Job Description

Change and Improvement Manager

Up to £60,000 plus great benefits (Work Level 5)

Manchester City Centre, in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and coming into the office twice a week, including a Tuesday (find out more about our hybrid working policy at https://jobs.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy ).

We're looking for a Change and Process Improvement Manager to join our Co-op. This is an exciting opportunity to influence how we work across a wide range of customer and commercial processes, helping to drive meaningful improvements that benefit both our customers and our business.

Working at the heart of our customer function in Food Retail, you'll partner with internal teams across Co-op to identify opportunities, deliver change initiatives, and optimise key processes including seasonal, trade planning, pricing, promotional activity and ways of working.

Why this job matters

This role is all about making things work better for our customers and our business. You'll help improve and streamline the processes that support our customer proposition and commercial performance, working with teams across the business to deliver meaningful change. The work you do will make a real difference, supporting better outcomes for customers, stronger commercial performance, and the delivery of our strategic priorities.

What you’ll do

• Lead and deliver change and continuous improvement initiatives across the Food Retail customer function

• Accountable for the ongoing optimisation of processes, enabling the function to test, learn and embed improvements that strengthen execution, controls and commercial outcomes.

• Own and develop process improvement and change plans to support customer and commercial objectives

• Act as a role model for continuous improvement, embedding a culture where seasonal event/trade planning & promotional processes are constantly reviewed, improved and aligned to Co‑op’s commercial strategy and values

• Provides resources, advice and support to ensure process changes which affect Customer colleagues are planned and delivered effectively

• Work closely with partners across Commercial, Pricing, Promotions, Finance, Range, Brand, CBS and more, to understand challenges and deliver practical solutions

• Facilitate process reviews, workshops and improvement activity, making sure new ways of working are effectively embedded

• Use data, insight and feedback to identify trends, manage risks and prioritise improvement opportunities

What you’ll bring

• Experience working in Food Retail within a commercial environment

• Proven experience leading business change, continuous improvement or transformation initiatives

• Strong influencing skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across multiple teams and seniority levels

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex information into clear, practical solutions and actions

• Strong planning, organisational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver long-term improvement programmes

• Knowledge of continuous improvement methodology and experience using this to improve and optimise processes, including creating clear process mapping and guidance

Why Co-op?

At Co-op, we’re owned by our members. And because we’re owned by you, we can do right by you. So when you join us, you’re not just taking a job, you’re joining a movement. We’re an organisation that puts people and communities first, and we’re powered by purpose. We want this to be a place where you can thrive, so you’ll also receive:

• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Private healthcare
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• Coaching and training to support your career development
• Wagestream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn

A place you’ll belong

We’re building diverse and inclusive teams that reflect the communities we serve. We welcome applications from everyone and are committed to creating a workplace where colleagues can feel like they belong, supported by our inclusive policies and the ways we work.

We’re proud to be part of the Disability Confident scheme and offer interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a job. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, we’ll support you.

Learn more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process and our inclusion commitments at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion.

Please note that we may close applications for this role early.

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes up to 50 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.