Health & Sustainability is one of Ahold Delhaize’s four strategic pillars, supporting our ambition to lead the transition to a healthy and sustainable food system. As Director Health & Sustainability, you will help defining and delivering the Health & Sustainability strategic direction, driving stakeholder engagement and ensuring Ahold Delhaize’s global ESG approach is in line with latest expectations from internal and external stakeholders. 

Hi, we are Ahold Delhaize 
Helping people eat well, save time, and live better. That is what Ahold Delhaize stands for. Ahold Delhaize entails over 7,500 stores with more than 413,000 associates, characterized by trusted brands with strong local identities in more than seven countries. 

Health & Sustainability

At Ahold Delhaize, we believe that what’s healthy and sustainable should be accessible and available to all. The Health & Sustainability team ensures that our customers, colleagues and communities make healthier and more sustainable choices, and live on the planet in a healthier, more sustainable way. To reach our  this, we set out a vision of a healthy and sustainable business with clear goals and measures of success, such as our climate goal to be net zero across our operations by 2040 and supply chain by 2050, and our health goal to make healthy and sustainable choices easy for everyone.

This is what you’ll be doing
As Director Health & Sustainability, you own the delivery of clear and effective communications that help to build transparency and engagement with all stakeholders. You’ll build advocacy with internal and external stakeholders, including the Sustainability Leadership Team and Executive Committee, investor and industry groups, NGO’s and Ahold Delhaize’s Leadership Community.

In this role, you will develop and monitor our ESG approach and performance against peers, advising on metrics and methodology. You’ll lead on internal and external planning, engagement and communication on health and sustainability, including ESG related content within our annual report.

The Director of Health and Sustainability owns the delivery of clear and effective ESG communications for the Ahold Delhaize group that help to build reputation and increases visibility and awareness among internal and external stakeholders of Ahold Delhaize’s narrative, ambitions and performance. You will ensure that the Health & Sustainability team understands and communicates a clear vision on future trends, builds scenarios into planning processes to ensure Ahold Delhaize builds resilience & flexibility and remains future fit.

Dive wholeheartedly into these key responsibilities

• Working closely with the SVP and leadership team, define and deliver the Health & Sustainability strategy and growth driver. 
• Building strong ESG performance internally, connecting cross functional teams and translating credible and accurate guidance on ESG performance to internal stakeholders and driving improvement via clear Health and Sustainability plans, policy and targets.
• Build a strong reputation externally, providing credible and accurate engagement with ESG-focused stakeholders including investors, investment analysts and NGOs.
• Shape the strategy for pro-actively engaging the NGO community in collaboration with internal experts across the business.
• Partnering with Finance to integrate non-financial metrics into financial planning & performance. 
• Developing a strong network to represent Ahold Delhaize on industry and global forums to raise visibility to the company’s leadership. 
• Ensure continuous learning from external outside organizations and experts, contributing to external working groups and boards by providing feedback and reviewing updates to standards and guidelines such as the Sustainable Development Goals, EU Taxonomy, CSRD, CSDDD or Global Reporting Initiative.

This is how you keep growing 
Ahold Delhaize is growing enthusiastically but sustainably. If we can grow while having a more positive impact on people or our planet, we're going for it. We encourage all 413,000 colleagues to share this attitude on a personal level, so opportunities to master new skills and expand your capabilities are a given. And because we're a global family of brands, finding your next challenge comes (almost) as naturally as calling an actual relative. We #daretocare for our people at all levels. 

What that translates to in this role?

• A rewarding salary, plus attractive bonuses, a first-rate pension plan with a personal contribution of just 4.7%
• The development and career prospects you associate with a global player: best-in-class coaching, well-constructed growth paths and international, cross-brand career options
• 20 vacation days, supplemented by a personal budget: take an additional 12.5 days off
• Flexible working hours in a hybrid mix from home and from the office
• Travel allowance, discounts on health insurance and groceries 
• The chance to drive meaningful change – healthy, affordable, sustainably produced food matters – on a truly global scale 
• Membership in a lively and diverse community that wholeheartedly embraces courage inspires growth and dares to care

We welcome caring colleagues who 

• Have strong (10+ years) experience in sustainability/ESG fields within international business, ideally within food or retail industry
• Are expert in engagement and communications for international companies and corporate ESG reporting/ratings, bringing a proven track record in engaging with senior leadership. 
• Have an strong understanding of financial processes and integrating non-financial metrics within business. 
• Are experienced in driving constructive dialogue with senior internal stakeholders, investors, NGOs and other sustainability-related stakeholders.
• Have a passion for sustainability and demonstrated interest in driving societal impacts through more sustainable business practices.
• Are based in the Netherlands and able to travel up to 20% of time. 
• Have strong communications skills (in English, written and verbal), with the ability to create clear, concise, and high-impact communications to support company visibility on health and sustainability.
• Bring confidence to question and challenge the status quo, listen to other perspectives, and process feedback.

At Ahold Delhaize and our local brands, we broadly define diversity as inclusive of thoughts and skills, generational differences, LGBTQ+, gender, race and ethnicity, disabilities, nationalities and more, and we accept all people for who they are.

Dare to care and grow with us? 
We look forward to teaming up soon, at your home away from home: our vibrant HQ, right next to Zaandam station. Want to know more before you hit the Apply button? Please contact Karen de Geus, Talent Acquisition Partner Sustainability at karen.de.geus@ah.nl.