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Join John Lewis or Waitrose today

If you've ever stepped through the doors of a John Lewis or Waitrose shop, shopped online, or seen any of our adverts, you'll know there's something unique about us.

That unique proposition is our Partners. As co-owners they have a say in our business and receive a share of the profits, so they put time and effort into making it work. Our Partners are the reason we're the success we are. They're our secret sauce; the opportunity for us to differentiate.

Job Summary:

Job Description:

At a glance:

We know flexible working is important to you, and it is important to us too. The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach meaning you'll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. The People team have the expectation of attending the office to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings but again, are flexible on this. This role will be predominantly based out of our London Victoria and Bracknell office.

The salary range for the role is £114,000 - £170,000.

About the role:

We are currently recruiting for a Head of Category Proposition Group to join the Waitrose Trading Leadership team on a permanent basis.

As a senior Partner in our business you will expect to play a broader and wider role in the Partnership plan. As an inspiring leader of Partners you will be responsible for setting and driving the right culture through a People first mindset, where Partners are supported and developed both as individuals and together as a high performing team, reflecting the Partnership’s values.

You are responsible for leading a team of multi-disciplined experts who work collaboratively with cross functional expertise in order to set the strategic Category Proposition Group (CPG) direction for 3-5 years, Optimising our different omni channels and ensuring a customer centric focus. Through your teams, you will lead the end-to-end proposition all the way through to delivering the category to the customer.

You will facilitate strong and effective senior relationships both externally, within your supply base, and internally within the cross functional teams, influencing and communicating effectively to ensure you maximise all opportunities to deliver a cohesive CPG plan that inspires our customers. You will leverage market, customer and commercial insight from a range of expert sources to set an innovative future focussed vision for your category.

We celebrate diversity and inclusion in the John lewis Partnership and we are committed to becoming the UK’s most inclusive business, reflecting and connecting with the diverse communities that we serve.

Some of your primary outcomes include:

• Create and develop the Trading strategy and direction for a 3-5 year period into a clear end-to-end proposition strategy for your CPG, by leveraging insight and internal and external networks to keep abreast of key customer requirements, market conditions, competitor activity, and trends

• Highlight commercial opportunities to input into strategic planning to inform category trading strategy and maintain relentless focus on customer to ensure proposition stays one step ahead of the competition.

• Through strong commercial acumen drive and optimise the performance of the category proposition across all channels.

• Through inspiring leadership of the Buying teams, you are responsible for the delivery of the CPG plan and all it’s KPIs, ensuring Partners have clarity of their responsibilities and priorities both in prioritising within the CPG but also ensuring they play their part collaboratively in the bigger picture of total delivery of the Waitrose plan.

• Provide support to the Trading Directors as part of the Trading Leadership Team and the role they have in the wider Commercial Leadership Team.

• Responsible for ensuring strong supplier relationship management (SRM) with senior leaders across our external supply base to ensure opportunities and ways of working are optimised.

• Lead by example to encourage strong and collaborative cross functional working and ensuring strong pod health throughout their team.

• Lead and develop a high performing multidisciplinary team by identifying and developing the skills and capabilities required to deliver commercial success by creating and maintaining an environment, underpinned by inclusivity and collaboration, in which all professionalisms are valued.

Essential skills you'll need

• Significant senior leadership experience in a fast paced retail environment

• Proven track record of delivering on Commercial targets

• Experience in leading commercial negotiations at a senior level

• Outstanding relationship and communication skills

• Experience successfully leading multidisciplinary large scale teams

Next Steps

• The application form consists of a CV upload followed by application questions. Please ensure you refresh the page each time you complete a task to ensure you complete everything that you need to in time. (If internal, check your Workday notifications and see further guidance on the PDW under "Internal application process").

• Once you've submitted an application the next steps of the process, if successful, are likely to include a 1 stage virtual interview.

• You'll be asked about any adjustments you might need to support the recruitment process. Let us know, and we'll be sure to discuss it with you.

Internal Only: You can view a copy of the full job outline HERE

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At the John Lewis Partnership, we embrace our differences. We want you to be you. Because, well, we know you're at your best when you're free to be yourself.

Being a truly inclusive employer to us means creating an environment which celebrates your contribution, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, social background, religion or belief. It's why we've set our own aim to become the UK’s most inclusive business - for our Partners (employees) and our customers.

We firmly believe that our future success lies in diversity of thought from all Partners and it's integral in our mission to build a happier world. ? ?

We welcome applications from everyone interested in working for us. And, once you're a Partner, your differences will make all the difference.

Find out more about D&I in the Partnership here.

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 it is possible to do so. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.