A new role means a new way to win together. We’ve been proudly serving Australian communities since 1914 and at the heart of our continued success lies our 115,000 team members working across the country. If you’re looking for a career-defining opportunity, take the next step and explore another way your work can have impact and make a difference.
People and Culture are dedicated to fostering an engaged and empowered workplace. One that’s strong, diverse and where our team members have exciting career pathways to choose from. We do it by making people’s lives easier through better experiences, useful tools, and by providing ongoing opportunities to learn and grow.
Coles is part of everyday life for millions in Australia, reflecting the communities we serve and the responsibility that comes with our scale. This responsibility extends beyond our own operations and team members to the people who contribute to our extended supply chains. Within People & Culture, the Ethical Sourcing team plays a critical role in managing human rights and modern slavery risks across our operations and supply chains. Working with business teams, suppliers and external stakeholders, we support the early identification, assessment and management of human rights risks and strengthen due diligence processes.
Reporting to the Group Ethical Sourcing Manager, this is a senior role within the Ethical Sourcing management team. You will provide a whole-of-program view across retail ethical sourcing activities, connecting this work to the broader Human Rights program. Partnering closely with the Lead Specialist, the Operations and Governance Manager will help translate strategic priorities into coordinated and consistent execution, strengthen program governance and drive operational effectiveness across the specialist team.
This is an opportunity to help shape the next phase of Coles’ Human Rights and Ethical Sourcing program as it continues to grow in scale, maturity and impact. We’re looking for a commercially astute leader with deep human rights expertise, strong strategic and analytical capability, and the ability to effectively influence at senior levels. You understand the realities of a large retail business and can navigate an evolving risk landscape, translating insights into practical actions that deliver meaningful, lasting outcomes.
Partner with the Lead Specialist to build a coordinated interface with retail business units, creating clear requests, ownership and escalation pathways while reducing duplication and improving stakeholder experience. This includes ensuring controls for onboarding, risk segmentation, audits, non-conformance management, derogations and escalations are applied consistently and proportionately, with performance insights used to address root causes and reduce recurrence.
Work closely with the program team to strengthen governance, data, systems and reporting, embedding consistent frameworks and processes across investigations, audits and retail delivery, while partnering to use performance insights to identify systemic issues, address root causes, reduce recurrence, monitor outcomes and refine approach as needed.
Stay close to the changing modern slavery, human rights, regulatory, media and supplier risk landscape, assessing how emerging developments intersect with retail innovation, changing customer expectations and shopping behaviours, and translating these insights into practical priorities for the business.
Lead, coach and develop the specialist team, strengthening accountability, cross-skilling and sustainable workload planning. Use data trends to improve program effectiveness, shape its next stage of maturity and maintain strong compliance and governance across the team.
10+ years' experience across ethical sourcing, human rights, modern slavery, social compliance or related governance and risk disciplines.
Strong systems thinking, analytical and critical thinking skills, able to connect diverse issues, identify interdependencies and distil data and emerging risks into clear recommendations, with strong follow-through to drive coordinated action and outcomes.
Deep expertise across supplier assurance, social audit programs, risk assessment, investigations, remediation, governance, reporting and data-driven decision-making.
Exceptional stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the confidence and credibility to influence senior leaders, present issues clearly and represent the business internally and externally.
A relevant tertiary qualification in human rights, law, business, sustainability, risk, supply chain, procurement or a related discipline.
Flexible working options: We know that work is only one part of your life, so we actively encourage a positive work-life balance and provide hybrid working options to help you achieve it.-
Office perks: Take advantage of our gym facility and fitness classes, free parking, BBQ area, mini-Coles supermarket, fooderie hub where you can sample new products before they hit the shelves, school holiday program and so much more when you come in.
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Discounts: Eligible team members receive 5% discount all year round on your Supermarket and Liquor online and in-store purchases. We also offer additional periods of double discount (10%) at various times throughout the year. As well as hotdeals exclusive to team members that translate into additional savings.
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Reward through recognition: Give and receive recognition, linked to our Coles values, through our digital recognition platform ‘mythanks’. You can accumulate points to redeem in the online shop for exciting gifts and electronic gift cards from an extensive range of retailers.
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Opportunities for learning and development: No matter where you start within our diverse business, you’ll have experiences, exposure, and education to satisfy you. Discover and explore a variety of career development programs and job-specific training.
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Paid parental leave: We understand how important your life outside work is and offer permanent team members paid parental leave to support you in balancing work and family.
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Investment in your future: Our annual team member share plan offer allows eligible team members to make regular pre-tax salary sacrifice deductions to purchase Coles Group shares.
We’re continuing to build a gender equitable team, and a culture that is just as diverse, inclusive and welcoming as the communities we serve. We are committed to creating a workplace that is safe and respectful for our team. We encourage applications from people of all ages, cultures (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples), abilities, sexual orientation and gender identities.
We’re happy to adjust our recruitment process to support candidates with disability. For further information and additional contact details visit the ‘Our Recruitment Process’ section of our careers site or email [email protected]
Job ID: 191612
Employment Type: Full time
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