At a Glance
- Tasks: Analyse demand and create resource plans to enhance customer experience in retail.
- Company: Join M&S, a dynamic and inclusive retail leader.
- Benefits: Enjoy discounts, competitive holidays, and wellbeing support.
- Other info: 12-18 month secondment with excellent career development opportunities.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on retail operations and customer satisfaction.
- Qualifications: Strong analytical skills and experience with retail operations.
The predicted salary is between 35000 - 45000 £ per year.
Demand & Forecast Analyst – Secondment Role – London, Greater London
Everyone is welcome at M&S.
No exceptions.
It’s your background, abilities and differences that make you, uniquely you.
And when you’re part of M&S, that individuality has the potential to make waves.
- Summary
- Resource & Scheduling Analyst
This is an exciting 12–18 month secondment opportunity, offering the chance to gain valuable experience and contribute to key business priorities.
Join our Central Store Operations team as a Resource & Scheduling Analyst, where you’ll play a key role in ensuring our stores have the right resources in place to deliver an outstanding customer and colleague experience.
Working closely with store and central teams, you’ll use forecasting, scheduling, planning tools, and data‑driven insights to develop accurate resource plans, support business transformation initiatives, and drive continuous improvement across the retail operation.
- All the details
- What you’ll be doing
- Develop, maintain, and deliver accurate store resource plans, forecasts, and scheduling demand curves, ensuring plans reflect customer trends, business activity, and operational changes.
- Support the configuration and ongoing optimisation of the My Schedule system, ensuring resource models remain aligned to business processes, policies, and store requirements.
- Provide insight and recommendations on resource deployment to help stores balance customer service, colleague experience, sales performance, and operational efficiency.
- Produce and enhance planning‑related reporting and management information (MI) to support effective decision‑making and drive continuous improvement.
- Build strong relationships with store and central stakeholders, supporting the implementation of resourcing processes, change programmes, and transformation initiatives.
About you
- Strong understanding of retail operations, including store processes, working practices, and retail systems.
- Highly analytical with excellent numerical skills and the ability to interpret data to make informed recommendations.
- Advanced Excel skills and confidence working with planning, forecasting, and scheduling tools.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build effective working relationships across multiple teams.
- Forward‑thinking, proactive, and committed to personal development and continuous improvement.
Desirable experience
- Experience working with resource planning and workforce management systems such as Logile and Blue Yonder.
- MOST qualification in time and motion studies.
- Experience supporting operational change, business transformation, or workforce planning projects.
- Knowledge of forecasting methodologies and demand planning principles.
- Experience developing reporting, dashboards, and operational insights to support business decision‑making.
- You’ll work closely with
- Central Store Operations teams.
- Store Operations teams.
- Food and Clothing & Home trading and operating model teams.
- Store leadership and colleague communities.
- A broad range of stakeholders supporting business transformation and operational projects.
- What’s in it for you
Being a part of M&S is exactly that – playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day.
We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever‑evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value and service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.
Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special…
- 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third‑party brands for you and a member of your household.
- Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days.
- Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
- A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
- A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
- Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
- Industry‑leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
- Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues, including our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist for you and your family.
- A charity volunteer day to support a cause you’re passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.
- Everyone’s welcome.
- We are ambitious about the future of retail.
We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era.
We’re 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.
Please note: This is a fixed‑term secondment opportunity for 12–18 months.
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Demand & Forecast Analyst – Secondment Role – London, Greater London employer: Recruit4Mum
Recruit4Mum is an excellent employer that prioritises the well-being and development of its employees, offering a supportive work culture in the heart of Chester-le-Street. With benefits such as a bonus scheme, enhanced holiday entitlement, and access to an Employee Assistance helpline, we ensure our team feels valued and empowered. Join us for meaningful work that contributes to a safe and inclusive environment while enjoying opportunities for personal and professional growth.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Demand & Forecast Analyst – Secondment Role – London, Greater London
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We think you need these skills to ace Demand & Forecast Analyst – Secondment Role – London, Greater London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Highlight Your Data Projects:When applying for a temporary data science role at Recruit4Mum, make sure to showcase any relevant projects you've worked on. Whether it's a personal project, an academic undertaking, or contributions to an open-source initiative, detailing these experiences can really set you apart and demonstrate your practical skills.
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Show Your Flexibility:Since this is a temporary role, it's important to convey your adaptability and willingness to learn. In your cover letter to Recruit4Mum, emphasise how quickly you can get up to speed with new tools or projects. Highlight any previous experiences where you've had to adjust to new environments or challenges.
Craft a Unique Data-Driven Cover Letter:Instead of the usual generic cover letter, spice it up with some data! Maybe you’ve improved a process by 20% in a past role or cleaned a dataset with over a million entries. Use these stats to your advantage to grab Recruit4Mum’s attention and show the tangible impact of your work.
How to prepare for a job interview at Recruit4Mum
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For a data science gig, it's crucial to demonstrate your analytical abilities. Be ready to discuss previous projects and the methodologies you used. Think about how you can quantify your impact—did your analysis improve efficiency or save costs? These are the stories that will stick with interviewers at Recruit4Mum.
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You might face technical questions on tools relevant to data science, like Python, R, or SQL. Prepare to solve a problem live—perhaps they'll ask you to write a simple query or code snippet. It’s cool to talk about them, but we need to show we can do it in practice, especially in a temporary role where quick results matter.
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Since this is a temporary position, emphasise your ability to learn quickly and adapt to new tools or workflows. Share examples of how you've thrived in fast-paced environments before, and how you can hit the ground running at Recruit4Mum.
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Bring your portfolio to the table—showcase projects where you've leveraged data science techniques to solve problems. Whether it’s a GitHub repository or a set of case studies, having tangible examples of your work will help you stand out and show what you bring to the team at Recruit4Mum.
