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- Tasks: Lead food trading operations, ensuring customer-focused initiatives and seamless store execution.
- Company: Join M&S, a dynamic retailer committed to quality and service.
- Benefits: Enjoy a 20% discount, competitive holidays, and tailored training from day one.
- Other info: Inclusive culture with a focus on personal development and wellbeing support.
- Why this job: Shape the future of food retail and enhance customer experiences across hundreds of stores.
- Qualifications: Strong communication, problem-solving skills, and experience in multi-site operations.
The predicted salary is between 50000 - 65000 £ per year.
We're looking for a Food Trading Operations Manager to act as the trusted retail voice for our Food Group, ensuring that every decision we make is grounded in what matters most to customers and colleagues. This role turns strategy into action, simplifying complexity, shaping brilliant commercial ideas, and ensuring they land seamlessly in our stores. You'll champion store insight at the heart of Food, challenge plans to ensure they're bold and achievable, and create joined up ways of working that drive exceptional customer experiences. If you're commercially sharp, operationally strong and passionate about elevating food retail, this is a chance to shape how M&S Food comes to life in hundreds of stores nationwide.
What you'll do:
- Being the trusted retail voice for your cluster, ensuring initiatives are practical, simple and customer focused.
- Leading cluster trials, generating sharp insight and clear recommendations that shape wider Food Group plans.
- Driving rollout of M&S Way, embedding simple and effective processes that support brilliant store execution.
- Turning customer, store and commercial insight into clear, actionable improvements that enhance performance.
- Building strong relationships across Food Trading, Operations, Supply Chain and store leadership to enable fast, aligned decision making.
Who you are:
- Strong ability to simplify complexity and produce clear, high quality communications for stores and stakeholders.
- Excellent influencing, collaboration and problem solving skills, with resilience in fast changing environments.
- Proven experience operating across multiple sites/regions with strong planning, prioritisation and execution skills.
- Commercially minded, data informed and confident using insight, AI and benchmarking to spot opportunities early.
- A confident communicator who can translate store reality into compelling insight that influences senior stakeholders and shapes decision making.
What's in it for you:
- 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.
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.
Trading Operations Manager employer: MARKS&SPENCER
Contact Detail:
MARKS&SPENCER Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Trading Operations Manager
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to people in the industry, attend events, and connect with potential colleagues on LinkedIn. The more people you know, the better your chances of landing that dream role.
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for interviews by practising common questions and scenarios related to food retail operations. We recommend doing mock interviews with friends or using online platforms to boost your confidence and refine your answers.
✨Tip Number 3
Showcase your passion for food retail! During interviews, share your insights on current trends and how they can impact customer experiences. This will demonstrate your commercial mindset and commitment to the role.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets noticed. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in being part of our M&S family.
We think you need these skills to ace Trading Operations Manager
Some tips for your application 🫡
Get to Know Us: Before you start your application, take a moment to really understand what we do at M&S Food. Familiarise yourself with our values and how we operate. This will help you tailor your application to show how you fit into our culture and mission.
Showcase Your Skills: When writing your application, make sure to highlight your experience in simplifying complexity and producing clear communications. Use specific examples that demonstrate your ability to influence and collaborate effectively, as these are key traits we’re looking for.
Be Customer-Focused: Remember, we want to see how you can put customers at the heart of everything. Share instances where you've turned insights into actionable improvements that enhanced customer experiences. This will show us you're aligned with our mission.
Apply Early!: Due to high interest in this role, it’s best to get your application in as soon as possible. Don’t wait until the last minute! Head over to our website and submit your application today to ensure you don’t miss out on this opportunity.
How to prepare for a job interview at MARKS&SPENCER
✨Know Your Food Inside Out
Make sure you’re well-versed in the latest trends and insights in food retail. Research M&S's current offerings and think about how you can enhance them. This will show your passion for the industry and your ability to turn customer insights into actionable strategies.
✨Simplify Complexity
Prepare examples of how you've simplified complex processes in previous roles. Be ready to discuss how you can apply this skill to ensure that initiatives are practical and customer-focused, just like the role requires.
✨Build Relationships
Think about how you’ve successfully collaborated with different teams in the past. Be prepared to share specific instances where your influencing skills made a difference. This will demonstrate your ability to work across various departments, which is crucial for this position.
✨Communicate with Confidence
Practice articulating your thoughts clearly and confidently. You’ll need to translate store realities into compelling insights, so consider rehearsing how you would present your ideas to senior stakeholders. This will help you stand out as a confident communicator.