Undergraduate Ethics, Sustainability, and Food Policy Co-ordinator
£23,400 plus excellent benefits (Work Level 6C)
Manchester city centre (hybrid working)
12-month work placement (starting June 2025)

We’re looking for a driven and ambitious Undergraduate Ethics, Sustainability, and Food Policy Co-ordinator to join us in Manchester on a 12-month work placement. If you’re a great team player with a passion for growing your career, we can offer you an amazing opportunity to do just that with a business that always puts people at the heart of its strategy. In this role you’ll work in a hybrid way – splitting your time between home and the office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).

As the UK’s largest convenience retailer, we’re committed to providing high quality, ethical products at great prices for our millions of customers and members nationwide. As our Undergraduate Ethics, Sustainability, and Food Policy Co-ordinator, we’ll look to you to collaborate with colleagues across Co-op on activities that support our Future of Food commitments. If you’re passionate about doing the right thing and championing a better way of doing business, this is a great opportunity to drive positive change and make a difference in our Co-op own brand food and drink supply chains.

What you’ll do

• Co-ordinate projects focused on improving the transparency of our Co-op supply chains and supporting our Future of Food commitments
• Build relationships with key internal and external partners to support the delivery of projects
• Assist our wider Ethics, Sustainability and Policy team, supporting with a variety of sustainability commitments 
• Help to represent our ESP team at key internal events and campaigns (e.g. Great Big Green Week, Fairtrade Fortnight etc)
• Build an understanding of different areas across Co-op and our supply chains and help us identify exciting new opportunities
• Support and work with our suppliers to help them achieve decarbonisation and meet our climate targets

This role would suit people who

• Are currently in their second year of studying towards an undergraduate degree in any of the following areas: International Development, Sustainability, Geography, Human Rights and Social Ethics, or Climate and the Environment
• Have a good understanding of the current challenges in global food supply chains
• Have good communication and relationship-building skills
• Are passionate about ethics and sustainability; caring for the planet we share and the people who create our products
• Have good analytical and problem-solving skills
• Have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Excel and PowerPoint)
• Are willing to travel to our supplier sites across the UK, as required

Why Co-op?

If you’ve got the skills and passion we’re looking for, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services). You’ll also get:

• 28 days holiday plus bank holidays
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• Coaching and training to support your career development
• Wagestream – a money management app that gives you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
• Grocery Aid – 24/7 access to a range of emotional, financial, and practical support services for you and your family

Building an inclusive work environment

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities.

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process.

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-wellbeing.

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.