Senior Buyer – Cook & Dine

Ocado Retail; Hatfield; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in online retail seeks a Senior Buyer to manage a category within the commercial buying team. The role focuses on optimizing product ranges and driving sales and profitability through supplier negotiations and data analysis. Ideal candidates will have significant retail buying experience and strong team management skills.

Benefits

Private medical insurance

Annual bonus scheme

M&S discount

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Significant retail buying experience and existing senior buyer experience required.
• Strong experience in managing a team.

Responsibilities

• Manage the category P&L and deliver against KPIs.
• Negotiate with suppliers to deliver market-leading plans.
• Analyse performance issues and devise solutions.

Skills

Retail buying experience

Negotiation skills

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Tools

Excel

Job description

2 days ago Be among the first 25 applicants

Permanent

Hatfield/ (Hybrid working – 3 days in the office)

40 hours

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Hatfield/ (Hybrid working – 3 days in the office)

Working hours per week: 40 hours

Level: Manager

Application closing date: 3rd July 2025

About Us

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivaled service, and reassuringly good value.

We’re Ocado Retail, a market-leading, joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket ocado.com. Not only is Ocado.com the only place to shop a full range of M&S food online, but it’s also the home to the widest online supermarket range in the UK and champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.

About The Team And The Role

As a Senior Buyer, you will have accountability for a specified category within the commercial buying team. You will be responsible for Buying ensuring your supply base and the product range is optimised, proactively using data and analysis to maximise performance to and drive sales, profitability and share growth to support the growth to to support the overall Ocado Retail strategy and goals.

Cook and Dine are our largest categories, and we’re looking for a Senior Buyer to raise the bar even further. The buying area includes great brands with loads of room to innovate and be at the forefront of trends– be that looking after water filters or sourcing beautiful glassware. We also select from the M&S ranges, offering great choice to our customers. This role sits in our Your Home team – a fast paced & dynamic team where there is a fun and collaborative culture.

What You’ll Do

• Manage the category P&L and deliver against KPIs
• Complete category reviews to refine range and align to the business and category strategy, and support L2s and Commercial Associates in delivering their category reviews
• Plan and deliver trade, promotions and events plans
• Identify opportunities to drive customer penetration
• Identify opportunities to improve all-in margin, negotiate with suppliers to deliver savings
• Negotiate with suppliers to agree and deliver market-leading plans aligned to the customer plan and category strategy.
• Analyse and assess performance issues and opportunities using data and reporting tools, devise and implement solutions
• Identify, analyse and source first-to-market / Ocado exclusive product innovation using customer, market and supplier insights to guide decision making
• Ensure range changes are aligned to the category and business strategy
• Work closely with merchandise planning and the supplier base to ensure best in class availability
• Identify and create plans to mitigate potential issues / events that may impact supply
• Work closely with suppliers and the quality team to ensure product quality meets Ocado requirements
• Adhering to all Ocado policies, storage and handover protocols and successfully completing all of your training so that you have zero GSCOP breaches. Ensuring all agreements are recorded in writing, reporting GSCOP complaints to Legal within 48 hours of receipt
• Following our Business Code of Conduct and always acting with integrity and due diligence
  
  

Who You Are

• Significant retail buying experience and existing senior buyer experience required
• Strong experience in managing a team
• Excited about working in retail and homewares
• Proficient in Excel, with prior experience working with customer, transactional or financial data
• Leadership capability/people management
• Influencing and stakeholder management
• Very strong negotiation skills and commercial acumen
• Project management capability
• Able to analyse complex sets of data
  
  

At Ocado Retail we're passionate about building careers and skills by giving people access to new and diverse opportunities. If you don't tick all the boxes above but have a curious mindset, a passion for learning and adaptable skills to bring to the role, we still want to hear from you.

What’s In It For You

By joining Ocado Retail you’ll have the chance to experience life at the world’s largest online retailer, work with an amazing bunch of people who challenge what’s possible each day, and grow your skills and career in online retail.

If that’s not enough to tempt you, you’ll also get access to loads of great benefits to sweeten the deal. Here’s a taste of what we offer:

Health & Wellbeing: Private medical insurance with the option to add your family, Digital GP appointments, market-leading family policies, mental health support, discounted gym memberships, dental insurance, and more.

Spend & Save: Annual bonus scheme split between personal and business objectives, recognition with reward platform, up to 7% matched pension contributions, 15% Ocado discount, 20% M&S discount, free breakfast every day in the office, electric vehicle leasing scheme and free shuttle bus from Hatfield station to the office.

Never miss the moments that matter: Blended/Hybrid working, 26 days holiday plus 8 flexible bank holidays, options to buy an extra holiday, 2 weeks work from anywhere, and lifestyle break opportunities.

Our Hiring Process

Lucky for us, we get loads of great applications and we really appreciate that so many people put the time and effort in to apply. To recognise that, we treat all applications respectfully and fairly. So, if yours stands out, you’ll follow our standard hiring process – one of our Talent Partners will talk you through this in an initial call.

Everyone’s welcome

We’re an equal opportunities employer. That means that we make sure all potential colleagues are treated fairly and equally. If you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know on the application form.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Purchasing and Supply Chain

• Industries

  Retail

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