Senior Buyer, Wines in Bracknell

We are seeking an experienced and passionate Senior Wine Buyer to join the team here at Waitrose and Partners, on a fixed term contract for 12 months. In this role, you will focus on cultivating strong supplier partnerships, understanding customer needs, and actively seeking exceptional products to delight our audience.

Key responsibilities include:

• Analysing category performance, monitoring market trends, and identifying growth opportunities.
• Owning the creation of the annual category plan and leading its execution across all channels alongside cross-functional partners.
• Working closely with marketing and sales specialists to effectively define and activate our strategy.
• Being accountable for translating overall business visions into high-impact, category-level commercial plans.
• Leading a cross-functional Pod of multiple Partners to develop and deliver optimised range, pricing, and promotional strategies for your categories to drive profitable growth.
• Encouraging end-to-end thinking to inspire ownership, promote efficiency, and deliver results in a sustainable way.
• Building a clear supplier strategy for your area and nurturing strong supplier relationships.
• Pursuing cost-saving opportunities whilst maintaining quality and ethical standards.
• Managing the cost composition of the products you buy and ensuring optimisation at all times.
• Mentoring and supporting less experienced members of the team to build wider-ranging capability.
• Leading or contributing to wider projects while championing new systems, processes, and ways of working.

Expected salary: Salary up to £80,000 depending on experience. Contract type: This is a 12 month Secondment/ Fixed Term 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. For the Waitrose Trading Team, this means 3 days a week of in-person time but it is not a hard and fast rule requiring everyone to be in the office 3 days a week. Supplier visits, time in our shops and time in the office all contribute to this requirement. Travel including overseas travel may be required.

Location: Bracknell.

Key responsibilities include:

• Responsible for selecting a portfolio of wines within allocated regions and countries.
• Accountable for the negotiation of all supplier terms and contracts, including price and marketing support.
• Commercial delivery including buying responsibility for large or complex Category Pod and delivering category commercial targets and direct KPIs such as Sales, Profit and Market Share.
• Management of the Category Pod suppliers, including selection of appropriate supply base, being responsible for annual terms preparation and negotiation.
• Working in a Category Pod to deliver shared KPIs through collaborative working.
• Manage, coach and train L7 Buyers to deliver the above team purpose for their Category Pod.
• Upskill and develop buying skills of the Buyers through peer to peer coaching and mentoring.
• Facilitate horizontal working across Category Pods.

Essential skills/experience you’ll need:

• Wine qualification (preferably WSET Level 4 Diploma or Master of Wine) and/or demonstrable experience in wine tasting for value assessment.
• Experience as a Wines Buyer or equivalent commercial role.
• Experience of cross-functional matrix working.
• Clear understanding of GSCoP, Competition Law and other legislation relevant to a Buying role.
• Strong negotiation skills.
• Ability to translate the Business and relevant Category Proposition Group vision into an effective plan at category level.
• Analytical skills, IT literacy, decision making, influencing, and supplier relationship management.

Desirable skills/experience you may have:

• GAP, Scotwork or equivalent advanced negotiation training.
• Relevant professional qualifications.

Pay: £68,900.00 - £105,200.00 Annual. Contract Type: Temporary. Hours of Work: 35 hours per week. Job Level: Partnership Level 5. Where You'll Be Working: Bracknell Campus, Doncastle Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 8YA.

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.

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). 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 want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working.