Job Description
Job position: Sustainability Coordinator
Date: November 2,2026
Location: Ziway
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About Sher Ethiopia
Sher Ethiopia PLC grows and exports roses. Our three farms are in Ziway, Adami Tulu and Koka, in the Oromia Region, with 451 hectares of production area. Every day we export around 2,8 million roses to customers in Europe, through our sister company Afriflora in the Netherlands. Together with Afriflora we employ more than 12.000 people, almost all of them in Ethiopia; around 65% of them are women. We also run Sher Schools, which are free for every pupil, and Sher Hospital, where employees are treated free of charge and care for the community is subsidized.
About the role
As Sustainability Coordinator, you are the sustainability expert for Sher Ethiopia. You help implement projects under the 2030 Impact Strategy and coordinate the sustainability work that needs to be integrated in existing departments. This covers projects that are part of our 2030 Impact Strategy and follow up the findings of an independent Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) that we carried out in 2026. You coordinate, support, check progress and report. You do not take over the work of other departments: each subject stays with the department that owns it, such as HR, Compliance, Operations, Purchasing, and School and Hospital management. You report to the Sustainability Lead.
Main tasks
Environmental projects (about 30% of your time)
You are the local contact person for our environmental projects, such as Werja Hill and Lives & Landscapes.
Keep regular contact with project partners: NGOs, government offices, communities and other companies.
Follow the planning, budget, results and KPIs of each project, and report problems early.
Organize site visits by partners, auditors and other visitors.
Help start and run new environmental projects.
Working groups and HRIA follow-up (about 25%)
You organize and support the four working groups that follow up the HRIA: Governance, Worker Voice and Remedy, Safe and Healthy Work, and Equal Opportunities. Policies, grievance rules and human rights content stay with HR and Compliance.
Plan the meetings, send the agenda before and the notes after.
Keep one action list for all four groups: what, who, by when, and status.
Follow up actions and deadlines and tell the Sustainability Lead and management what is going well and what is blocked.
Collect information, prepare materials and organize meetings with workers and community members.
Support the roll-out of the new grievance mechanism with awareness sessions, materials, and reporting on the number of cases and how fast they are closed.
Measurement and learning on site (about 25%)
Regular data, such as carbon emissions and wages, is collected through our systems in the Netherlands. Your focus is what we cannot measure yet.
Before a new project or pilot starts, agree which numbers we will measure, and measure the starting situation (baseline).
Improve our gender indicators so we can report the same numbers every year.
Set up simple indicators that show whether the grievance mechanism works, such as number and type of cases, time to answer and close, and repeat problems.
Check the KPI reports from NGO partners, and follow up when something is missing.
Check on site that the numbers entered at the farms match the records, and report differences.
For every new indicator, write down what it measures, who provides it and how often.
Write a short note every quarter: what the numbers show, and what we should change.
Community and gender projects (about 20%)
You support projects in the field under the Impact Strategy, together with the Sustainability Lead, the Gender Committee and the departments responsible.
Coordinate community projects: planning, budget and results.
Support the Gender Committee with planning, follow-up and reporting.
Collect the agreed KPI reports from Sher Schools and Sher Hospital for management reporting.
Report problems in the field early.
Place in the organization
You report to the Sustainability Lead in the Netherlands as your technical manager, and work with him on a daily basis.
You report to the Director of Corporate Affairs in Ethiopia as your people manager.
You work closely with Compliance, HR, Operations, Purchasing, Finance, Corporate Affairs, PR, School and Hospital management, and the Gender Committee.
Selection criteria
We assess every applicant against the criteria below, in two steps: (1) shortlisting based on your CV and letter, and (2) an interview.
What we offer
A [permanent / fixed term] contract, with a salary in line with [salary level, to confirm].
Free medical care for employees at Sher Hospital, and free schooling at Sher Schools.
Work with a wide range of partners, from our own departments to NGOs such as Farm Africa and Wetlands International.
We encourage women to apply. This role works closely with women workers and women in the communities.
Job Requirements
Criterion
Required or preferred
Education and knowledge
Bachelors’ (Bsc/BA – minimal) or Masters’ degree (Msc/ MA) in sustainability, environment, agriculture, development studies or a related field.
Required
Basic knowledge of human rights and workers' rights at work, such as grievance mechanisms, safe and healthy work and equal treatment.
Preferred
Basic knowledge of Ethiopian Laboure and environmental rules that apply to farms.
Preferred
Experience
At least three years of experience in coordinating or managing projects, including planning, follow-up of actions and reporting.
Required
Experience working with communities, government offices or NGOs.
Required
Experience setting up indicators, measuring a baseline or doing simple monitoring and evaluation.
Preferred
Experience with environmental, gender, community or human rights projects.
Preferred
Experience following up project budgets and reporting results to management, donors or partners.
Preferred
Skills
Works well with spreadsheets (for example Excel): tables, simple formulas, filters and charts.
Required
Writes clear, short reports and meeting notes in English.
Required
Can prepare and lead a meeting and agree clear actions with the group.
Required
Gets things done with people you do not manage agrees actions with other departments and follows them up in a respectful but firm way.
Required
Explains a subject clearly to groups of workers or community members, for example in an awareness session.
Required
Checks numbers carefully and notices when data does not match the records.
Required
Works with e-mail, Microsoft Teams and Word for online meetings and shared documents with colleagues abroad.
Required
Languages
Good spoken and written English, and fluent Afaan Oromo and Amharic.
Required
Personal qualities
Organized: plans own work and follows up until things are done.
Required
Works independently; the technical manager is on site about four times per year.
Required
Builds good working relations with different departments, levels and cultures.
Required
Handles sensitive information with care.
Required
Comfortable working in the field, and willing to travel regularly between the farms.
Required
How To Apply
Interested applicants should submit their full English CV and English application letter within 7 days to HR main office hrziway@sherethiopia.com
