What’s in it for you

Being a part of M&S is exactly that – becoming a part and playing your part. We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and always evolving business built on core values.  

Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special… 

• 20% Colleague discount on most things from furniture, fashion and food. 
• A first-class welcome to M&S with a tailored induction and a wide range of training schemes to help with your learning and development. Having options to progress is something we’re proud of at M&S. 
• Attractive annual bonus, based on company performance and personal objectives. 
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days! 
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices website. Including GymSave – that offers up to 25% off Gym Memberships and the option to become an M&S Shareholder using our ShareSave & ShareBuy Schemes 
• Charity Volunteer Day – A paid day away from work to support your chosen charity. 
• A very generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance 
• Every colleague at M&S has access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support – this includes access to our 24/7 Virtual GP, PAM Assist to support you & your family as well as many other schemes 
• Family friendly policies to support life’s most important milestones including maternity leave, neo-natal 

What you’ll do…

As the Business Development lead your role will be to ensure the successful execution and delivery of seasonal and long-term strategic initiatives. You will play a key role in the execution of tactical and long-term strategic trading initiatives delivering through the wider team 

Your key accountabilities will include  

• Act as a customer champion; ensuring teams hold customer outcomes as their ‘north star’ when making key business decisions and striving to meet and excel customer expectations of the M&S product and brand
• Collaborate with the Womenswear Leadership Team to develop and execute WW & Jaeger long-term strategies
• Own and deliver the super-season strategy planning process (sprint, cascade, feedback) for WW & Jaeger, coordinating between the WW LT and business partner areas, and ensuring alignment to the long-term strategy
• Provide the strategic narrative for the WW & Jaeger 5 Year Plan's and annual budgets
• Drive action against long-term and seasonal priorities through the scorecard processes
• Write board papers and business cases, ensuring a clear case for change and strong ROI
• Work with departments to deliver departmental strategy resets
• Engage key stakeholders from across the business (Dotcom, Retail, Sourcing, Marketing, etc.) and our suppliers and external partners to build their commitment to the strategy and ensure delivery

Who you are…

Your skills and experience will include  

• Previous strategy, strategy consulting, business development experience essential - working to a similar level already
• Strong relationship skills and positive personal impact and the ability to work well with a large variety of personalities at all levels of business
• Confident to challenge and hold others to account for the delivery of an agreed plan, giving open and direct feedback to resolve issues in a transparent and purposeful manner
• Highly organised and previous experience at managing multiple priorities, projects and deadlines while maintaining keen attention to detail
• Demonstrates an ability to work across a matrix organisation and to influence & drive progress where not accountable
• Strong commercial and financial acumen – able to analyse complex data from multiple sources to drive financial and commercial decisions
• Demonstrates strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare Board papers, business cases and present these as required
• Experience in leading complex strategic projects, analysing problems, gathering information, generating options, then proposing and acting on a path forward
• Proven ability to directly lead cross-functional teams, pull together diverse individuals with different goals, and facilitate productive discussions
• High proficiency in business communication tools
• Tolerance for ambiguity, strong prioritisation skills

Everyone’s welcome 

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the retail industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That’s why we’re revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. There’s never been a better time to be part of our team. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact. 

 We’re an in-person business and have core collaboration days in our Support Centre each week. For most teams, this is 3 working days where we come together to collaborate, innovate, and serve our customers brilliantly. 

 We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk flexible working. 

If you consider yourself to require reasonable adjustments to any part of our recruitment process, we invite you to share those requirements with us when completing your application. We will make every effort to ensure your needs are met to provide a fair and transparent process of assessment. 

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