Trade Planning Lead

The Trade Planning Lead plays a pivotal role at the centre of commercial decision-making—connecting strategy, performance, and execution to drive better trading outcomes. This role goes beyond planning cycles and reporting; it is about shaping how the business makes decisions, ensuring they are outcome-led, insight-driven, and consistently delivered at pace and scale.

At its core, the role is responsible for building a trade planning approach that is both strategically aligned and operationally delivers end to end excellence.

A key part of the role is transforming how the organisation works. The Trade Planning Lead will design, adapt, and embed scalable processes that bring clarity, consistency, and efficiency across teams. They will simplify ways of working, removing unnecessary complexity and creating structures that enable faster, more confident decision-making.

The role also demands strong leadership and influence. Acting as a connector across commercial, finance, and operational teams, the Trade Planning Lead will align stakeholders around a single version of the plan, challenge thinking where needed, and ensure decisions are made with a clear understanding of trade-offs and outcomes.

Ultimately, this role is about creating a trade planning function that doesn’t just support the business—but actively drives performance. By embedding scalable processes, simplifying execution, and championing outcome-led thinking.

• Salary - £75,800 - £121,000 

• Contract type - This position is a Permanent contract.

• Working pattern/flexible working - 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 team aim for xx day per week in the office to connect.

• Location - Bracknell Head Office; The team aim for 3 days per week in the office to connect.

• Interviews - for this role are looking to be held W/C 13th April 

Key responsibilities

Develop, define and deliver an agile rolling 20 month Trade Plan (covering events, secondary space, promotions) which delivers for customers and commercially and is as operationally efficient as possible.

This involves:

• Planning short-medium term key commercial activity (up to 20 months out) - eg. coordinating delivery of events (Christmas, Easter, valentines),supporting loyalty proposition (eg. co-ordinating MyWaitrose promos)

• Defining and measure Commercial Trade Planning objectives

• Provide end-to-end visibility of commercial activity and requirements and define clear, measurable Commercial objectives based upon our integrated plan

• Measure performance vs. plan on an ongoing basis, holding stakeholders to account for delivery against the plan and build learnings into future planning

• Ensuring accurate forecasting and analysis is aligned to Commercial finance

• Planning FOS,secondary and seasonal promotional space in a timely manner to ensure the customer impact and commercial returns are maximised (ie ensures promotional plans can be built into supplier negotiations where appropriate, provides opportunity for the media team to elevate opportunities and for the marketing and content teams to fully support with effective communications and bold POS

• Ensure legal compliance on Trade Plan activities ie. GSCOP, HFSS, Trading Standards

Please see job outline attached for more information.

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

● Experience of leading and developing high performing teams

● Very strong analytical skills and critical thinking

● Experience in a retail or commercial environment

● Buying or Category management experience or equivalent

● Financial acumen

● Stakeholder management and influencing

● Experience of process development and implementation

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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. 

Attachment: Download Job Attachment