Senior Vice President Retail

Taylor and Francis; Abingdon; Hybrid; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A global publishing company based in Abingdon seeks a Senior Vice President of Retail to develop and implement a comprehensive retail strategy. This executive role focuses on optimizing revenue through strategic partnerships and enhancing consumer engagement. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in retail strategy, strong leadership skills, and an innovative mindset to drive growth and improve customer experiences. Applicants should be ready to adapt in a dynamic environment while ensuring operational excellence.

Benefits

Flexible working model

Professional development opportunities

Supportive, inclusive environment

Qualifications

• Strategic vision in academic publishing is advantageous.
• Experience in developing retail strategies and growth.
• Comprehensive understanding of digital technologies.
• Proven strategic planning and execution skills.
• Strong communication across all levels.
• Ability to adapt and prioritize under pressure.
• Capacity to influence change effectively.
• Innovative problem-solving skills.
• Analytical thinking with financial data.
• Ability to work decisively and quickly.
• Capability to drive performance and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a comprehensive retail strategy.
• Drive regional retail expansion with market analysis.
• Enhance stakeholder relationships with suppliers.
• Optimize the end-to-end customer journey.
• Establish standardized processes for customer experience.
• Build and lead high-performing retail teams.
• Oversee P&L responsibility for retail.
• Design customer experience strategies to drive loyalty.
• Continuously improve retail offerings based on feedback.

Skills

Strategic view of consumers

Proven track record in retail strategies

Understanding of e-commerce platforms

Excellent communication skills

Flexibility and agility

Influencing skills

Innovative mindset

Strong business acumen

Decisive and able to work at pace

Operational excellence

Leadership capability

Job description

Job Description

The Senior Vice President of Retail will be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive direct-to-consumer retail strategy that delivers results across multiple product lines. This senior-level role will drive a new focus for our consumer segment, optimising revenue and customer attraction in the retail space. They will focus on building strategic partnerships to position the organisation as a market leader in the consumer sector.

This executive position represents a cornerstone role in driving the organisation's retail strategy forward, ensuring sustainable growth and market leadership through innovative approaches, operational excellence, and superior customer experience.

The Academic Publishing industry and T&F are on an exciting growth agenda; from a portfolio of separate products to an integrated platform with a focus on leveraging emerging technologies to ensure advanced, substantiated knowledge is accessible and can have a real-world impact. This role is pivotal in placing our content directly in the hands of consumers on an individual basis, ensuring quality content can have real impact by reaching as vast an audience as possible. The role provides T&F with a competitive advantage in a dynamic business environment and ensures our long-term success.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Act as the architect and implementer of a comprehensive retail strategy, spanning multiple channels, including sophisticated digital platforms, institutional sales networks, and direct-to-consumer pathways.
• Identify and capitalize on new growth opportunities in retail markets
• Drive regional retail expansion initiatives based on market analysis, working collaboratively with internal stakeholders in regions to target sectors and geographies to maximise returns.
• Position the organization as a leader in retail innovation and customer experience
• Enhance stakeholder relationships with retail suppliers and distributors, including Amazon, ensuring T&F has more beneficial terms of engagement. Where required, lead high-level negotiations with major retail accounts, ensuring mutual value creation. Working to provide stability and strategic advantage from the relationships on beneficial terms.

Operational Excellence

• Optimise the retail end-to-end customer journey— devising and implementing go-to-market readiness in a largely untapped space for T&F.
• Implement standardised processes to ensure consistent customer experience, including category management and keyword allocation – driving the discoverability of content for the consumer.
• Develop and monitor key performance indicators for retail

Team Leadership

• Build, develop, and lead high-performing retail operations teams
• Establish clear performance expectations and accountability measures
• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and customer-centricity
• Provide mentorship and professional development opportunities for team members

Financial Management

• Oversee retail P&L responsibility including revenue growth, cost management, and profitability
• Work closely with our Pricing Director to ensure pricing levels for the consumer channel maintain strong revenue and margin.
• Analyse promotional discount effect and make cases for where and when, globally this can be an advantageous tool.
• Develop annual budgets and long-term financial forecasts for retail
• Identify opportunities for cost optimization without compromising customer experience
• Ensure capital investments in retail deliver expected returns

Customer Experience

• Design and implement customer experience strategies that drive loyalty and repeat business
• Utilise customer feedback and market research to continuously improve retail offerings
• Ensure seamless integration between physical and digital retail experiences
• Develop innovative approaches to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction

Qualifications

• A strategic view of consumers in the value chain of content, experience-based in an Academic Publishing or content business would be an advantage.
• Proven track record in developing successful retail strategies and driving growth
• Comprehensive understanding of e-commerce platforms and digital technologies
• Demonstrable strategic long-term planning, able to execute results from a standing start.
• Excellent communication skills – communicating clearly and with authenticity at all levels.
• A flexible and agile mentality able to quickly adapt and respond to changing work pressures and prioritise.
• Highly effective influencing skills, able to drive meaningful change.
• Innovative mindset and creativity, to problem solve effectively.
• Strong business acumen and commercial understanding; an analytical thinker with ability to work with wide range of internal and external financial data
• Decisive and able to work at pace.
• Demonstrated ability to drive operational excellence and financial performance
• Proven leadership and mentorship capability, experience running high performing global teams. Fostering a culture of confidence and trust across department

Additional Information

Location – The successful candidate will be able to utilise our balanced working model. There is an expectation for a minimum of 3 days per week of in-person time.

Closing date – 10th January 2026

Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa Business

We want all our candidates to shine in our recruitment process. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to ensure you can show us your best self. This could include having the application form in a different format, having more time for questions, or anything else. Please ask us; we are happy to be flexible! Please contact [e-mail]

Being Yourself at Taylor & Francis

If you’re excited about working with Taylor & Francis to foster human progress through knowledge, we invite you to apply even if your existing skills and experience don’t fit every item listed above. At Taylor & Francis, we are at our best and most successful when colleagues can be themselves and contribute regardless of their identity or background. As a colleague, you will have the opportunity to further innovate and develop in areas that you are passionate about. Our goal is to empower you with the resources, incentives, and flexibility you need to enjoy success at work and to live a healthy, balanced life.

Taylor & Francis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe in and value diversity of people and thought, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where all colleagues can learn and succeed as their true selves. Taylor & Francis recruits, develops, and retains colleagues without regard to any protected personal characteristics or other non-merit-based factor.

We genuinely care about our colleagues, promoting work-life balance, wellbeing, and flexible working. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. We want you to have the opportunity to develop your abilities, and to innovate and develop in areas which you are passionate about. To find out more about our business and the great career opportunities please go to our Careers Site : http://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/careers

Or better yet check out our LinkedIn ‘Life’ Page, highlighting our accomplishments, employees, and company culture. It’s also a good way of meeting our recruitment team, who will be happy to advise you on your journey here at T&F.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/taylor-&francis-group/life/79e0c27c-afdf-4bbb-84e6-5f8ed5e10bb8/