Store Development Manager

About the roleWorking with leads from across the business to create clear, deliverable and ambitious briefs that align to the business strategy and business plan, aligning resources across the Brand & Store Experience team and recommending prioritisation where sequencing or choices need to be made.

Proposition Lead for Brand & Store Experience driven projects (Optimisation, Major Refurbishment, Format Projects), and complex new Commercial concepts. Accountable for developing and shaping the brief and successfully navigating as efficiently as possible to SG2 approval and ensuring the project meets the brief and lessons learned via SG5 and R&R for all agreed projects.

Is the in year Business Planning owner for Brand & Store Experience, working with the J4 PMO to recommend trade offs and prioritisation where financial or resource constraints / contentions arise.

You will be the ‘front door’ into the Brand & Store Experience team, working with the PMO team (J4) to ensure that all activity undertaken in the Brand & Store Experience team is prioritised and aligns to the strategy and business plan. In addition, organising activities that come into the Brand and Store Experience team via Business Planning and ad hoc requests / ideas.

• Full Partnership salary range - £56,000 - £84,300 

• Expected salary - Up to £68,000 (dependent on experience) 

• Contract type - This position is initially a 6 month Secondment/Fixed Term contract with the potential to extend to 12months

• Working pattern/flexible working - The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you'll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. The Store Format and Development team aims for around 3 days a week in the office to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings. FYI, office core days are Mondays and Tuesdays. 

• Location -  This role is based at our London Head Office campus in Pimlico. Please note, any cost incurred as a result of travel to the office is the responsibility of the successful candidate. There is also a responsibility to visit our John Lewis branches /competitors when necessary. 

Key responsibilities

For Brand & Store Experience led projects, lead the development of shop elements through Discovery, Ideation and Define phases to create prioritised and agreed Development Briefs aligned to the business strategy and aspiration.

• Secures SG2 approval (and SG1 where appropriate) and is responsible for any change required to SG2 whilst project in flight

• Work with stakeholders across the business to identify total scope opportunity and ensure it delivers the Store Experience aspiration

• Own the scope and business case development with all stakeholders, working with matrix teams to ensure all inputs are robust

• Stakeholder communications managed effectively with clarity of project aspiration, timelines and budgets

• Project reviews are robust, data and insight led and evaluated according to the project brief / business case.

• Measures of success are clearly briefed for each proposition/idea by the relevant project lead

For briefs from business leads outside Brand & Store Experience, as Front Door into the programme, ensure that SG0 brief is robust and actionable by Physical Estate teams, before acceptance at Programme Board

‘Front Door’ for Brand & Store Experience, establishing the stage gate process and ensuring all activity within Brand & Store Experience teams is fully aligned and focused on priority activities

Prioritisation and recommendation in flight for live and requested projects to enable decision making at Programme Board and J3 where resource or financial constraints are identified

Planning of resources across the Brand and Store Experience teams to ensure all Brand and Store Experience resources required to deliver Physical Estate projects are fed into the overall Physical Network Programme and decisions escalated to ensure programme risks are effectively managed

Be a champion for planning, organisation and orchestration amongst stakeholders

• Displaying supreme stakeholder management and engagement. 

• Be the expert in navigating our governance processes to drive the Stage Gate Physical Estate activity plan and through your relationships with the business, help streamline our governance in line with the principles of lean, simple and fast.

Skills

• Store Proposition development

• Project Brief creation and development

• Programme management

• Resource management

• Demand management & prioritisation techniques

• Data analysis & interpretation / recommendation

• Communicating & Influencing

• Business strategies and business planning

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

• Developing Store propositions

• Program/project planning

• Commercial acumen

• Organisation skills

• Stakeholder Management

• Ability to translate complex data into simple, clear and concise presentations

• Communicating & Influencing

Desirable skills/experience you may have 

• Shop operations

• Innovation

• Creative, innovative thinker

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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 also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.  

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.