Senior Buyer
- Team
- Food
- Store
- London Support Office
- Location
- London, Greater London
- Contract type
- Permanent
- Position type
- Full Time
- Salary
- Competitive + Benefits
- Closing date: 22nd June 2026
How We Hire
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.
About the role
This section tells you all you need to know about the position and its responsibilities, outlining everything we hope to see in a successful candidate.
To stay close to our customers and colleagues, our support teams are in the office for at least three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.
All the details
We’re reshaping our Food business to broaden its appeal, protecting the magic our customers love while modernising everything else. That means outstanding quality, high sourcing standards, and market-leading innovation remain at our core, while we transform our supply chains, improve our stores, and deliver better value.
We’re looking for motivated people ready to bring their whole self to work and thrive in a fast-paced, ambitious team. After all, this isn’t just food… this is M&S Food.
If you’re someone who spots opportunity where others see a fixture full of products, this one’s for you. We’re looking for a Senior Buyer to lead across our Meat, Fish & Poultry categories — a fast-paced, high-impact area right at the heart of M&S Foods.
This isn’t just about keeping the category running — it’s about owning it. From shaping strategy and building strong supplier partnerships, to bringing standout products to our shelves, you’ll have real influence on what our customers buy (and come back for). You’ll balance commercials with quality, drive innovation, and keep the range fresh, relevant and ahead of the market.
You’ll work closely with Product Development, Supply Chain and Marketing to turn ideas into reality — and with these categories playing such a key role in the customer basket, what you do here really matters.
If you’re commercially sharp, love food, and want a role where you can genuinely make your mark — this is a big one.
Due to high interest, this role may close earlier than advertised. We recommend applying as soon as possible.
What you’ll do
Your key accountabilities will include:
- Owning and delivering category strategies across fresh food, aligned to customer needs and commercial goals
- Leading end-to-end supplier management, including sourcing, negotiation, performance and long-term partnership development
- Driving sales growth, margin improvement and cost efficiency through effective trading decisions
- Shaping ranges, promotions and innovation, using insight, data and market trends
- Working cross-functionally to ensure strong availability, quality, sustainability and food safety outcomes
Who you are
Your skills and experience will include:
- Proven experience as a Buyer or Senior Buyer within fresh food retail, wholesale or foodservice
- Strong commercial judgement, with a track record of delivering sales, margin and cost improvements
- Confidence leading supplier negotiations and influencing at a senior level
- Sound understanding of fresh food supply chains, seasonality and waste management
- A collaborative approach, with the ability to thrive in a fast-moving, change-driven environment
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 (post‑probation)
- Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
- Discretionary bonus scheme 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 you
Everyone’s welcome
We 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’re committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best.
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.
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Being an in-person business
We're at our best when we're close to customers, and for many of us at M&S, that means working in store every day.
To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected. It also means we can solve problems as soon as they arise, learn and grow as a team, build trust, and get closer to our colleagues.
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Make Your Mark
Opportunities to be heard
Your voice matters here. You can share your ideas ‘Straight to Stuart’, our CEO, or get involved in our BIG (Business involvement Group). Our colleague networks are also great places to find support, listen to each other and encourage debate.
Experience the business
We’re passionate about our customers and colleagues. To get closer to our customers we work in our stores 7 days per year. That way we can see how operations run and look for ways to do better each day.
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Benefits
How to Apply
Here’s what to expect at each stage of the application process. This can change depending on the role you’ve applied to. If you need any reasonable adjustments made at any stage, let us know and we can help.
Send us your application
Fill in our short application form and hit submit.
Online assessment
We’ll invite you to take part in an online assessment. This could be before or after your interview.
In-person assessment centre
We’ll invite you to an in-person assessment centre for an interview. This process may differ depending on the role you’ve applied to.
Decision
After we’ve decided, we’ll be in touch. If you’ve been successful, we’ll officially invite you to join the team and let you know the next steps.
Senior Buyer
- Team
- Food
- Store
- London Support Office
- Location
- London, Greater London
- Contract type
- Permanent
- Position type
- Full Time
- Salary
- Competitive + Benefits
- Closing date: 22nd June 2026
- Reference: 120506