Overview
Head of Store Transformation & Competition Defence Strategy –
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
We’re looking for a strategic and commercially driven Head of Store Transformation & Competition Defence Strategy to lead the delivery of our UK & ROI store pipeline across Fashion, Home & Beauty.
This role is accountable for end‑to‑end execution of new stores, renewals, closures, and store environment initiatives, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum commercial return. You will also lead the development and implementation of a robust competition defence strategy, protecting market share and driving performance across the estate.
All the details
What You’ll Do
- Lead the end‑to‑end delivery of all new store launches, renewals, closures, and store environment schemes, ensuring strong performance from pre‑opening through post‑launch reviews.
- Drive operational excellence by developing and embedding best‑in‑class processes, minimising disruption, and maximising recapture across trading stores.
- Lead, coach, and prioritise a field‑based team, ensuring clear phasing plans, high standards, and alignment with commercial and operational goals.
- Partner extensively across Retail, Property, Trading, and Finance to influence delivery, shape propositions, and ensure all initiatives are fit for purpose in-store.
- Define and implement the Competition Defence Strategy, embedding governance, reporting, and a targeted, insight‑led approach to protect customer value and sales.
Who You Will Be
- A proven senior leader with experience delivering large‑scale store programmes, transformation, or multi‑site operations.
- Highly effective at stakeholder management, with the ability to influence across Retail, Property, and cross‑functional leadership teams.
- Commercially astute, with a strong understanding of store operations and the ability to balance customer experience with financial performance.
- A resilient and adaptable leader, able to manage remote teams and navigate complexity, ambiguity, and change.
- An impactful communicator who can create clarity, drive accountability, and lead teams to deliver at pace.
What’s in it for you?Working at M&S means being part of something bigger – helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:· 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation· Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more· Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours· Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future· Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one· Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal· Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave· 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services· One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to youEveryone’s welcomeWe 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.
IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.
