Regional Product Stewardship Lead

Job Summary

The Regional, Product Stewardship Lead, Asia Pacific,  will ensure the responsible and ethical management of FMC’s products throughout their lifecycle and aims to optimize the contribution these products can make to sustainable agriculture and food security whilst protecting the environment and preserving the value of the products to FMC This includes implementing and verifying internal processes, engaging with internal and external stakeholders, developing and conducting training, representing FMC at industry level and sharing knowledge for responsible product lifecycle management.

Roles and Responsibilities

Build a strong stewardship culture in the business through implementation and oversight of stewardship governance processes and engagement with FMC employees within APAC.

• Lead, promote, and recommend improvements to FMC’s Product Stewardship strategy and programs in the region in line with global direction, ensuring that the programs are adapted to meet the needs of farmers in Asia Pacific and how they use FMC’s products on their farms.
• Manage, develop, and provide strategic direction to the APAC Stewardship network.
• Oversee the governance of product stewardship, including Stewardship Due Diligence and label review processes for new products and product extensions.
• Proactively identify emerging regional Stewardship challenges and develop and execute strategies to address these in a way that will enhance customer experience or FMC’s reputation.

Collaborate with commercial teams to promote the correct and responsible use of FMC’s products:

• Coordinate internal training to increase understanding of stewardship and how to use our products correctly.
• Develop communications material to support the engagement with farmers, distributors, and product users regarding the correct use of our products and other stewardship matters (including promotion, training, etc.), and review locally developed materials.
• Define the approach to stewardship in markets where FMC is not operating, selling only through appointed distributors, and support these distributors.
• Track the engagement/training with farmers and other product users on stewardship topics.

Engage with external stakeholders in relation to the stewardship of FMC products, in co-operation with other functions including Sustainability, External Affairs and Communications.

Represent FMC in external forums relating to stewardship:

• Assess and participate in focused external programs to advance pesticide-safe use in the APAC region while enhancing FMC's reputation as an industry-leading product steward.
• Actively participate in relevant industry groups, including the CropLife Asia Stewardship Leadership Team, leading and influencing outcomes in line with FMC’s stewardship and sustainability goals.

• Coordinate the management and reporting of adverse incidents with FMC products across the region, including overseeing emergency phone numbers.
• Contribute to the Asia Pacific Sustainability goals by working with the Sustainability team to leverage stewardship activities taking place in the region and ensuring alignment between Stewardship and Sustainability objectives.

Key relationships

The position reports to Global Stewardship Director, under the office of the Chief Sustainability Officer, but will be required to maintain strong connections to:

• President, Asia Pacific
• Business directors for India, China/NE Asia, Australia/NZ, ASEAN, Pakistan and Japan
• Key functional leadership (marketing, R&D, regulatory, communications) in Asia Pacific
• Global Stewardship Team.

Requirements:

• Degree in a technical discipline with at least 5 years of experience.  Previous experience in product stewardship, agriculture and/or some form of risk management is preferred but not essential. 
• A degree of business acumen, strategic agility and creativity is required to keep on the cutting edge and help FMC be a leader in the areas of product stewardship.
• Experience working in a matrixed team environment, and the ability to achieve outcomes through influencing others across the value chain and at all levels within FMC is critical.
• Goal-oriented and driven by bringing value to the business, farmers, the environment, and the broader community.
• Strong interpersonal, organizational and time management skills including critical thinking, problem-solving, negotiating, managerial courage, customer focus, and organizational agility.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including presentation, facilitation, listening, negotiating, and influencing.
• Ability to distil, summarize, and effectively communicate complex issues to management and non-technical individuals.
• Must have an open mind, and the ability to think broadly, generate new ideas, collaborate with others from diverse backgrounds and transform ideas into specific initiatives.   Creativity in problem-solving is the key.
• Demonstrate strategic thinking through listening to and integrating views of internal and external stakeholders, identifying opportunities and risks, and leveraging resources to deliver solutions that drive value.
• Able to deliver timely results on projects requiring frequent follow-up and input from parallel groups and stakeholders.
• Exhibits resilience and does not allow the status quo to interfere with driving and achieving results.
• Strong English language skills.