Supply Chain
Young Professional Programme

What is the Supply Chain Young Professional Programme?

It is an 18-month programme for early-career talent who want to build a career in Supply Chain while developing practical digital capabilities. You will explore what data, automation and AI can do when applied to real Supply Chain challenges.

You are hired in your home country by one of our operating companies and experience two Supply Chain functions, each combining hands-on functional learning with a digital improvement project delivered alongside fellow Young Professionals. When a suitable role is available and you're ready for it, you move at the end of the programme into a junior Supply Chain role in the business that hired you, bringing the digital capability and experience you have built with you.

What will you actually do?

Each rotation follows the same approach: learn, solve, embed.

First, you learn. Around two months in your home country, inside a real Supply Chain team, understanding how the work actually happens while building your skills in digital tools, data and process improvement.

Then, you solve. Six months delivering a real improvement that goes live and keeps creating value.

Finally, you embed. You work with the people who will keep using it, measure the value created, and hand it over properly so the improvement lasts after you move on.

Do that twice, and you finish with real depth across two Supply Chain functions and two improvements you delivered with your squad.

Each rotation runs for around nine months: the learning phase, the delivery project, an Academy Week and the time to move and settle in. Two rotations make up the 18-month journey. Alongside them, you join three Academy Weeks with the wider cohort, bringing together learning, collaboration and development.

What kind of projects will you work on?

Every project starts with a real Supply Chain challenge identified by the business. You will work with your squad to understand the challenge, use data and digital tools to identify opportunities, and deliver an improvement that can be implemented and measured.

Examples of the kinds of challenges you could work on include:

• Digitising Customer Service workflows to reduce manual steps and help customers get answers faster.
• Improving spend and risk visibility in Procurement, helping buyers understand what is being purchased and where opportunities exist.
• Reducing rework and waste in production by using data to identify where quality issues begin and where improvements can have the greatest impact.
• Moving inventory management from reactive to proactive, using data and AI to spot slow moving stock and early build-ups across the Supply Chain, so teams can act before issues grow.

The specific projects are defined with the participating Supply Chain teams and may vary by operating company and rotation. Your function and your project are matched to where the business need is greatest, giving your work real impact from day one.

Who will you work with?

For the delivery phase of each rotation, you work in a squad: three or four Young Professionals from the programme, from different countries and different academic backgrounds, on one shared Supply Chain challenge. One of you might come from engineering, one from data science, one from Supply Chain. You divide the problem, challenge each other's thinking, and deliver the solution together.

Across the cohort, multiple squads work on different Supply Chain challenges, giving you the opportunity to learn from projects beyond your own.

However far you move, an international move is exciting and challenging, and you will have a cohort around you going through the same experience.

You will also have a network of people supporting your development throughout the programme:

• A mentor to support your career development across the 18 months.
• A rotation manager to guide your day-to-day experience in each function.
• A programme manager supporting your overall YPP journey.
• Digital and AI specialists who can bring expertise into your projects.
• A buddy to help you settle into a new location.
• And a global Supply Chain community of 7,500 colleagues to learn from and connect with.

What will you learn, and what will you be able to do afterwards?

By the end of 18 months, you will have the foundation to take on a junior Supply Chain role: understanding how a team works, spotting opportunities to improve it, and using digital tools to make those improvements happen. Specifically, you build four things.

Supply Chain capability. How two functions actually work, how they connect to the rest of the end-to-end chain, which numbers matter and why, and how safety and quality shape every decision.

Digital and AI capability. Working with data, building automations and applying AI tools in a business context, with the judgement to identify where digital solutions can create real value.

Delivery capability. Running a project from scoping to handover, working in a team under real deadlines, measuring value, embedding the improvement and handing it over effectively. You learn to see improvement as continuous rather than as a one-off project.

Working with people. Communicating ideas clearly, influencing stakeholders without formal authority, working across cultures and time zones, and helping teams adopt new ways of working.

Where will you be based?

You are hired in your home country, and you start there, learning our business where you already understand the language, the customers and the context. Your first delivery project is most likely to be close to home, either in your home operating company or within your own region. Your second takes you further, into an international rotation. Where exactly depends on the business challenge you are assigned to and what is possible on immigration.

International and regional mobility is an important part of the programme. For an international rotation, you relocate individually to the country where your project is based, and your accommodation and relocation are planned around you.

What support do you get when you relocate?

Moving to another country for a rotation is a big step. We provide practical support to help make your relocation straightforward.

Your salary stays the same. You keep your home-country base salary throughout the programme, paid through your home-country payroll, and you receive a monthly allowance on top while you are on an international rotation to help cover the extra costs of living abroad.

Your housing is arranged and paid for. The host company arranges furnished accommodation with cooking facilities in your rotation country, and pays for it directly, including utilities.

Your travel is covered. Travel to and from your rotation is covered under the company travel policy, and you can bring an extra suitcase at the company's expense. Transport options in the host country are arranged locally, and your journey to and from work is reimbursed.

Your visa is arranged and paid for. We work with a specialist immigration partner who guides you through your visa and work permit, and the company covers the cost.

Your healthcare is covered. Where applicable, you stay on your home-country health insurance, and you also have emergency healthcare coverage through Zurich Corporate Accident and Business Travel Insurance.

Your tax position is protected. Through tax equalisation, you are no better or worse off on tax than if you had stayed at home, and taxes on your rotation benefits are covered by the company. You stay in your home-country social security scheme.

Your home base stays in place. You keep your residence and registration in your home country throughout the rotation, and your annual leave follows your home-country entitlement.

The full mobility terms and conditions are shared with you before your international rotation.

How will you learn?

Most of your learning happens in the work itself. Around it:

Academy Weeks. Three times across the programme, the whole cohort comes together in person for a week: Supply Chain fundamentals, digital and AI tools, data and analytics, project management, problem solving, and the less technical parts of the job such as influencing people, presenting an idea and working across cultures. Your first Academy Week takes place before your first delivery project, giving you a foundation you can immediately apply in your squad.

Continuous learning. Your development continues throughout each rotation, with targeted learning based on the needs of your project, your role and your development goals.

What are we looking for?

We're looking for potential, curiosity and the ambition to grow. What matters is how you think, learn and apply what you know. We look at your overall potential across motivation, behaviours, experience and learning agility.

Genuine interest in Supply Chain. You can explain why the way things get made and moved interests you. Not a rehearsed answer, a real one.

Curiosity about digital and AI. You already use digital or AI tools to learn, analyse or improve something, and you have experimented beyond what a course required. We will ask what you use and why. We're interested in your curiosity about digital tools, data and AI, and your willingness to explore how they can create value.

Analytical thinking. You are comfortable with numbers, evidence and situations where the answer is not obvious yet. You break problems into steps and look for root causes rather than symptoms.

Adaptability. You ask good questions, you want feedback, and you change your approach when the facts change. You will be in unfamiliar countries and unfamiliar functions, repeatedly.

Drive. You take ownership, you go past the minimum, and you want a career in Supply Chain at Nutreco.

Where does this lead?

You are employed on a permanent contract from your first day. When a suitable role is available and you're ready for it, you return to your home country at the end of the programme and move into a junior Supply Chain role in the business that hired you, with room to grow from there.

Your role is matched to where your capabilities and interests meet a real business need, and your career preferences are part of that conversation from early on.

What you take back is practical experience across two Supply Chain functions, digital and data capability applied to real problems, two delivered improvements, and a network across our operating companies.

Practical information

Duration: 18 months, in two rotations of around nine months
Start date: 1 April 2027
Each rotation: Around two months learning the function at home, then six months delivering a real project, with an Academy Week and your move in between
Where you work: You start in your home country, and at least one delivery project takes place abroad
Mobility: Relocation on a single basis, without an accompanying partner, family members or pets
Education: A master's degree in Supply Chain, engineering, business, data or a related discipline
Experience: Up to three years of professional experience
Languages: Professional English, plus the local language of the country you apply in
Eligibility: Permanent residency or citizenship in the country you apply in; visa sponsorship is not available
Contract: Permanent from your first day
After the programme: A junior Supply Chain role in the business that hired you, with room to grow