Knitwear Development Technologist in City of Westminster

At M&S, knitwear is all about quality, innovation and creating product our customers love. We’re looking for a Knitwear Development Technologist to join us on a 6-12 month fixed-term contract, bringing technical expertise and a passion for product to help shape market-leading knitwear. Working closely with Design, Buying and our supplier base, you’ll play a key role in developing beautifully made, commercially strong product that meets our high standards for quality, safety, compliance and sustainability.

What you’ll do:

• Create and deliver the BU Yarn strategy driving commercial customer focused benefit and in line with Design and Innovation Brief priorities.
• Research and understand the latest technology and sustainability trends in materials, fibre, yarn processing and print techniques etc. and feed these into the product development process.
• Communicate key innovations to relevant departments.
• Manage adherence to product safety legislation and work with relevant teams to ensure compliance, chemical and ethical issues are resolved in line with legislation & policy when necessary.
• Benchmark M&S product against high street competitors ensuring a market leading position and feeding into our Product development strategy.
• Monitor the voice of our customer around Quality Fit and Yarn / Fabric and build into ongoing product development strategy.

Your key accountabilities will include:

Who you are:

Your skills and experience will include:

• Expert in the field of Knitwear Technology including manufacturing of raw materials.
• Capable of interpreting customer data (CIU, Power BI, QPI’s, Star ratings online) to shape future product development strategy.
• Experience of briefing and specifying direct design sourced product, working with Buying and Design teams to create Tech Packs.
• Ability to manage departmental data and leverage M&S systems to enable strategic reporting.
• Good knowledge of PLM and Excel.

What’s in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing. Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation.
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more.
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours.
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future.
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one.
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal.
• Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave.
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services.
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you.

Everyone’s welcome. We are ambitious about the future of retail. We are disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We are transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen. We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.