Junior Buyer: Fragrance in London

About the role

Ready to make a sweet-smelling step up in your career and follow your nose for the next big beauty trend? We’re looking for an ambitious, trend-savvy Junior Buyer with a proven track record across fragrance and/or beauty to help us shape a market-leading scent destination. In this role, you will use your specialised category knowledge and commercial mindset onboard premium branded ranges. This isn't just about spotting the next cult-favorite perfume; you will own the delivery of critical category KPIs across sales, profit, stock, and margin. Partnering closely with your Merchandiser, you will analyse market data, navigate complex pricing architectures, and use your negotiation skills to manage vital Brand relationships. You will also take on a leadership element, task-managing and guiding our Buying Assistants to ensure the whole category thrives. If you know how to balance creative curation with a sharp focus on in-season trading levers and customer hit rates, this is the perfect platform to make a lasting impression in the beauty industry.

Salary: £34,000.00 - £51,100.00 per annum

Expected Salary: Up to £42,000 per annum dependant on skill and experience

Contract type: This is a permanent position

Hours and location of the role: 35 hours per week. Your home location will be our London, Pimlico Head Office. 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 Thursday.

Key responsibilities:

• You will work at pace and agility within a collaborative environment with your Buyer, Trade Planning and Trading & Product Operations team.
• Externally you will hold a strong relationship with your Brands.
• With guidance from your Buyer, you will be accountable for making all decisions on the product assortment: 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 Brands.
• You will ensure you have up to date expert market knowledge for the category and can predict future market dynamics.
• Accountable for building and maintaining strong Brand relationships, ensuring that they adhere to the required standards and agreed terms.
• Task manage, coach and provide feedback to your teams Buying Assistant/s.
• Responsible for all commercial negotiations.
• Support the Buyer and Category Lead in building a product strategy.
• Buy market leading 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 Central Operations Team.
• Work with the Merchandisers in your team to ensure Buying office negotiated rebates targets are achieved.
• Work with and comply with all critical path requirements as necessary.

Essential skills and/or experience you’ll need:

• Beauty and/or Fragrance Buying experience is essential.
• Brand experience critical.
• Commercial mindset with a solid understanding of profit and margin.
• Experience in the retail industry with a focus on buying, category management, or product management within the designated category. Direct experience in buying practices, merchandising strategies, and supplier negotiations is critical for this role.
• 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 your remit.
• 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.

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.