Senior Designer – Womenswear Knitwear

Bring your knitwear expertise to one of the UK’s most loved brands. We’re looking for a creative and commercially minded Senior Designer to help shape standout womenswear knitwear ranges for the M&S customer

You’ll combine strong trend instinct with deep technical knowledge across yarns, gauges, stitches, colourwork, construction, and finish turning ideas into beautifully considered products. Working with Design, Buying, Technical, Sourcing Offices, and suppliers, you’ll play a key role in delivering knitwear that feels modern, relevant, and unmistakably M&S.

Please submit a sample of your portfolio as an attachment, rather than a link, as we are unable to access external portfolio links.

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

• Identify and respond to emerging knitwear trends, yarn innovation, stitch interest, colour direction, texture, intarsia, jacquard, cable, pointelle, rib structures, crochet effects, and shape opportunities.
• Design and develop commercially strong knitwear product with a consistently high standard of CADs, specifications, and tech packs via PLM.
• Drive technical creativity in knitwear through thoughtful use of gauge, yarn blend, stitch architecture, engineered panels, placement patterns, ribs, trims, texture blocking, colourwork, and surface interest to create distinctive and commercially viable product.
• Ensure timely delivery of range line sheets, CADs, and tech packs within the critical path, integrating trend insight and commercial strategy.
• Collaborate with Technical teams to deliver yarn, fit, construction, and innovation strategy across multiple gauges and knit techniques, including fully fashioned, cut-and-sew knit, holding stitches, linking, trims, finishes, and wash performance, while maintaining product integrity and elevated handwriting.

Who you are 

Your skills and experience will include

• Senior-level expertise in womenswear knitwear design, with strong knowledge of yarn composition, gauge, stitch development, fully fashioned construction, cut-and-sew knitwear, intarsia, jacquard, cable, pointelle, rib, ottoman, milano, links-links, mesh, plating, and texture techniques.
• Advanced proficiency in creating CADs, specifications, and tech packs across multiple sourcing models.
• Experience using collaborative software such as Miro and a strong interest in Digital Product Creation.

• Ability to manage multiple projects to tight deadlines within the critical path

• Confident translating technical stitch ideas and yarn innovation into clear supplier briefs, including gauge references, stitch layouts, colourwork placement, engineered design details, trims, finishing expectations, and commercial cost considerations.

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 are disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We are 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.

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.

#L1-AC1 #LI-Hybrid