Unilever
Sourcing Unit Director (SUD) – Port Sunlight Personal Care
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Sourcing Unit Director (SUD) – Port Sunlight Personal Care
Function
Supply Chain
Work Level
WL3
Location
Port Sunlight (Site Based)
Reports to
Head of Personal Care Supply Chain - Europe
Purpose of the Role
To lead an important Sourcing Unit in Port Sunlight, with full accountability for delivering performance across safety, quality, service, cost, innovation, sustainability, and people, while driving continuous improvement and transformation in line with Personal Care Europe priorities.
This role is key to delivering category growth and operational excellence and is a core contributor to the Personal Care Supply Chain leadership ecosystem.
Role Scope & Context
Leadership of a Personal Care Sourcing Unit
- End-to-end accountability for operational delivery, performance improvement, and capability building
- Strong interface with Planning, Logistics, Procurement, R&D, and Category teams
- Contributor to site and broader Supply Chain strategy execution
Leadership & Team
- Leads a cross-functional operational organisation through line managers
- Builds strong leadership bench and succession pipeline
- Operates within a unionised environment, ensuring constructive and sustainable industrial relations
- Drives engagement, accountability, and performance culture
Key Accountabilities
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Deliver the Site Operational Performance
- Deliver the annual site plan and agreed targets across service, cost, productivity, quality, innovation, OSHE, people, and sustainability
- Lead the site to deliver agreed production plans at the required quality standards, with optimal labour, energy, and material utilisation.
- Enable consistently high levels of customer service at optimal cost through effective site, factory, and warehousing operations.
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Execute Long Term Sourcing Unit Strategy
- Recommend and deliver long-term site strategic plans in partnership with Category and Supply Chain teams.
- Lead the Site Masterplan, including restructuring, re-engineering, retrofitting, and resource deployment.
- Translate Business Unit priorities into clear site strategy, priorities, and execution plan
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Manage Financial Performance, Cost, and Working Capital
- Own and deliver the site’s financial results, including annual budgets, Sourcing Unit Result, and conversion costs.
- Ensure robust working capital management and delivery of inventory targets.
- Lead programmes to improve cost competitiveness while sustaining service, quality, safety, and people outcomes.
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Drive Manufacturing Excellence (UMS)
- Lead continuous improvement and loss elimination agenda
- Embed UMS practices across operations
- Build sustainable performance capability
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Lead Innovation & Transformation through Digital and AI
- Drive implementation of innovation across products, processes, digital capabilities, and supply chain models.
- Leverage Digital, data, and AI-enabled solutions to improve end-to-end supply chain performance, including service, cost, productivity, planning accuracy, logistics flow, and operational resilience.
- Lead capital investment planning and execution aligned to safety, environmental, and cost targets.
- Ensure technical standards and asset reliability across all site operations.
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Ensure Quality, OSHE, Governance, and Policy Compliance
- Ensure compliance with QA systems and ISO standards
- Deliver strong OSHE and regulatory performance
- Maintain adherence to Unilever policies
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Build People & Culture
- Lead HR policy deployment and employee relations in a unionised environment.
- Build leadership capability and high-performing teams.
- Foster a culture of accountability, inclusion, and continuous improvement
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Enable Cross-Supply Chain Integration
- Collaborate across end-to-end SC (Planning, Logistics, Procurement)
- Drive integration across the extended supply chain
- Represent the site with Business Unit, Category, and external stakeholders
Key Performance Indicators
- Safety and quality: OSHE performance, audit compliance, quality standards, and consumer/customer complaints.
- Service and delivery: Production plan adherence, OTIF delivery, customer service, and innovation launch readiness.
- Cost and productivity: Site budget delivery, conversion cost, waste reduction, OEE, labour productivity, and working capital.
- Manufacturing excellence: UMS maturity, loss reduction, continuous improvement savings, and asset reliability.
- People and culture: Engagement, absence, retention, capability, succession, and industrial relations stability.
- Sustainability and governance: Sustainability targets, environmental compliance, policy adherence, and closure of audit actions
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Skills & Experience
Essential
- Strong experience in FMCG manufacturing leadership
- Proven delivery in complex, high-volume operations
- Track record of building high-performing teams
- Experience with continuous improvement (UMS/Lean/TPM)
- Strong stakeholder management across functions
- Experience in unionised environments
Desirable
- Digitalisation / Industry 4.0 experience
Behaviours
Aligned to Unilever’s Winning Culture:
- Care Deeply
- Focus on What Counts
- 3 Steps Ahead
- Deliver with Excellence
Notes
By applying for this vacancy, you are confirming that you have made your Line Manager aware of your application and that you are at a point in your career with Unilever where it is appropriate for you to be applying for other positions.
Should you require additional information or reasonable adjustments to allow you to present your best self during this process, please contact your Talent Partner.
What We Offer
Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.
Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities, and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (unilever.com).
Relocation to the UK
Please be aware if you are applying for this role from outside the UK, if successful, your application will be treated as a self-initiated Change Location Outside of Country (CLOC) transfer. This means any relocation costs must be self-funded with the potential to reclaim some specific pre-approved expenses up to £5,000. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you have any questions.
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