Head of Category - Skincare

If you love beauty, you’re in the right place.

As the ultimate curator of over 100 of the most in-demand, highly innovative and boundary-pushing beauty brands, we are the go-to destination for worldwide beauty discovery.

Together through our neighbourhood stores, online presence and loyalty scheme, Space NK has built a flourishing community in which to discover beauty. The customer is at the heart of everything we do, and we will always endeavour to offer everything they need to help them explore, experiment, and enjoy our brands.

Head of Category, Skincare | Space NK, London

Job title: Head of Category, Skincare

Location: Capper Street

Role Overview

The objective of the Head of Category is to lead a multi-disciplinary team of buyers and merchandisers to deliver the customer and commercial growth and profit targets for your portfolio.

The Head of Category reports into the Category Director.

Strategic Objectives

• Attract New Customers through our Brands

• Increase Space NK Brand Awareness & Appeal

• Make it Easy for the Customer to Shop

• Retain Customers & Grow their Spend

• Achieve Scale to deliver Profitability

Key Responsibilities:

End to end responsibility of Category commercial performance

· Owner of all customer and commercial KPIs

· Lead Monday trade reporting meeting with category team on all key metrics

· Report to Category Director and other senior management team on category KPIs

Budget, Forecast Development & Reporting

· Develop annual budget + targets for category KPIs

· Deliver intermittent re-forecasts as required for business purposes

· Cascade KPIs and targets (including re-forecasts) to category team

Product Assortment Development

· Responsible for commercial performance of product portfolio

· Oversight of Buyers to ensure product assortment is delivering maximum customer and commercial output

o Identify new trends, brands, products, and range gaps; work with brand partners & identify new brands to bring newness in to address.

o Execute Market Week with all brands to review performance and product pipeline

o Ensure all ongoing brands in portfolio have a joint business plan in place including customer, sales, and margin targets and two-way support plans

o Manage underperforming brands and products through range actions, stock initiatives, marketing initiatives, or e-commerce / store led initiatives

o Develop strategic brand relationships, securing incremental support and investment

Customer Journey

· Oversight of Category Co-Ordinator within category team to ensure they continuously deliver improvements of the onsite customer journey

o Analyse and optimise customer journey within category pages and PDPs

o Identify opportunities for improvements (assets, navigation, descriptions, placements) within owned category pages; this includes but is not limited to PDPs, PLPs, customer navigation, home page placements, or other landing pages

o Ensure new product launches, brand launches, or other collection / landing pages are developed, merchandised, tested and launched accurately and on time

o Develop and report on brand commercial performance during Market Week to identify asks for further improvement (e.g. assets, samples, offers)

· Collaborate with digital marketing, content, and technology departments to identify these opportunities and execute tests and/or site improvements

Weekly OTB Sign Off

· Review department WSSIs weekly with category Merchandiser including all metrics

· Review OTB weekly to ensure intake flow into the business is in line with target

Stock efficiency & Stock Health Management

· Oversight of category Merchandiser to ensure stock is managed efficiently and effectively to deliver a positive customer experience within the stock investment targets

o Ensure category stock ownership is in line with target

o Identify availability challenges and risks and develop solutions to improve availability – by brand, by channel, by SKU grade

o Identify areas of overstock or excess within each channel and develop strategies to move or exit underperforming stock

o Work with stores, warehouse, finance to execute stock initiatives

o Partner with e-commerce team to identify quick win actions to impact stock health

o Execute audits with brands to review stock performance and identify asks and targets

o Report on supplier compliance and lead claims process

Marketing, Promotional Planning & Reporting

· Create single category view of product and brand pipeline post Market Week – collaborating with category team and prioritising commercial and customer metrics

· Pitch A-launch priorities to Category Director, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer in 2x per year pitch process for marketing prioritisation

· Collaborate with Marketing department to develop business Trading / Marketing Calendar including promotional and marketing plans

· Create briefs required for any category-led initiatives to inform total business

· Measure and report on performance of category-led initiatives

Margin Management

· Monitor and report weekly on Intake Margin, Discount Spend, Trading Margin

· Continuously identify opportunities for margin enhancement – buy in negotiations; marketing or promotional income; cost savings initiatives; assortment mix optimisation

Internal Leadership & Stakeholder Management

· Ensure all key category initiatives are proactively communicated to other key departments

· Partner with other departments to deliver on their objectives as needed

· Proactively identify opportunities for business improvement

· Actively participate in wider Heads of group sessions such as away days, monthly stand ups, period review

Team Development

· Establish team culture which is entrepreneurial and action-oriented supported by analytics

· Establish clear KPIs and objectives for each member of the team

· Ensure clear development plans are in place for each individual

· Hold regular development meetings with direct reports; ensure all team members are receiving regular development feedback

Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience:

· Strong leadership capability and ability to strategically direct for your area and cascade business objectives through the team and wider business

· Strong commercial acumen – comfortable with analysing data, identifying patterns, and brainstorming solutions

· Strong people skills with a focus and drive to build strong relationships both internally and externally

· Proactive, entrepreneurial, self-starter who can identify opportunities and think end-to-end on delivery

· Comfortable with ambiguity and openness to change; will step into a role to help change and drive new ways of thinking and new processes

· Actively seeks feedback from peers, managers, and team to improve operating model and experience and culture for everyone involved

· Team Builder Development and Leadership

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills

· Proficiency in Microsoft Office including Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook

Please note that only successful candidates will be contacted.

All applicants must have the right to live and work in the UK.

If you want to find out more about us, what it is like to work for us, all about our benefits, and our pledges on Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, please visit our website.

Space NK are an equal opportunities employer.

How We Will Use Your Information

We will use the information you provide to us with your job application to help us process your application for the specific job you have applied for. If you apply speculatively, we will process your application for the job/relevant business area that you detail within your email.

Please note that our current system does not use an automated filtering system.

All applications made via the website, through a third-party website or in-store will be kept on file for a period of 12 months.

This information will be retained and used to assess your suitability to similar positions that may arise in the future, or if the initial vacancy becomes live again during the 12-month period. If you would prefer us to not hold your information on file/ you wish to be ‘forgotten’ if you are not offered a position with Space NK, please email your ‘right to be forgotten’ to our recruitment email address with RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN as the title of the email. We will always inform you when we have deleted your application details, otherwise we will treat your application as consent to us holding this information.