Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Scientist

Unilever is seeking anLCA scientistwho has a passion for environmental sustainability to join a team of experts in our Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC). This is an exciting opportunity for anyone wishing to use their scientific expertise to make a significant positive impact, whilst working in a supportive, team-based environment. This pivotal role will enable you to work on tackling some of the key global environmental challenges of our time, such as climate change, packaging waste and biodiversity loss.This is a science role. It is not an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) or Corporate social responsibility (CSR) role.

JOB PURPOSE

As an LCA scientist in Unilever, you will work with colleagues from across the globe to provide scientific support to our business groups (Nutrition, Ice Cream, Home Care, Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care). You will apply life cycle thinking and related approaches to better understand the environmental impacts and improvement opportunities related to product portfolios, supply chains and innovations.

You will have the opportunity to conduct collaborative research with leading universities, governmental and non-governmental organisations, and industrial groups around the world. Through partnerships, you will be able to help advance life cycle assessment and related approaches. Publication and presentation of research at international conferences will be encouraged, as well as other opportunities for technical advocacy.

• Environmental sustainability assessment (e.g. LCA, Sustainable by design) of products, new materials, technologies, and business models. This includes performing LCAs using software (e.g. SimaPro, GaBi, and Brightway), interpreting the results and preparing communications for internal and external audiences.

• Application of computational approaches such as Python, R, MATLAB to enable cutting-edge approaches to be applied in LCA.

• Science development activities e.g. in the areas of spatial and prospective impact assessment including writing reports and publications.

• External engagement with universities, research groups, trade associations and suppliers.

You’ll need to be able to work effectively and with impact in cross-disciplinary teams and in multi-cultural environments and be flexible and willing to adapt within a fast-changing business environment.

We would expect the successful candidate to have:

• A relevant Masters degree or PhD, ideally with several years of industrial/ consulting/ post-doctoral experience using LCA.

• Strong knowledge and experience in LCA modelling, using both software and coding.

• Strong experience in the development and application of Life Cycle Impact Assessment and/or footprinting methodologies and associated standards, protocols, and databases.

• Ability to communicate complex scientific information and rationales on environmental sustainability to individuals from other disciplines or from non-technical backgrounds as well as via publications.

• Ability to employ a strategic and growth mindset. Proven track record of leading / working as part of a team. Willingness to explore and learn new approaches and to support others in doing so.

If you have the following skills, that’s a bonus but not essential:

• Broader sustainability expertise in any of the following areas: bio-based systems, agriculture, green chemistry, circular economy, industrial ecology.

• Experience of employing approaches to assess variability and uncertainty in impact assessments.

• Prospective modelling ideally with a focus on ex-ante LCA and/or wider sustainable consumption scenarios.

• Experience of developing/employing data, methods and tools for spatially resolved impact assessment e.g. GIS, InVEST, Land Change Modelling.

• Experience of using Input/Output (I/O) or hybrid I/O analysis and related methods.

• We COLLABORATE to build our networks to unlock creativity & deliver innovation.

• We are open, honest & TRANSPARENT in our communication.

• We are HIGH PERFORMING, delivering high-quality work for business and external impact.

• Our personal, physical, mental & emotional WELLBEING always takes priority.

• We EXPERIMENT & LEARN in a safe space to meet Unilever’s needs.

• We are guided by our collective purpose & passion for PIONEERING new approaches to protect people & planet.

• People come first. We are SUPPORTIVE, we embrace flexibility, jump in to help out & ask for help when we need it.

• We are INCLUSIVE. Every voice counts & trust, respect & kindness are part of all we do.

LOCATION

Colworth Science Park is a vibrant scientific ecosystem with around 800 employees (500 from Unilever R&D) based on site from over 30 nationalities, with 88 PhDs, 8 Professors, 50 apprentices. On site there are various facilities including a restaurant, a nursery and a gym. There are many social and recreational activities to take part in such as going for a lunchtime walk or run in the beautiful surrounding countryside, the Colworth choir, and netball team to name just a few. London, with all its attractions, is a short 40-minute train ride from Bedford.

ABOUT SEAC

We want consumers to be confident that our products are safe for them and their families, and better for the environment. The scientists at Unilever’s Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC) play a key role in ensuring that our products are safe, and our business is environmentally sustainable. SEAC’s world-class reputation for safety and sustainability science plays a key role in Unilever achieving its purpose, by working across the business to build safety and environmental sustainability into everything we do; find out how at SEAC.unilever.com.

ABOUT UNILEVER

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Dove, Tresemme, Lynx, Lifebuoy, Shea Moisture, Persil, Domestos, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Marmite, The Vegetarian Butcher, Graze and Pot Noodle.

Faced with the challenge of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet. That’s why our purpose is ‘to make sustainable living commonplace’.