Please note this role is a 12 month FTC
What you'll do
The Head of Online Trading is accountable for delivering best‑in‑class online commercial performance across all categories and business units. This role drives sales, conversion, and customer engagement through exceptional daily execution across all devices, data‑led decision‑making, and continuous optimisation of the end‑to‑end trading experience.
A strategic leader with strong interpersonal skills and a deeply embedded digital mindset, they inspire, coach, and develop high‑performing multi‑category trading teams. They define and implement the online trading strategy, ensuring the site consistently reflects brand values while balancing commercial targets and evolving customer needs.
The role oversees the full trading lifecycle: ensuring products launch accurately and on time; delivering commercial, marketing, and seasonal plans flawlessly; and proactively using digital insights to influence cross‑functional partners across Buying, Merchandising, Content & Imagery and Marketing.
Success is measured through robust trading outcomes: including sales, conversion, customer engagement, availability, accuracy, speed to site, execution quality, and overall customer satisfaction.
Who you are
- Proven leadership in online trading, ecommerce merchandising or digital commercial roles
- Strong grasp of ecommerce principles, journeys, behaviours and trading levers
- Highly data‑driven, with strong analytical interpretation skills
- Excellent communicator with the ability to influence across BUs and central functions
- Experienced in leading high performing, multi‑category teams in a fast‑paced environment
- Strong understanding of product onboarding, CMS and PIM processes
- Knowledge of SEO, onsite search optimisation and UX principles
- Able to balance commercial priorities with customer and digital insight
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 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 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.
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About UsSkills Required
- Proven leadership in online trading, ecommerce merchandising, or digital commercial roles
- Strong understanding of ecommerce principles, customer journeys, behaviors, and trading levers
- Strong data-driven and analytical interpretation skills
- Excellent communication and cross-functional influencing skills
- Experience leading high-performing, multi-category teams in a fast-paced environment
- Strong understanding of product onboarding, CMS, and PIM processes
- Knowledge of SEO, onsite search optimization, and UX principles
- Ability to balance commercial priorities with customer and digital insight
What We Do
At M&S, we're dedicated to being the most trusted retailer, prioritising quality and delivering value. Every day, we bring the magic of M&S to our customers, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us. For over a century, we've set the standard, doing the right thing and embracing innovation. Today, with over 65,000 colleagues serving 32 million customers globally, we're putting quality products at the heart of everything we do. Tomorrow holds boundless opportunities with us. We're pioneering digital innovation and shaping the future of retail where our values drive every action. We stay close to customers and colleagues, always curious and connected. Our decisions are bold, our actions ambitious. Transparency is paramount, with straightforward, honest communication. We're constantly innovating, always striving for the best. Our focus is on aiming higher and winning together, combined with wise financial decisions to secure our future. Join us at M&S to shape the future of retail.
