Senior Buyer - Sourcing Specialist

M&S Food is changing, and fast! We are undergoing one of the biggest transformations in retailing today to build a bigger, better, fresher food business. From Percy Pig to the freshest M&S Select Farms produce, we grow, source, and develop our own products to give our customers family-ready food that's unbeatable on flavour and innovation. We need motivated people who are ready to bring their whole self to work and give it their all in a fast-paced team committed to being the best. After all, this is not just food… This is M&S Food.

Are you a strategic thinker with deep procurement experience and a passion for food? M&S Food is looking for a forward-thinking, commercially minded Senior Buyer to drive our raw material sourcing strategy

We’re looking for an experienced Senior Buyer to join our high performing Raw Materials team at M&S Food. In this pivotal role, you’ll lead the centralised sourcing strategy for a selection of key raw materials across the business, develop supplier relationships that drive mutual value, and contribute to our mission of delivering quality, availability, innovation and value to every M&S customer. You’ll work cross-functionally across all M&S Food categories to ensure our sourcing plans are commercially robust, future fit, and aligned with our broader business objectives.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What’s in it 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

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the category strategy for your selected raw materials
• Lead all aspects of contract and benchmarking negotiations for your selected categories
• Identify and mitigate supply chain risks, including single points of failure
• Map capacity across our supply base to ensure M&S can grow in line with our business forecast over the coming years
• Build and maintain strong supplier relationships based on collaboration, innovation and value
• Act as a key link between Raw Materials and commercial category teams, driving stakeholder alignment and cross-functional project delivery across M&S Food
• Drive cost out initiatives through a robust Value Optimisation programme
• Support Plan A (sustainability) projects that sit within your selected raw materials

About You:

• Proven experience in strategic sourcing or procurement within food or FMCG
• Strong commercial acumen and negotiation skills
• Deep understanding of raw material markets and supply chain dynamics
• A track record of delivering cost savings and strategic category plans
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills

Everyone’s welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen. We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together. If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

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