Key responsibilities:

As a Leader within the Waitrose Own Brand team, you will set the strategic direction for packaging development, ensuring Waitrose maintains a market-leading, sustainable, and highly differentiated position.

You are the "business conscience" on packaging, acting as a Centre of Expertise that translates global trends, customer insights, and emerging legislation into actionable Own Brand material and format strategies.

You will lead a team of packaging specialists to identify and implement innovative packaging solutions that drive commercial value and deliver against our ambitious Ethics & Sustainability (E&S) targets. Acting as a strategic enabler, you will integrate packaging early into the New Product Development (NPD) process, ensuring that the "Waitrose First" culinary vision is perfectly presented in functional, cost-effective, and safe prototypes.

You will provide the strategic oversight necessary to navigate complex regulatory landscapes, such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), to protect the Partnership from financial and reputational risk while strengthening our reputation as an industry innovator.

Essential skills/experience you’ll need:

• Extensive experience in a strategic packaging role within a retail or FMCG environment.
• Proven track record of delivering complex sustainability or material-change programs.
• Experience in leading and developing high-performing specialist teams.

Desirable skills/experience you may have:

• Active participation in industry committees or trade bodies (e.g., BSI, WRAP).

About The Partnership

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.

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

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). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. 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 occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, and therefore, we recommend you apply early. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability which means you may need longer to complete your application please contact us as soon as possible.
• We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.