Waitrose & Partners
Retail Strategy & Design Manager
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About The Role
This is a rare opportunity to step into a high-visibility, strategic leadership role at the heart of the John Lewis Partnership. You will be fundamental to how our Waitrose physical shops and digital platforms work together to serve millions of our customers. As the Retail Strategy & Design Manager, you will act as the strategic architect for our shops. You will be responsible for defining and maintaining a clear Horizon 1–3 roadmap that balances immediate operational gains with long-term transformational innovation. By synthesising market trends and competitor intelligence from the Partnership Strategy team, you will lead the Retail Research and Design teams to develop customer-centric value propositions and consistent journeys across both physical shops and Retail Product teams. Ultimately, you will serve as the vital bridge between high-level ambition and measurable execution.
At a Glance
- Job Title: Retail Strategy & Design Manager
- Contract Type: Permanent
- Hours of Work: 35 hours per week (Full Time)
- Salary: £60,000-£90,000
- Location: Hybrid, 3 days in person at our Bracknell office or in our shops.
Key responsibilities
- Defining a clear Horizon 1–3 roadmap for all retail-owned priorities.
- Balancing immediate operational gains with long-term strategic innovation.
- Leading the Retail Research and Design teams to build customer-centric propositions.
- Synthesising market trends and competitor data into actionable retail insights.
- Partnering with Retail Product teams to ensure a consistent customer and Partner journey.
- Managing the end-to-end lifecycle of Proof of Concepts (PoC) to validate assumptions.
- Determining annual investment priorities alongside key Retail Leads.
- Creating rigorous measurement frameworks to prove return on investment (ROI).
- Bridging the gap between high-level ambition and measurable shop-floor execution.
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Essential Skills /experience
- Experience building Horizon 1-3 roadmaps and managing innovation lifecycles.
- Proficient in constructing business cases and identifying investment returns.
- Skilled at translating complex customer data and market insights into practical, customer-centric retail solutions.
- Expert at turning future retail trends into simple, actionable design principles that can be easily executed on the shop floor.
- Highly effective in managing senior stakeholders and aligning multi-disciplinary teams.
- People management experience.
Desirable Experience
- Experience in Project & Change Management
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.
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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.
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