Senior Specialist, Manufacturing Sustainability

At McLaren Racing, we’re not just here to try to take the chequered flag. We’re here to excite our fans, inspire our people and deliver for our partners. And we’re also committed to evolving our sport, our industry, and our technology, too. 

Purpose of the Role:  

To drive projects in McLaren Racing’s operations which demonstrate measurable progress against the Team’s environmental sustainability metrics and goals.  

Role Dimensions:  

As the McLaren Racing Senior Specialist, Manufacturing Sustainability you will be principally responsible for delivering projects and initiatives which demonstrate progress against McLaren Racing’s greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint and circularity metric, addressing key opportunities identified to improve our organisation’s environmental impact.  

You will coordinate delivery of cross-functional environmental sustainability projects with a focus on trialing the use of more sustainable materials, products & services, and reducing waste.  

You will be responsible for implementing and maintaining McLaren Racing’s environmental management system, supporting the wider McLaren Team to embed environmental sustainability into day-to-day business and operational activities.  

This role requires a high degree of flexibility and an agile working style. Approximately 25% of your workload will consist of managing short-term tactical projects, responding to ad-hoc requests and emerging priorities with agility and a winner’s mindset. 

Principal Accountabilities:  

• Identify and support delivery of projects to drive environmental performance across operational teams (Design, Production, R&D and Car Build), and measure impact of these projects on environmental metrics. 

• Scope and support circular economy and decarbonisation opportunities in McLaren Racing’s supply chain, taking a collaborative and data-led approach.  

• Support Purchasing teams to identify hotspots and recognise environmental impacts of purchased products & services.  

• Engage with colleagues and suppliers to promote product choices which favour sustainability. 

• Engage with suppliers to monitor supply chain decarbonisation and circular economy opportunities. 

• Support Operational teams to identify use cases for innovative sustainable materials across McLaren Racing’s operations.  

• Act as a Business Partner to Operational teams on environmental topics, supporting initiatives that improve McLaren Racing’s environmental performance. 

• Maintain and implement McLaren Racing’s environmental management system (EMS) and environmental policies, integrating environmental best practice across Operations and Facilities, and advocating for positive behavioural & process change.  

• Lead delivery of internal and external audits against environmental sustainability standards, including ISO14001 and the FIA 3* Environmental Accreditation. 

• Support the calculation of McLaren Racing’s environmental metrics (GHG footprint and circularity metric) and sustainability reporting by collecting data to measure impact of projects, creating visualisations and narrative to accompany case studies, and responding to related assurance queries. 

• Act as a representative of the Sustainability team in relevant working groups on infrastructure and campus projects, embedding environmental considerations into project processes and advocating for project decisions in favour of sustainability.  

• Develop and deliver environmental sustainability training /education of McLaren Racing’s Operations teams, enabling colleagues to embed sustainability considerations into their decision-making.  

• Fulfil requests for support from across McLaren Racing relating to sustainability initiatives. 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:  

Essential:  

• Proven track record of delivering projects in an operational, engineering or manufacturing environment, ideally including projects to enhance environmental performance, to time and to budget. 

• Strong knowledge of environmental considerations and impacts in manufacturing, operations, facilities, or factory processes.  

• Experience in embedding environmental sustainability criteria into cross-functional projects including engineering, infrastructure, and facilities. 

• Experience in implementing, maintaining and continually improving environmental management systems in line with ISO14001. 

• Excellent written & spoken communication and stakeholder management skills, and experience interacting with both internal and external stakeholders in pursuit of sustainability outcomes.  

• Project management experience using standard methodologies and tools (e.g. RACI, Gantt charts, PRINCE2, kanban). 

• Proficiency with data handling and digital tools including Microsoft Excel, and optionally Smartsheet and Alteryx. 

• Experience directly engaging with suppliers to realise opportunities for sustainable product choices, and to improve environmental performance through the supply chain. 

Desirable: 

• Team project management experience. 

• Experience in delivering or coordinating sustainability-related training and education. 

• Financial planning and business case development experience for improvement projects.  

• Experience drafting supplier contract clauses to support GHG data reporting and supply chain initiatives.  
  

Personal Attributes:  

You have a winner’s mindset. You maintain focus on your goals; you use hurdles as an opportunity to improve; you enjoy challenges and maintain a learning ethos in the face of obstacles; you are resilient, and always ready to go again. 

You are a strong team player, able to collaboratively deliver against the Team’s and your own objectives whilst being respectful of colleagues’ priorities and requirements. You positively and proactively influence your colleagues to win their support and trust, and to adopt new ways of thinking and working.  

You are flexible and agile in your working style, able to respond to emergent issues and reevaluate priorities at pace. You are able to self-organise and self-lead, maintaining keen awareness of deadlines & pressures, and prioritising accordingly. 

What can McLaren offer?

We constantly strive to be better tomorrow than we are today. Our ambition is to be the most pioneering and exhilarating racing team in the world, and our collective task is to set the standards for high performance in sport. We show up every day with energy and enthusiasm, ready to play our part.

We encourage and support diversity, equity and inclusion. We will actively promote a culture that values difference and eliminates discrimination in our workplace.

McLaren Racing is based at the iconic McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) near Woking. Here at McLaren, we offer hybrid working with 3 days a week based in the MTC.

Our state of the art, sustainable campus offers many facilities including a gym, restaurant and indoor and outdoor break-out areas, as well as direct access to park and common land. The MTC is connected to Woking mainline station via regular shuttle buses, from which London Waterloo is a 30 minute train ride.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including private healthcare, car schemes, life insurance and generous pension contributions.