Sharepoint, PowerBI (Microsoft Suite), and/or Salesforce
11. Experience with standards systems and assurance, auditing or certification
12. Additional Language expertise
13. Experience of working with global teams

What we offer

1. Hybrid working – Two to three days/week in the offices central London, Geneva, Delhi or Lahore
2. The opportunity to work from anywhere in the world for up to one month per year
3. Flexible working, with core hours from 10 am to 4 pm local time
4. Continuous learning and development
5. 25 days paid annual leave, plus 8-9 Bank Holidays and a further 3 discretionary days off over Christmas/year end period.
6. Enhanced parental benefits
7. A warm, positive working environment where everyone is valued
8. The opportunity to make your mark and make a difference.

Please note that the above are dependent on the location of the successful candidate

Working arrangements

The position is full-time (40 hours per week) and will be based either in Geneva, London, Lahore or Delhi. Better Cotton offers flexible working, with core hours being 10 am – 4 pm.

Apply now

Send us your CV (two pages maximum) and a brief cover letter (one-page maximum) by or before 06.01.2025 via this link .

In your cover letter, please include an explanation of why your experience is specifically relevant to this role at Better Cotton. We want to see your personal style – what makes you tick and why you think your next opportunity is here with us.

Our hiring process

Initial Screening:

If you are selected, you will be contacted for an initial screening, which may involve a brief phone interview or video call. The purpose is to learn more about you, confirm basic qualifications, and discuss the role and organisation.

Interviews:

If you are confirmed after the initial screening, you will be invited for interviews. The interview process at Better Cotton may include one or more rounds of interviews with various stakeholders, such as the hiring manager, team members, and potentially senior management.

Assessment and Testing:

Depending on the role, you might be required to complete assessments, technical tests, or skills evaluations to gauge your competency and suitability for the position.

Reference Checks:

Once you progress further in the process, reference checks are conducted to validate your work history, skills, and qualifications, and for some roles, your education and criminal history.

After completing interviews, assessments, and reference checks, the hiring team evaluates your performance and fit for the role. If you are selected and your references are relevant and satisfactory, you will receive a formal job offer letter outlining the terms of employment, compensation, benefits, and any other relevant details.

About Better Cotton

Better Cotton is a global not-for-profit organisation supporting the production of more equitable and sustainable cotton at farm level. We exist to catalyse the cotton farming community with partners, governments and others to continuously drive positive impact by setting standards and facilitating the supply and demand of more sustainable cotton from farm to brand. In just 15 years we have aligned more than a fifth of the world’s cotton with our standard and helped farmers and farming communities thrive. Join us in building a better, more sustainable future for cotton worldwide.

About our Values

The post holder will be expected to operate in line with our workplace values which are:

1. Trustworthy (including honest, transparent, credible)
2. As having Integrity (including responsible, authentic)
3. Positive (including problem-solving, pragmatic)
4. Engaging (including adaptable, inclusive, holistic)
5. Daring (including courageous, innovative, game-changing)

Better Cotton is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer with a strong commitment to good practice and transparency in the management of natural, human, and financial resources.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to any attitudes or behaviours that put children or adults at risk of harm. Safeguarding incidents are acts of serious misconduct and are grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including, dismissal and referral to relevant authorities for criminal prosecution. Therefore, all offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks.