About Cascale

Cascale is a global, non-profit alliance of 300 leading apparel, footwear, and textile brands, retailers, manufacturers, sourcing agents, service providers, trade associations, NGOs and academic institutions.

Formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, we are stepping into a new era of impact with a new name, new look, and same enduring vision. The SAC was incorporated as a 501(c) 6 nonprofit organization and launched the groundbreaking Higg Index suite of tools in 2011. In May 2019, the SAC spun-off the Higg Index technology platform to Higg, now Worldly, which delivers tools and services that help consumer goods businesses accelerate transformation for a more sustainable future. As of 26 February 2024, we are now officially known as Cascale. For more information, visit www.cascale.org.

Together, we are working toward a shared vision of an industry that gives back more than it takes — to the planet and its people. Through multi-stakeholder engagement, our mission is to transform business for exponential impact through groundbreaking tools, collaborative partnerships,and trusted leadership for industry sustainability.

To reach this shared vision, we have developed the Higg Index in collaboration with our members, to create a global approach for effectively measuring and evaluating the social and environmental impacts of value chains and products. Our groundbreaking tools enable organizations to identify hotspots, improve sustainability performance, save time and money, and engage with value chain partners to scale systemic change across the industry.

Position Description 

Cascale is seeking applications from mission-driven, self-starter individuals for the role of Senior Manager - Verification Services. This role will report to the Director of Verification, Training & Insights at Cascale. The goal of the verification program is to ensure that the Higg Index and its related tools are trusted and credible measures for sustainability performance and benchmarking. Cascale is looking for a reputed industry leader who has proven experience of being a people manager, managed multiple projects and worked with a brand/retailer or as a Scheme Manager with a Verifier Body. This role is envisioned to mature into a position that autonomously manages the operations of the verification programs.

Key Responsibilities:

Manage relationships

• Manage, build and maintain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders within and outside the organization. 

• Within the Cascale organization, it has a multi-regional, multi-cultural team which works on various aspects of the Higg FEM ecosystem, including technical content, technological liaison, membership engagement & governance, operations and finance, project management office, business development, communication teams. This role will maintain working relationships with each of these teams/departments in order to ensure the verification program operations are optimally maintained and continually improved.
• Outside the Cascale organization, this role will interact on a regular basis with:
  • Verification Program Manager (VPM) to provide operational oversight, maintain work activities within the stipulated budget and timelines
  • Verifier Bodies by keeping their finger on the pulse in various verification markets and building working relationships with member and non-member Verifier Bodies
  • Worldly to discuss, brainstorm and find solutions to technological aspects of the verification program in coordination with the designated Cascale point of contact
  • Members (brands and manufacturers) to provide a lasting resolution to the concerns they raise pertinent to the verification program operations, examples of which may include verifier availability in certain regions, escalation of support tickets, appropriately understanding member needs.
• Program Oversight will be a major portion of this role which includes each verification project or activity is appropriately resourced and set up. Further breakdown of oversight activities may include:
  • Programmatic oversight including strategy, capacity, quality, and financial sustainability
  • Managing the VPM
  • Making decisions on issues escalated by the VPM
  • Managing annual budgets, timely paperwork, overseeing monthly expenditure
  • Ensure program KPIs on credibility, flexibility and scalability are on track
  • Ensuring the program is set up to provide support to users and verifiers in a timely manner.

Regular reporting

• Provide regular management information system reports to the internal and external organizations
• Provide updates during quarterly and annual review meetings to Cascale stakeholders and leadership
• Support ad hoc reporting requests pertaining to the verification program

Verification Operations

• Responsible for implementing operational aspects of the program including but not limited to: support tickets, calibration calls, live Q&A, special webinars, change requests, other operational enhancement projects outlined in the verification strategy.
• Ensure the program lights are on at optimal cost and capacity.
• Conduct regular regional person meetings and events with the verifier community.

Verification Quality Assurance

• Strategize, implement and innovate the QA Activities deployed for evaluating the quality and consistency of the program.
• Ensure relevant insights are actioned upon to provide exceptionally high verified data quality to the stakeholders.
• Conduct in-person visits to factories and VB offices as part of the QA process.

Program Documentation

• Ensure program documentation is current and up-to-date at all times.
• Maintain a single source of truth and adopt best practices to keep program documentation easily accessible and consistently enforceable.

Other responsibilities

• Design creative, innovative approaches to address quality issues, improve auditing methods and implement such approaches at scale. 
• Represent the verification function at Cascale led- and industry-events.
• Supporting the Director, Verification to manage the work-load and ensuring the team is set up to deliver on the program needs. 

    Travel Requirement

This position requires up to 20% travel, which may include domestic and international travel based on business needs.

Qualifications & Experience

The ideal candidate should possess the following qualifications and experience:

• Reputed industry leader in the domain of audits.
• Proven experience in managing complex, customer facing programs.
• Proven experience in managing a team with direct reports..
• Preferred working experience at more than one entity of the value chain. i.e. brand, manufacturer, service provider.
• Adept at working with remote collaborative platforms such as Asana, slack, etc.
• Ability to make compelling presentations through PowerPoint, and crunch large datasets via MS Excel.
• Enjoys a fast-paced, dynamic, global work environment.
• Customer oriented and motivated to ‘go the extra mile’ to support the organization and its stakeholders.
• Confident, self-starter with the ability to take initiative and get things done.
• Keen attention to detail with the patience and rigor to carry out tasks accurately and to a high quality.
• Process-oriented, pro-active and ‘continuous improvement’ mentality: developing systemic solutions for day-to-day challenges.
• Motivated to learn and support Cascale to excel in implementing verification-related projects.
• Ability to communicate effectively and work with Cascale stakeholders.
• Fully proficient in the English language, capable of communicating complex subjects in a lucid manner.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Excel & PowerPoint in particular).
• Flexible nature; willing to support team-mates and to prioritize wider needs of the team.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a quality management systems/ program management/ human rights/ political science/ social work/ international relations/ sustainability field; advanced degree in relevant field preferred
• 10-15 years of relevant working experience
• Experience in social compliance, audit firms, or industry certification schemes preferred.
• Ability to work with courage and humility.

Cascale seeks a candidate who is: 

• Mission Driven: Is motivated by the mission of the organization and knows that success comes through teamwork.
• Commitment to excellence: Performs duties at the highest level possible on a consistent basis.
• Trustworthy: Demonstrates an ability and temperament to work with sensitive and confidential information.
• Collaborative: Has team-oriented experience and approach.
• Service focused: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations of their role.
• Resourceful: Is quickly adaptable and able to think creatively.
• Tech savvy: Has the ability to understand and fully leverage a variety of technology platforms to ensure effective and efficient communications and work processes.
• Growth minded: Is willing to learn and grow within the role and in the organization.

Reporting Structure

This is a full-time role, directly reporting to the Director of Verification, Training, & Insights with a desired start date that is as soon as possible. 

Compensation and Location

Cascale offers competitive salary commensurate with experience. Salary bands are based on the country of location and aim to be competitive in each market. Actual compensation will also vary depending on factors including (but not limited to) relevant experience and performance. Salary is just one component of Cascale’s Total Rewards package for employees. Cascale’s members and partners are global organizations, and as such, our staff sometimes work early or late hours. This role is preferably hybrid with 2-4 days of working in person at a co-working space with a preferred location of Bangalore, India. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Cascale is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our human capital is the most valuable asset we have. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities and talent that our employees invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation and organization’s achievement as well. We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.

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