Vice President Sustainability

Arcera is a global life sciences company headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Our purpose is to enable longer and healthier lives while creating sustainable growth. We develop, manufacture, and commercialize a broad range of high-quality innovative and proven medicines in key international markets.

With a large footprint reaching patients in over 120 markets, and manufacturing and packaging facilities in eight countries, we offer more than 2,000 medicines across various therapeutic areas worldwide. The companies Acino, Amoun, Birgi Mefar Group, and M8 are all part of Arcera Life Sciences.

The Vice President Sustainability is responsible for the end-to-end operational leadership and execution of Arcera’s Sustainability strategy across all divisions. This role ensures the day-to-day delivery of sustainability initiatives, driving measurable progress across environmental, social, and governance priorities.

Reporting to the Chief Compliance and Sustainability Officer, the role combines hands-on operational management with senior leadership accountability. The VP Sustainability leads the implementation of Arcera’s Sustainability roadmap, ensuring alignment with the double materiality assessment, regulatory requirements, and the company’s long-term ambitions, including decarbonization and environmental impact reduction.

The role acts as a key integrator across functions, working closely with TechOps, Supply Chain, People & Culture, Quality, Procurement, and Integrity & Compliance teams, among others, to embed sustainability into daily operations and decision-making. It also serves as a senior interface with internal and external stakeholders and our shareholder, contributing to governance, reporting, and continuous improvement.

In addition, the VP Sustainability works hand-in-hand with the Head of EHS, ensuring strong alignment between EHS performance and environmental management, sustainability objectives, and broader business priorities.

Key Responsibilities: 

Operational Leadership & Execution

• Lead the day-to-day execution of Arcera’s Sustainability strategy across all functions and divisions, ensuring timely delivery of initiatives and alignment with business priorities.
• Drive implementation of key environmental programs, including decarbonization, energy efficiency, resource optimization, and waste reduction.
• Translate strategic objectives into operational plans, KPIs, and measurable outcomes.

Integrated EHS and Sustainability Alignment

• Ensure strong alignment between EHS and Sustainability programs, leveraging technical expertise to integrate environmental, health, and safety considerations into operations while progressing our Sustainability objectives.
• Partner with the Head of EHS, to support consistent standards and management of environmental topics and priorities, and to ensure coordination across sites and functions.
• Promote a culture of safety, environmental stewardship, and operational responsibility across the organization.

Data, Reporting & Performance Management

• Oversee the collection, validation, and consolidation of sustainability data across the organization, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and audit readiness.
• Monitor performance against sustainability targets and KPIs, identifying gaps and driving corrective actions and continuous improvement.
• Lead the preparation and delivery of sustainability reporting, including internal dashboards, Board updates, and the annual Sustainability Report.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure operational readiness for evolving environmental and sustainability regulations and reporting requirements.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate environmental and operational risks in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
• Support the development and implementation of governance frameworks, policies, and standards for Sustainability and EHS.

Supply Chain & Business Integration

• Oversee ESG due diligence, third-party risk management, and sustainability-related audits, ensuring a coordinated approach across functions.
• Partner with Procurement, Supply Chain, and Business Development to embed sustainability principles into supplier management and business processes.

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Leadership

• Act as a senior sustainability ambassador, engaging with internal leadership, employees, and external stakeholders (e.g., regulators, partners, investors).
• Drive awareness, training, and behavior change initiatives to embed sustainability across the organization.
• Support Board and executive-level engagement on sustainability priorities and performance.

Key Skills: 

• Strong operational leadership: Ability to translate strategy into execution and deliver measurable results across complex, global operations.
• Deep EHS and Sustainability expertise: Strong technical grounding in environmental and safety topics, with the ability to integrate them into business operations.
• Strategic thinking with execution focus: Balances long-term vision with hands-on delivery and problem-solving.
• Risk and compliance mindset: Strong understanding of regulatory frameworks, risk identification, and mitigation approaches.
• Data-driven decision-making: Ability to work with complex data sets, define KPIs, and drive performance management.
• Leadership and influence: Proven ability to lead teams (direct and indirect) and influence across a global matrix organization.
• Change leadership: Experience driving cultural and operational transformation programs.
  
• Stakeholder engagement: Strong communication and stakeholder management skills across all organizational levels.
• Business acumen: Understanding of pharmaceutical operations and how sustainability aligns with business performance and value creation.
• ESG Fluency: Understanding of ESG frameworks, reporting standards, and investor expectations

Qualifications & Experience:

• University degree in Engineering, Environmental Science, Occupational Health & Safety, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• Strong technical background in EHS, with demonstrated ability to apply engineering or scientific principles in operational environments.
• 10–15 years of relevant experience in EHS and Sustainability, ideally within the pharmaceutical industry or a similarly regulated environment.
• Proven track record in leading global or multi-site Sustainability and/or EHS programs, with strong operational delivery focus.
• Experience managing teams and influencing cross-functional stakeholders in a global matrix organization.
• Demonstrated experience in sustainability reporting, ESG frameworks, and regulatory compliance.
• Strong understanding of environmental regulations, decarbonization strategies, and operational risk management.
• Fluency in English required; additional languages are an advantage.

In connection with your application, Arcera will collect, process and store personal data about you. Our Privacy Notice for Prospective Employees, provides an overview of the personal data that Arcera processes during the application process. Note: This Privacy Notice may be updated by Arcera, we therefore invite you to consult the latest versions via the above links. 

We look forward to receiving your application and exploring how your skills and experience can contribute to Arcera’s mission.