Customs Compliance Lead in London

We are looking for a Customs Compliance Lead within the Trading Optimisation Profession. This key role will serve as the Partnership's authoritative expert and principal point of contact for HMRC across both John Lewis and Waitrose Brands for the John Lewis Partnership.

In the role, you will lead strategic and operational trade compliance, driving end-to-end import and export controls, Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) governance, complex Excise duty regimes (specifically across Waitrose Beers, Wines, Spirits, and food/non-food imports), and the oversight of the Partnership's multi-hundred-million-pound duty deferment accounts. Combining sharp commercial acumen with deep regulatory insight, you will act as a trusted advisor to Heads of Merchandising, Buying, Supply Chain, and Finance. You will ensure commercial importing and sourcing strategies are legally compliant, duty-efficient, and optimised to preserve margins and cash flow while safeguarding stock availability and speed-to-shelf.

You will lead the evolution of the combined Customs & Excise function, designing future-fit processes, embedding scalable technologies, and aligning operational controls with industry best practices. As a people leader, you will empower, upskill, and stretch your team, creating an agile, high-performing compliance capability that supports the business through regulatory change and complex trading environments.

Key responsibilities:

• Responsible for all Customs activities including CFSP customs entries, classification, valuation, evidencing controls and governance processes to meet the standards and requirements expected of an Authorised Economic Operator.
• Maintain up-to-date documentation of activities touching the international supply chain across John Lewis and Waitrose.
• Ensuring relevant product codes are linked to a commodity code.
• Meet appropriate availability targets.
• Ensuring all CFSP entries are submitted and the month-end is closed off in accordance with HMRC timelines.
• Managing and reporting on Assists calculations, including collating the annual statement of intent from every John Lewis and Waitrose buyer, calculating monthly RFID, GIL label duty & VAT liabilities.
• Setting up new systems and processes which make our operations fit for the future.
• Ensuring all Customs activities for Waitrose, including the correct treatment of BWS and food and non-food imports.
• Overseeing and controlling the Waitrose Customs & Excise deferment accounts and releasing the payments to HMRC.
• Obtaining and maintaining all the necessary authorisations for John Lewis & Waitrose (AEO, Excise Warehouse, CFSP, PVA).
• Act as a main point of contact for HMRC for any Customs and Excise-related queries.
• Advise on strategic business decisions to improve margin and cash flow for the Partnership (implementation of new FTAs, mass excise duty payments).

Essential skills/experience you'll need:

• Substantial, hands-on experience managing complex end-to-end import, export, and excise compliance within high-volume retail or FMCG environments.
• Detailed technical knowledge of UK Customs tariffs, CFSP, AEO governance, duty deferment systems, Free Trade Agreements, Rules of Origin, and Excise regulations (specifically BWS and food/non-food imports).
• Practical, operational expertise using EMCS (Excise Movement and Control System) to manage goods under duty suspension, duty-paid movements, and release for consumption.
• Extensive, hands-on experience managing UK Excise Duty regulations and operational compliance within retail, FMCG, or logistics, with specific emphasis on Beers, Wines, and Spirits (BWS).
• Strong financial and analytical capability with a proven track record of leveraging trade data (MSS, customs entries, audit reports) to drive duty savings, optimise cash flow (e.g., managing high-value deferment accounts), and inform commercial/sourcing strategies.