Store Planner

As a Store Planner you will be right at the forefront of our ambitious Transformation Plans at M&S. You will be accountable for the end-to-end planning of projects through their entire lifecycle including New Stores, Renewals of our existing Store estate and Store Environment roll out programmes.

You will manage your own portfolio of projects whilst having the support of the wider Store planning team to assist you. The role will require extensive travel to projects across the UK as required to ensure smooth and effective delivery of projects with a regular day in our support centre in Waterside to collaborate. You will have excellent attention to detail, be comfortable managing your own workload, and possess great communication and influencing skills to manage a broad network of internal and external stakeholders on each of your projects.

We are passionate about maintaining our market leading store environments and formats, and as such you will be working closely with our in-house store design teams to implement new initiatives and concepts at pace into our pipeline of projects. This requires collaborative working and the ability to manage change and ambiguity at pace whilst maintaining firm control of the overall store plan.

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 goals.
• 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 & free access to the UnMind App as well as many other schemes

What you'll do

Your key accountabilities will include

• Manage the end to end Store Planning process for Food, Clothing & Home, Hospitality, Back of House and operational space in all new store openings, developments and modernisations. Provide considered and expert advice to architects and contractors.
• Accountable for the brief and formal review of the complete drawing package for schemes to include signage, internal and external elevations and store layout.
• Deliver layouts that maximise operational efficiency and deliver clear, easy to shop stores. Identify potential operational challenges and offer pragmatic, budget appropriate, solutions.
• Provide visible leadership for store projects through entire project life cycle (design team meetings, pre-start, progress and PC.) Provide cost effective and innovative solutions to any on-site challenges as they arise.
• Work seamlessly with Design and Retail colleagues to ensure each project is managed and delivered within agreed framework. Ensure change requests are managed through correct governance as required.
• Maintain strong awareness and knowledge of the evolving retail landscape, competitor activity and consumer behaviour. You will work with Store Planning colleagues to be positively dissatisfied, seizing opportunities and learnings from each scheme to improve quality and consistency in future schemes.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include

• Previous Store planning experience in a large format retailer or similar business preferred.
• Experience of utilising 2D layout planning systems including Storespace and AutoCAD.
• Stakeholder Management – Confidence to communicate across all levels of the business both internally and externally, providing considered challenge when required and providing solutions to feedback received.
• Decision Making and Time Management – working independently and managing own workload.
• Ability to manage ambiguity and change in a calm considered manner.
• Communication and Influencing across project teams.

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 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