VP, Tools & Data
 

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 seeks an established leader to oversee the development, governance, and execution of Cascale-supported tools, including the Higg Index Suite. This position is board-facing and responsible for the strategic and operational oversight of Cascale’s tools ecosystem, including the integrity, management, and responsible use of data generated through these tools. The role will provide regular reporting and insights to the Board, ensuring transparency around performance, adoption, data quality, risk management, and industry impact. In addition, this leader will strengthen industry trust and awareness by ensuring tools are credible, data-informed, and aligned with evolving regulatory and stakeholder expectations.

Reporting to the CEO and serving as an integral member of the executive leadership team, the VP will lead the data strategy associated with Cascale’s tools — ensuring robust data governance, analytics capability, and clear insight generation that supports both member decision-making and organizational strategy. The VP will foster proactive engagement with members, partners, and stakeholders to maintain, evolve, and advance tools that drive measurable industry impact, while ensuring data accuracy, comparability, security, and responsible stewardship across the ecosystem.

Duties & Responsibilities

Provide continuous improvement of the current Higg Tools, Better Buying Tools, and the creation and development of any yet-to-be identified tools complementary to the current offering and of benefit to members.

The role is responsible for:

• Improve, upgrade, and integrate tools per the strategic plan - Lead the creation and execution of adherence to a holistic tools Roadmap. 
  • Deliver business value: creating, updating, and promoting a suite of integrated index tools designed to assist our membership in meeting our Shared Vision 
  • Execute and evolve product vision: engage members in evolving and executing an Index Roadmap that outlines our path for embedding sustainability measurement and analysis in member organizations
  • Use intelligence gained from member and user input, scoring data analysis, subject matter experts, and Worldly platform improvements to execute on an integrated tool roadmap. 
  • Create efficient and timely updates/changes while reducing dependence on member-driven working groups. Use membership councils for high-level reviews and alignment with strategic goals. 
  • Revisit the roadmap regularly to flex and adjust to new opportunities as we discover and prioritize them.
  • Coordinate directly with the Tool team and Worldly to implement improvements per aligned processes 
• Create industry-facing and public data insights and reporting - Devise and implement a system for using program and tool participation, scoring, validation, and transparency to provide reliable B2B and industry-wide insights and reporting.
  • Ensuring integrity: integrating metrics and building confidence in our data so we can credibly focus and communicate our efforts and build the Higg brand globally 
  • Use data from the tools to create industry metrics, develop footprints, and measure progress 
  • Add value to users by ensuring tools meet ongoing regulatory and stakeholder social and environmental measurement and impact reduction needs.
• Expand the ecosystem - Actively coordinate/consolidate the tools of sister/partner organizations to create an ecosystem of tools and services that simplify the user experience while reducing duplicity.  
  • Remove silos and improve transparency to ensure we work and deliver against our organizational goals more effectively and professionally (internally and externally)
  • Assist in developing and integrating a decision-making hierarchy and working group taxonomy so that issues and opportunities get appropriately addressed by the right people in a fair, transparent, and timely manner
• Be a Cascale leader -  Break out of silos to learn how the organization works, and understand the issues and opportunities in all areas.  Seek opportunities to grow your experience beyond your areas of expertise.
  • Develop internal systems to support the long-term sustainability of the organization
  • Prioritize opportunities to deliver the most value to employees, members or the industry
  • Coordinate between teams to ensure we are moving towards our company-level goals and staying on our scheduled timeline
  • Create effective communication channels that produce feedback loops for strengthening our processes, products, and personal development
  • Foster collaboration: creating a fun and open environment that encourages cross-discipline problem-solving and professional development
  • Create regular touch-bases, brainstorms, and workshops to remain in sync and aligned on how to address issues

Qualifications & Experience

The ideal candidate:

• 15+ years of significant experience and successful execution in delivery and expansion of productions with similar complexity and financial management responsibilities
• Direct hands-on experience with Cascale tools
• Experience in the apparel, footwear, or analogous global supply chain related industry
• Exceptional oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills. English is required; additional language is a plus.
• Exceptional leadership skills with a successful track record of managing, developing, and growing an internal team
• Is a strategic and management partner to the CEO and Board
• Comfortable with ambiguity, leads with curiosity, and operates with a growth mindset; able to ruthlessly prioritize and remain calm in high-stress situations; optimistic, yet plans for the worst 
• Innate curiosity and ability to check their ego at the door
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a team environment, both within the Cascale and in partnership with ecosystem organizations, as well as managing external agencies and consultants

• Ability to understand, be sensitive to, appreciate, and respond to cultural differences and the interactions resulting from them
• Contributes to the increased professionalism of the organization by working collaboratively with teammates and stakeholders to ensure that processes and systems are robust and executed while honoring Cascale’s culture of innovation and diversity

• Solutions-oriented and results-driven; high attention to detail; ability to multitask and meet deadlines in a demanding, fast-paced environment
• Willingness and ability to engage in regular domestic and international travel

Cascale seeks a candidate who is: 

• Mission-driven: Is motivated by sustainability and the mission of the organization.  
• Team player: Has team-oriented experience and approach.
• Tech-savvy: Has the ability to understand and manage a variety of technology and software platforms to support the organization.
• Organized and detail-oriented: Is able to effectively manage many different moving parts (information, projects, software) to help keep the organization running smoothly.
• Excellent communicator: Is able to interact with people of all levels in a confident, professional manner.

Reporting Structure

This is a full-time role, reporting directly to the Cascale CEO.

Compensation and Location

Cascale offers competitive salary commensurate with experience. Salary bands are based on the country of location.

Cascale Values

The following values serve as a framework for employee behaviors and “how” work is accomplished across the organization:

• Collaboration - When we team up, we’re unstoppable; our collective wisdom creates solutions.
• Accountability - We don’t just take responsibility for our actions; we relish it.
• Growth Mindset - We see every obstacle as an opportunity; growth is in our DNA.
• Respect - We honor diverse perspectives and treat everyone, including colleagues, members, and our broader ecosystem - with dignity and consideration.
• Celebrate - We take the time to acknowledge and celebrate our collective triumphs, while also learning from our mistakes.

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.

Apply

Maybe you don’t tick all the boxes above— but still think you’d be great for the job? Go ahead, apply anyway. Please. We know that experience comes in all shapes and sizes—and PASSION can’t be learned.