Program Manager / PMO - Sustainability Risk Management System

Context

We are Sustaain, a data-for-sustainability startup building a sustainability intelligence platform for complex supply chains such as coffee and cocoa, with an initial focus on data management for European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) compliance and risk management.

Over the next 6 months, we are shipping production-grade workflows that combine: portal UX + APIs, traceability + geospatial services, auditability, and data ingestion/automation. We deliver these capabilities with demanding enterprise stakeholders and high uncertainty (reuse vs rebuild, evolving requirements, multiple systems to integrate).

Role Overview

We are looking for a **Program Manager / PMO** to make delivery predictable and high-trust: structure the work, drive decisions, reduce ambiguity, and ensure we ship in increments that work in real operations.

This is not a “status reporting” role. You own outcomes: scope clarity, delivery cadence, stakeholder alignment, and production readiness.

You will report to founders / delivery leadership and work closely with Product, Engineering, and Data teams.

Responsibilities

- Own day-to-day program execution across 1–2 large initiatives (and a few smaller ones): scope, sequencing, dependencies, risks, and decision-making.
- Run discovery and alignment with stakeholders (Ops, Compliance, IT, Sustainability): document the “as-is”, surface constraints, and turn ambiguity into a plan.
- Drive functional definition: workflows, personas, roles/permissions, boundaries between systems, and clear acceptance criteria.
- Coordinate technical design alignment with tech leads: target architecture, integration patterns (API/file/hybrid), non-functional requirements (security, auditability, performance), and data ownership.
- Build and maintain an execution backbone: backlog, milestones, release plan, sprint goals, definition of done, and success metrics.
- Set up and run governance: weekly steering, decision logs, change control, and crisp progress reporting (what shipped, what’s blocked, what decisions are needed).
- Coordinate testing and rollout: UAT plan, validation evidence, production readiness, runbooks, go-live/rollback, and early hypercare.
- Support commercial execution when needed: scope new requests, help structure SOW inputs, and ensure commitments match delivery reality.

Required Skills & Experience

- Strong PMO / program management fundamentals and a track record of shipping complex projects with multiple stakeholders.
- Comfort with technical topics (without needing to be an engineer): you understand systems, data flows, constraints, and can translate between business and technical teams.
- Excellent structure and prioritisation: you can break down problems, handle trade-offs, and keep focus under uncertainty.
- Clear communicator: concise writing, strong facilitation, ability to drive decisions.
- High standards, low ego, reliable under pressure.

Nice-to-Have

- Exposure to sustainability / supply chain traceability / compliance programs (EUDR or similar).
- Familiarity with data-heavy products: ingestion, validation, auditability, quality monitoring, operational dashboards.
- Experience in fast-moving environments where requirements evolve and speed matters.

What We Offer

- A high-impact role at the core of our delivery engine: you’ll shape how we ship, not just follow a process.
- Direct collaboration with founders and tech leads, and real ownership from day one.
- Remote-first, flexible team rituals, and pragmatic ways of working.
- Competitive compensation and equity (early team).
- A company that values clarity over jargon, and delivery over theatre.

If you’re interested, share what you’ve shipped (resume and links welcome) and why it mattered to: [contact@sustaain.org](mailto:contact@sustaain.org) and get ready for no BS interviews followed shortly by hands-on integration in the team.