Job Description

ABOUT THE ROLE

The multidisciplinary Own Brand team includes roles responsible for product development, brand strategy and technical implementation of creating our Own Brand range, enabled by the newly formed Central Operations team.

The Own Brand Systems Product Owner is an exciting new role in which you’ll be enabling better decision making across the Own Brand team as part of Central Operations. In this role you will manage a team of 4 reporting directly to you. Day-to-day you’ll manage the different applications within Own Brand, maintaining a clear roadmap that delivers noticeable results and improvements to our internal systems. You’ll be an expert in how these systems work and how they are integrated in the business, managing governance, upgrades and strategy. In addition to your contractual pay, any time worked between 22:00 - 06:00 will attract Night Premium at a rate of £5.25 per hour. This will also apply to existing Partners who have enrolled onto Enhanced Hours Premium arrangements.

(Please ignore the night shift premium wording - this is a system error. There is no night working in this role)

Summary of key details

• Salary range - £53,000 - £78,000
• Contract type - This position is permanent.
• Working pattern/flexible working - The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you'll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. Alongside this we have also signalled a clear intent for Central teams to work ‘more in person than not’. For the Waitrose Own Brand Team this means 3 days a week of in office time.
• Location - This role is based at our Bracknell Head Office.
• Interviews - We anticipate a 1 stage interview process in person at our Bracknell campus w/c 5th October.

Key responsibilities

As a Product Owner, you will be responsible for the technical product ownership of the systems we use in Own Brand, including Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Management, BazaarVoice and more. You will help to link these systems up across the business and provide expert knowledge with documentation to support. You will lead cross-functional teams to deliver Partnership Data Products. You will own and deliver the Product strategy and Roadmap, delivering end value to the team.

You will work alongside third-party vendors and external stakeholders to deliver strategic technical priorities for Own Brand systems. This encompasses managing all elements of systems implementations including risk assessment, implementation of system updates, UAT, glossary management, and issue resolution. You will act as the primary link between the business and the Tech & Change (IT) programme, strategically managing data sources, governance, to resultantly deliver trustworthy data for reporting.

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

• Ability to define System strategy and Product vision with supporting roadmaps to deliver against business goals
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Skills in data-driven decision making, using data to inform priorities
• Analytical & critical thinking with strong attention to detail
• Knowledge of complex data systems and big data
• Strong problem solving skills and tenacity when working through data issues to solution
• Experience in People Management
• Retail / FMCG experience preferred

Desirable skills/experience you may have

• Experience in systems implementation management
• Commercial retail understanding / awareness
• Data visualisation and transformation skills (Tableau and Tableau Prep, Google Sheets & Scripts, SQL)
• Experience in using Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Management

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To learn more about this role, please copy and paste this link into a new browser window: https://embed.wirewax.com/8114190

Closing Date:

September 28, 2026

Pay:

£53,000.00 - £78,000.00 Annual

Contract Type:

Permanent

Hours of Work:

35 hours per week, Mon-Fri

Job Level:

Partnership Level 7

Where You'll Be Working:

Bracknell Campus, Doncastle Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 8YA

ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

Important points to note:

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.

We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.