Job Description

As Head of Colleague Technology, you will be accountable for the strategy, standards and delivery of the technology that enables how colleagues work across M&S. You will own colleague-facing technology and identity services, ensuring secure, reliable and modern experiences across stores, supply chain, support centers and international locations.

Your remit covers the Digital Workplace, Colleague Identity and Retail Operations Technology, including colleague and in-store devices, productivity and collaboration platforms, identity and access management, and frontline support services.

You’ll lead and grow a high-performing engineering team, scaling from 14 to around 40 through the right mix of internal and external capability, and fostering a culture of strong engineering practice, accountability and continuous improvement.

What you’ll do

• Define and own a five-year strategy for colleague technology modernisation, aligned to business growth, colleague experience and the wider digital transformation agenda.
• Own the full lifecycle of the colleague technology platform including design, engineering, standards, performance, evergreen strategy and continuous improvement
• Anchor the strategy around clear transformation pillars including modernisation and simplification, automation and observability, security and resilience, cloud and edge connectivity, and operational excellence.
• Develop and communicate a compelling vision for next-generation colleague technology that enables smart stores, connected operations, AI-enabled services and seamless colleague journeys.
• In partnership with Enterprise Architecture, define and embed architectural principles and standards across colleague technology domains.
• Consolidate disparate workplace and operational IT teams into a single Global Workplace capability, establishing consistent engineering practices, operating models and ways of working.

Who you are

• Extensive experience  (typically 10+ years) in end user technology, with a proven track record of leadership and strategic thinking.
• Be a thought-leader in Digital / Technology Experiences within enterprise organisations
• Experience of defining/delivering OKR based roadmaps in complex organisations
• Extensive experience in the design of/engineering of enterprise technology platforms
• Expert in end-user computing methodologies, technologies and best practices
• Expert in IDAM technologies and best practices

What's in in 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, 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!
• Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
• 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.

Everyone’s welcome

We’re ambitious about the future of retail. We’re innovating, disrupting, and leading the way into a more inspiring, digital era. It’s an exciting time to be part of M&S.

To support us on our journey, we’re building inclusive, diverse teams where everyone can be themselves, do their best work, and make change happen. We support each other and succeed together.

Don’t worry if you don’t meet every single requirement of the job description. It’s more of a guide to what’s possible within the role. If you’re passionate, ready to work hard, and think the role feels right for you, we’d love to hear from you.

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