Retail Strategy & Design Support

Are you ready to be at the heart of retail innovation? As our Retail Strategy & Design Support partner, you will play a pivotal role in bringing the Partnership’s future to life. This is a high impact support position where you will bridge the gap between abstract strategic ambitions and the physical reality of our shops.

You will be responsible for the end to end coordination of our Horizon 1–3 initiatives, ensuring we balance immediate shop improvements with radical future innovation. Whether you are gathering competitor intelligence, organising design sprints, or physically launching Proof of Concept (PoC) trials in-store, your work will ensure that every investment case is backed by organised data and real-world results.

In addition to your contractual pay, any time worked between 22:00 - 06:00 will attract Night Premium at a rate of £4.75 per hour. This will also apply to existing Partners who have enrolled onto Enhanced Hours Premium arrangements.

At a Glance

Job Title: Retail Strategy & Design Support

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours of Work: 35 Hours Per Week (Full Time)

Salary: £38,500 - £55,500

Location:  Hybrid, 3 days in person at our Bracknell Head Office or in our shops.
 

Key responsibilities

• Maintaining the Horizon 1–3 roadmap and ensuring all project documentation, status reports, and strategy decks remain current.

• Coordinating the end-to-end logistics of in-store trials (PoC) and managing on-the-ground execution and Partner feedback.

• Collating market trends, competitor intelligence, and trial metrics to validate strategic assumptions and financial ROI.

• Acting as a central point of contact for Retail Product teams to ensure consistent customer and Partner journeys.

• Supporting the annual planning cycle by organizing meetings, capturing requirements, and preparing materials for sign-off.

• Providing administrative support for Research and Design teams by organising workshops, interviews, and design sprints.

Essential skills /experience

• Experience in tracking project timelines and maintaining complex strategic roadmaps.

• Ability to understand and collate metrics to support investment cases and ROI validation.

• Experience in assisting teams to build customer-centric propositions.

• Proficiency in gathering competitor/market data and turning it into actionable summary reports.

• Strong communication skills with the ability to act as a bridge between different business functions.

Desirable Experience

• Experience in Project & Change Management

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. 

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