Head of Portfolio - 6 month FTC

Our Logistics Teams are right at the heart of our ability to deliver the products our customers want through a service they love. As shopping habits continue to change, it has enabled our transformation into a truly multi-channel retailer. Milestones include the creation of our E-Commerce distribution centre; international websites and in-store technologies to improve the customer experience. We're transforming at M&S and this role is a great opportunity to make a significant contribution to our success!

We have an exciting 6-month fixed term opportunity to cover our Head of Portfolio within Supply Chain & Logistics. This is a critical and pivotal role which will contribute significantly to the continued success of this business unit.

Our Head of Portfolio is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day running of department operations on behalf of our Clothing & Home Logistics Director and our Clothing & Home Comms & Operations Director, including managing the key leadership and stakeholder meetings and events across the department on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis.

NB This role is a salaried role and will be based at our Paddington Support Office a minimum of 3 days a week. As we believe in order to stay close to customers, our support teams need to be in the office to develop skills and ideas through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What's in it for you

Being a part of M&S is exactly that - playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We're an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever-evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, and service to every customer, whenever, wherever, and however they want to shop with us.

Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special:

• After completing your probationary period, you'll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
• A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
• A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
• Industry-leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
• Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
• A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.

What you'll do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Responsible for ensuring that the department activities and priorities integrate smoothly with the broader business calendar of events and strategic priorities.
• Accountable for consolidating SC&L wide inputs to regular corporate reports (i.e. the monthly CEO report, quarterly ESG reviews and external shareholder report requirements) and accountable for writing papers for the ExCo and PLC Board in a consistent and timely manner to gain buy-in and investment decisions.
• Smooth running of the governance structures and processes to ensure decisions are facilitated in a timely manner with the correct information and decision makers.
• Owning the SC&L and Core commercial processes Portfolio of Projects to ensure all dependencies, issues, and risks are effectively managed and programmes integrate in a cohesive way.
• Accountable for defining a clear approach to change management so that change is delivered in a consistent way and that changes are landed in a coordinated manner across the department and wider business.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

• To succeed in this role, you will be a natural writer, a pragmatic and organised professional with extensive experience of creating and compiling corporate reports, someone who can easily translate ideas onto paper!
• You will have significant experience of Portfolio Management, strategy, transformation, governance structures, process and change management programmes, ideally gathered within Retail and/or Logistics or similar environments.
• You'll be a natural with people - This role will provide exposure to a great deal of Senior Leaders and Colleagues across our business so you will need to be confident and comfortable communicating at all levels with a variety of Stakeholders on programme and project timelines and all the associated documentation that comes with it!
• Previous Line Manager experience.

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.