About the role

• Salary: £54,500.00 - £84,100.00  per annum dependant on skill and experience

• Contract type: This is a fixed term contract/secondment opportunity until May 2027

• Hours and location of the role:

  • 35 hours per week

  • Your home location will be our London Head Office in Pimlico

  • This is a hybrid working role. The expectation is a minimum of 3 days per week in the office as team collaboration is critical in this role. Core days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays

Key responsibilities:

• You will be accountable for the commercial success of a product range as defined and agreed with your Buying Manager and the commercial and customer success of a product range through range planning and agile in-season trading

• You will ensure you have up to date expert market knowledge for the category and can predict future market dynamics

• You are accountable for building and maintaining strong supplier relationships ensuring that they adhere to the required standards and agreed terms

• Accountable for making decisions on the product assortment: development, sourcing, brand

• positioning, price structure and margins. These will be in line with category and customer strategy. In collaboration with merchandising, you will need to make season trading and volume decisions along with the commercial terms and product lifecycle with the suppliers

• You may need to deputise for your Buying Manager when appropriate

• Foster a collaborative and high-performance team culture, providing leadership and guidance to the buying team, supporting the professional development and growth of team members, ensuring a skilled and motivated workforce capable of achieving departmental objectives

• Lead success-driven, cross-department working through effective stakeholder relationships

• People manage your team's Buying Assistant partner/s. Providing Coaching, development

• and feedback

• Responsible for all commercial negotiations inclusive of marketing funds 

• Support the Buying Manager L5 in building a product strategy.

• Develop and buy market leading own brand and/or branded ranges, managing product lifecycle from launch to exit of product ranges

• Collaborate with Merchandiser to prepare and share Standardised Range Plan, in line with critical path, to hand over to the Central Operations Team

• Propose Balance To Achieve across commercial KPIs for the assortment each month in collaboration with the Merchandiser. Work with Merchandisers in your team to ensure Buying office negotiated rebates targets are achieved

• Work with and comply with all critical path requirements as

• necessary

• Research, prepare and present product ranges to the Buying Manager considering sales history, trends, store distribution and brand adjacencies

• Negotiate the best possible terms with suppliers i.e. margin, minimum guarantees, marketing budgets and exclusivity

Essential skills and/or experience you’ll need: 

• Extensive own brand experience critical, with a focus on buying, category management, or product management within Retail.  Direct experience in buying practices, merchandising strategies, and supplier negotiations

• A trend awareness/trend focus and creative mindset

• Strong negotiation skills and experience in leading strategic commercial negotiations with suppliers and vendors to secure favourable terms and agreements, maximising value and profitability for the category

• In-depth knowledge and expertise within own brand including an understanding of product trends, customer preferences, and industry dynamics. Direct experience in range planning, and product assortment development

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to effectively communicate ideas, negotiate agreements, and build relationships with internal and external stakeholders

• A passion for all things Christmas

Desirable skills and/or experience you’ll need: 

• Christmas shop/seasonal knowledge and experience

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About The Partnership

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.  

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.   

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. 

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. 

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.  

Important points to note:  

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.  

We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, and therefore, we recommend you apply early. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability which means you may need longer to complete your application please contact us as soon as possible.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.