Programme Manager - Plastics & Packaging Mission (Latin America)
Florianópolis, Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, Brazil
Full time
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a charity committed to building a circular economy, so we can create a better future for business, society and the natural world. Based in Brazil as part of our Plastics & Packaging Mission, you will work collaboratively across the Foundation to drive our common vision of a circular economy for plastic, in which it never becomes waste.
This role sits at the intersection of the Plastics & Packaging global mission and the Latin America region and team. As part of the wider Plastics mission, this role is responsible for implementing the Plastics Infrastructure strategy in Brazil, to achieve circularity breakthroughs and scale progress in tackling plastic packaging waste & pollution.
With support from regional and functional leads, you will be responsible for driving the implementation of our Plastic Infrastructure programme in Brazil, ensuring strategic alignment with our global ambition, with excellent communication and collaboration with other regions.
You will be required to represent the Foundation externally with a diverse range of stakeholders, including businesses and policymakers, and occasionally the media.
This is an excellent opportunity to bring together your deep local expertise with a global system change mindset.
Role & Responsibilities:
Reporting to our Latin America leadership your main responsibilities will be as follows:
Programme delivery: Leads the delivery, at quality and pace, of the workstreams of Infrastructure strategy in Brazil, including insights, collaborative action, collective advocacy and policy, working with internal teams and external partners. This will include project planning and management, content development, stakeholder management, upward management of leadership.
Stakeholder Engagement: Build, manage, and activate relationships with a wide range of stakeholders in Brazil, and some internationals relevant for the agenda of achieving breakthroughs in waste infrastructure and policy enabling conditions. Building strong relationships with businesses, both multinationals HQ and their local offices, as well as national companies, other NGOs, financiers including development banks, and policymakers at city, state and national levels. Leading and hosting convenings will be required. Innovative thinking in capitalising on relationships to foster mission achievement, strengthen and develop the Foundations reach and influence in the region is paramount. Local and international travel will be required for this role.
Representing the Foundation externally: Represent the Foundation at key events, with partners and with the media to consistently promote the plastics missions relevant messages, as well as other circular economy solutions and their relevance for key stakeholders.
Contributions to strategy development: Ensure learnings from on the ground work are fed back to the relevant Leads to evolve the Infrastructure programme strategy.
Your Profile:
- A good academic record and degree level qualifications in business, economics, science, engineering, or other relevant discipline.
- At least 8 years relevant work experience, for example in business, consultancy, government, or NGO.
- Experience in or with the Brazilian public sector, particularly in waste and sanitation is essential.
- Knowledge of and experience with the plastics value chain, particularly in Brazil is essential.
- Experience in managing large projects and programmes and collaborating with a broad range of stakeholders.
- Experience of leading development of insights and technical content, the development of external publications, and providing input to develop strategy.
- Experience of working in agile, evolving environments.
- Experience of working in international organisations is advantageous but not essential.
- Excellent communication in oral and written forms in English (business proficiency), Portuguese (native), and Spanish (business proficiency).
- Ability to oversee multiple projects and to work with the team to deliver on an outcome basis.
- The intellectual capacity to understand the principles of the circular economy and to apply them, with, preferably, some experience of working on circular economy projects.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills: evidence of having written engaging documents; the ability to interact effectively at all levels of an organisation and to contribute proactively to problem solving in meetings and workshops.
- An entrepreneurial mindset and comfortable with a high level of uncertainty.
- The intellectual curiosity and capacity to actively drive the development of new insights, with support of the relevant Leads and the wider team.
- Strong analytical skills to structure and solve complex problems; and extract key insights from data, analysis and discussions with a broad spectrum of stakeholders.
Please Apply (with CV and covering letter in English) here. You can upload your CV and Cover Letter by clicking the green icon.
Desired starting date: as soon as possible.
Closing date: August 27, 2025.
Salary package: circa R$14.000 per month.
Benefits package:
Generous holiday allowance (25 business days plus discretionary extra days leave); meal ticket, transport-to-from work, wellness program, health insurance program; kindergarten assistance; support with language training. Self-development and training opportunities.
Location:
Florianópolis, Rio de Janeiro, or São Paulo. You must have the right to work in Brazil to apply for this role.
Application process:
- Initial Zoom meeting with our Talent team and prospective Line manager to start the process (we will send you the outline of the interview, so you know what to expect).
- A work-related assignment to complete at home or as part of the interview process so we know you will be comfortable with the type of work you would do here.
- Interview with our People Team, Team and Programme Leads and prospective manager.
- For more senior roles we will conduct a presentation interview too.
What we do:
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation develops and promotes the idea of a circular economy. We work with, and inspire, business, academia, policymakers, and institutions to mobilise systems solutions at scale, globally. Our mission is to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
Our vision is a new economic system that delivers better outcomes for people and the environment. Business models, products, and materials are designed to increase use and reuse, replicating the balance of the natural world, where nothing becomes waste, and everything has value. A circular economy, increasingly built on renewable energy and materials, is distributed, diverse, and inclusive.
Our commitment to you:
We are keen to receive applications from people from underrepresented backgrounds, including (but not limited to) those of colour, people with disabilities, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, and people from other marginalised groups. It is important to us that our recruitment approach makes the opportunity as accessible as possible and ensures a diverse range of people are able to demonstrate their potential. We would be happy to provide any further support that you may require - please get in touch so that we can work together.
If you would like further information on our diversity and inclusion policy or any further assistance, please contact us at [email protected].
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