We define a regularization-independent momentum-subtraction scheme for the $CP$-odd three-gluon operator at dimension six. This operator appears in effective field theories for heavy physics beyond the Standard Model, describing the indirect effect of new sources of $CP$-violation at low energies. In a hadronic context, it induces permanent electric dipole moments. The hadronic matrix elements of the three-gluon operator are non-perturbative objects that should ideally be evaluated with lattice QCD. We define a non-perturbative renormalization scheme that can be implemented on the lattice and we compute the scheme transformation to $overline{text{MS}}$ at one loop. Our calculation can be used as an interface to future lattice-QCD calculations of the matrix elements of the three-gluon operator, in order to obtain theoretically robust constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model from measurements of the neutron electric dipole moment.