Starting Date: ASAP/Mid-Month January 2025

Contract type: One Year Fixed term

Salary: 76’500 GBP, commensurate with relevant experience and skills

Location: London, UK

Application closing date: 20.12.2024

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 Manager Global Impact and lead a global team driving Better Cotton’s 2030 Strategy, delivering field level impact, and ensuring measurable progress in sustainable farming practices and cotton farmers' well-being.

The individual will provide team leadership, thought leadership, and foster innovation to meet strategic aims. They will collaborate with internal teams and external stakeholders, shaping global impact strategies, leading thematic workstreams, and supporting fundraising initiatives.

Experience in at least one of the thematic areas (regenerative production, biodiversity or sustainable livelihoods) would be considered an asset for this role. Most Better Cotton farmers are smallholder family farmers, for this reason, the ideal candidate’s experience will encompass a strong understanding of this context and the potential barriers to capacity strengthening and delivering impact. A strong background in team leadership and the employment of project management tools is required, with demonstrated experience in contributing to winning funding proposals strongly preferred.

The Challenge

Looking ahead to 2030, we are targeting enhanced impact, 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.

The Impact Team drive delivery of the 2030 Strategy aims and targets. They offer thought leadership and technical support so that stakeholders are aligned on the impact Better Cotton aims to achieve, how the organisation will achieve it, and their role in delivering it. The Impact Team identify and foster innovative approaches and support fundraising activities to enable testing, learning and scale to enable Better Cotton to meet its 2030 targets and strategic vision.

Areas that play to your strengths

(All the responsibilities we’ll trust you with)

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Provide strategic direction, mentorship, and support to a high-performing team, fostering a collaborative and growth-oriented culture that aligns with Better Cotton's mission and 2030 goals.
• Ensuring alignment of team objectives with organisational priorities in biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and sustainable livelihoods.
• Oversee team development and empower team members to take on new challenges and responsibilities.
• Ensure effective resource allocation and project management across the team, balancing workload distribution and optimising team efficiency.
• Act as a liaison between the team and senior leadership, advocating for team needs and ensuring alignment with broader organisational strategies and objectives.
• Lead by example, demonstrating a commitment to Better Cotton’s values, including sustainability, impact-driven results, and cross-functional collaboration.

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE AND THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

• Lead the team in the strategic development of Better Cotton’s roadmaps for biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and sustainable livelihoods within the 2030 vision, setting benchmarks in areas such as soil health, biodiversity and nature preservation and restoration, and socio-economic resilience.
• Ensure the roadmap’s alignment with global frameworks and sector best practice. 
• Build and oversee strategic partnerships with external organisations, aligning Better Cotton’s goals with global standards in biodiversity, regenerative practices, and livelihoods metrics.
• Represent Better Cotton at international industry forums, shaping conversations on sustainability across biodiversity, regenerative production, and social equity.
• Lead the development of thought leadership content with the Communications team.
• Collaborate with internal teams to create metrics and standards for measuring and reporting progress in biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and livelihood outcomes, ensuring global impact transparency.

IMPACT DELIVERY AND INNOVATION

• Provide senior technical leadership in creating training materials and guidance, embedding advanced biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and livelihood principles within the Better Cotton Standard.
• Collaborate with thematic leads to align biodiversity, production sustainability, and livelihoods initiatives with broader goals, optimising field-level impact through the GIF and new project models.
• Oversee pilot testing of frameworks for biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and livelihood impact, refining these approaches for scalable implementation.
• Partner with MEL to co-develop impact measurement frameworks across biodiversity, regenerative production, and livelihoods, advancing global standards for tracking and demonstrating progress.
• Coordinate and manage the updating and development of Better Cotton’s Global Hotspot Analysis, a prioritisation tool for programmes and field level activities.
• Develop and test scoring rubrics for innovations and partnerships 

FUNDRAISING AND PARTNERSHIP BUILDING

• Strategise with fundraising and cross-functional teams to develop innovative funding models, expanding resources for Better Cotton’s sustainability and impact initiatives.
• Guide your team in identifying, cultivating and managing effective global and regional knowledge partnerships.
• Reports to: Director Impact within the Impact and Fundraising function.
• Direct Reports: Sustainable Livelihoods Manager, Sustainable Livelihoods Senior Coordinator, Impact Senior Coordinator, Regenerative Agriculture Manager (pending), Biodiversity Senior Coordinator (pending).
• Close collaboration with: Global and Country Programmes, Standards & Assurance team, as well as Monitoring & Evaluation, Communications, and Fundraising.

We are looking for someone who has

the following skills, knowledge, and experience:

Essential

• University degree, or equivalent higher education qualification, in a relevant field
• Demonstrated technical expertise related to at least one of the thematic areas (regenerative production, biodiversity and nature, sustainable livelihoods)
• Experience developing and implementing a global approach / strategy for other organisations, ideally in a relevant field related to agriculture
• Excellent organisational skills and command of project management tools – ability to handle multiple projects in parallel, prioritise, and meet deadlines.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively (in-person and through use of virtual tools) across different teams and cultures, strong relationship building skills and service-oriented attitude
• Track record in managing and brokering new partnerships and developing winning proposals and bids
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills – ability to communicate clearly and concisely, as well as the ability to assimilate and process information for wide-ranging audiences
• Proven ability to work autonomously with a high level of personal effectiveness and ability to adapt to changing priorities
• Aptitude to appraise arguments critically and logically, organise ideas in a clear and concise manner, and draw conclusions and formulate arguments in way that is effective, concise, precise and specific
• Financial skills, particularly building and managing budgets
• Excellent computer and IT skills, including: Word; PowerPoint; Excel, Outlook
• Fluent in English– ability to communicate clearly and concisely

Desirable

• Experience working with smallholder farmers, particularly cotton farmers 
• Knowledge across the textile value chain
• Expertise in fundraising or business development
• Experience in farmer training and capacity building
• Experience with standards systems
• Competency in languages most relevant to Better Cotton countries, such as Portuguese, French, Hindi, Urdu, Mandarin and Turkish

What we offer

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

Working arrangements

The position is full-time (40 hours per week) and will be based in London. Better Cotton offers flexible working, with core hours being 10 am – 4 pm.  The position will require limited travel - likely 2-3 short-haul trips per year and 1-2 longer trips to a cotton-growing region (Africa, South Asia, Americas).

Apply now

Send us your CV (2 pages maximum) and a brief cover letter (1-page maximum) by or before 20.12.2024.

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.

Offer stage:

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:  

• Trustworthy (including honest, transparent, credible) 
• As having Integrity (including responsible, authentic) 
• Positive (including problem-solving, pragmatic) 
• Engaging (including adaptable, inclusive, holistic) 
• Daring (including courageous, innovative, game-changing)  

Being you @ Better Cotton

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.