Commercial Business Partner in Poole

Diversity matters. We are building a brand that represents the people of the world. It’s what you do that counts, and we are always looking to expand perspectives and voices to shape our future.

Who we are: You might know us as the inventors of the bath bomb, but there’s more to this great-smelling, partly employee-owned, family-run company than pioneering cosmetics. We believe our business should put more back into the world than it takes and demonstrate that capitalism can be a force for good.

The Living Wage Foundation’s statement 'a hard day's work deserves a fair day's pay' is one that we are proud to commit to in the UK. As an accredited Living Wage employer, we put our people first and fight cruel practices like animal testing, promote regeneration, and show that it is what’s inside that counts - whether that’s an ingredient in a product, or the minerals in a smartphone.

Overview: Cosmetic Warriors is the parent and intellectual property holding company for LUSH and owns the trademarks and IP rights for LUSH products. It is the hub of innovation and development, ranging from product creation and manufacturing development to store and brand design.

The role: This role bridges finance, commercial insight, and creativity. Operating as a hands-on partner within Cosmetic Warriors, you will report to Finance and partner directly with creative Category Leads, Brand, and Tech teams. The purpose is to shape ideas, improve performance, and deliver what customers want based on evidence, while exploring and using AI tools to drive data insights.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner kindly and curiously to identify specific needs of Category Leads, starting with an immediate focus on Gifts, HairLab, and Spa, with future scope across all categories.
• Make recommendations for products and gift contents based on insights from the data.
• Collaborate with individual markets for point of view and needs.
• Connect with different Category Leads to find opportunities for cross-functional collaboration.
• Use data and technology to make performance easy to understand, enabling thoughtful, well-informed decision making across the business.

Data & Insights:

• Work with all Category Leads to define their data requirements, use data we already have, and experiment with AI tools to work out how the data can be accessible in a sustainable and consistent way.
• Help make sure data feels relevant to the needs of individuals and the business.
• Work alongside the Insights Team to strengthen technical data, integrate market research, and conduct deep dives into market sales, trends, and competitor ranges.
• Create post-launch sales reports to inform future collections, identify key insights, suggest discontinuations, and recommend range additions, reporting findings back to the wider Category Lead Group.

Finance & Commercial Strategy:

• Act as the interface with Finance Teams, working closely with Retail, Manufacturing and Limited teams.
• Work proactively and strategically, using business and financial information to influence.
• Provide robust financial information, recommendations and challenge to support decision making resulting in growth.
• Use commercial strategy to interpret sales, margin, and competitor data to inform category growth, pricing, and product decisions.
• Provide financial insight and business updates to the Cosmetic Warriors Teams and support those teams in managing their team budgets, and preparing them for review.
• Support and collaborate with teams defining costing models and work with pricing teams to ensure competitive positioning and healthy margins.
• Build and present clear business cases and recommendations to identify opportunities for profitable sales growth, through data and insights.

AI Exploration:

• Explore, test, and find use cases for how AI tools can optimise data processing and drive deeper insights.
• Partner and collaborate with internal Tech Teams currently working with AI to align systems and strategies.
• Implement agreed AI tools into daily work and support wider Finance Teams in how to use them and experiment themselves.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise:

• Current or recent experience in a commercial, analytical, or finance related role.
• Comfortable working with numbers, but not restricted by traditional finance approaches.
• Ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights.
• Clear communicator who explains technical or financial concepts simply and adapts messaging to different audiences.
• Excellent relationship building skills with the ability to influence and support decision makers without pushing and able to bring people along with the bigger picture.
• Self-starter with initiative to deliver projects and follow through to completion.

Mindset & Attributes:

• Curious and a flexible mindset to actively shape, refine, and evolve this role.
• Eager to learn about business areas and practices outside of current experience.
• Open to adopt innovative approaches and keen to try new ways of working, experimentation, and emerging technologies like AI.
• Strong collaboration skills to welcome different perspectives, grow from constructive challenge, and a desire to understand how different business areas connect.

Benefits:

• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• 6 months of full pay for parental leave (primary caregiver must qualify for SMP)
• Enhanced paternity leave
• Bonus scheme
• Day off for weekday birthdays
• Holiday purchase scheme
• 50% discount on Lush products and spa treatments
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounted rail and bus season tickets
• Employee assistance programme

We actively welcome conversations about what working flexibly could mean and look like for you. We’re 10% Employee Owned - all colleagues play a role in protecting our ethics, our independence, contributing ideas for the future and share in the rewards of success when the company is doing well.

Wellbeing & mindfulness sessions. Access to employee-led Community Networks, including Disability and Chronic Illness, Family Support, Global Majority (Race and Ethnicity), LGBTQIA+, Menopause and Neurodiversity communities.

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