Head of Crisis Management, North America
Reckitt
We are Reckitt
Supply
About the role
As a Global Crisis Management Manager, you will be responsible for leading the strategic direction, governance, and execution of crisis and incident management capabilities Reckitt’s global operations. This includes preparing for, responding to, and recovering from crises that have the potential to significantly impact people, products, supply chains, assets, or reputation across multiple markets. You will serve as a key advisor to leadership, driving resilience activities and ensuring Reckitt is prepared for transboundary and high-impact disruptions.
You will work closely with global, regional, and local sites to enhance the agility and robustness of Reckitt’s Operations.
The Crisis Manager’s mission is to help protect and safegaurd Reckitt’s operations by strengthening its crisis readiness and preparedness from within. The candidate will play a key role in upskilling Reckitt to prepare for, respond to and recover from incidents and crisis. The candidate will need to collaborate closely with colleagues from Global and Regional roles across functions and key business partners to support all Reckitt businesses and manufacturing sites.
Your responsibilities
1.Strategic Issues & Crisis Management
-Lead and/or support the management of critical events and crisis management efforts across all brands in close alignment with key business partners such as Quality, RAS, Employe Health & Safety, Legal and Corporate Security Leadership and others.
-Supports local leadership teams in mitigating issues and managing incidents on a need basis.
-Engage with the Regional & Area business/functional executives to drive awareness and engagement to ensure that region/country-specific needs are met, and risk mitigation strategies are in place.
-Be the point contact to all critical events in the operational time zone.
2.Crisis Preparedness & Scenario Planning
-Supports the development of the training curriculum on crisis management, scenario planning and workshops by incl. deploying, training and exercise programs.
-Support the GCD Identify and prepare for high-risk, high-impact events such as geopolitical disruptions, cyberattacks, pandemics, climate events, product recalls, and civil unrest.
-Benchmarks best internal and external practices for crisis management development and execution
-Builds and maintains a crisis manager network to synthesize crisis management standards, plans, trainings, skills and capabilities.
3.Real-Time Incident Response
-Act as global incident commander during critical high-impact crises, coordinating timely, effective responses
-Provide strategic guidance to executive leadership during active crisis events.
-Ensure real-time communication and alignment with internal and external stakeholders, including regulators and media teams.
4.Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration
-Build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders including regional crisis teams, governments, NGOs, and industry bodies.
5.Monitoring, Reporting & Continuous Improvement
-Monitor and report KPIs/dashboards to assess crisis readiness and track post-event performance.
-Lead post-incident reviews, root-cause analyses, and after-action reporting to drive continuous improvement.
-Ensure local sites are aware of priority business risks (high likelihood & high impact) and have appropriate mitigation plans in place and ready to be executed when needed.
The experience we're looking for
▪Minimum of 4+ years of Crisis Management / Risk Management experience.
▪Bachelor’s degree in relevant discipline such as Business, Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering or related field. Masters preferred.
▪Proven track record on managing critical events and operating in high-pressure situations.
▪Working knowledge of risk management, supply chain operations, regulatory compliance, or business continuity planning in a corporate setting.
▪Comfortable working in a matrixed organization and ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
▪Self-motivated, proactive and capable of leading teams, working within a team or fully independently.
▪Must be open to travel, domestically and internationally.
The skills for success
Supply Chain Management, Business Partnership, Collaboration and partnership building, Relationship Management, Business Accumen, Productivity management, Improve business processes, Advanced Analytics, Data Analytics, Logistics Management, Supply Chain Planning, Vendor Negotiation, Contract Negotiation, Category Management Expertise, Supply Management, Procurement.