Commercial Analyst (Experimentation)

The Commercial Analysis team within Food Data Science would like to recruit a new analyst to help drive the transformation of M&S Food through experimentation.

The Role:

Experimentation allows M&S to test a proposed change or idea on a small scale, at lower risk, so we can understand the impact to our business and customers before we make the decision to rollout across all products and stores. The ideas that we test could have risk attached or be so novel that we have no idea how they will perform. Your role will be to design and run these experiments to support our Food colleagues. You will use a range of analytical techniques to provide insight and will communicate this insight with colleagues. Experimentation is a vital part of the transformation of the Food business as we become more data driven, and you will play a central role in delivering that. You will:

• Deliver clear, practical insights to the stakeholders whose trials you are running
• Develop domain knowledge and strong working relationships so you can design custom trials that give the most robust readings of how business transformations would perform
• Develop and maintain high levels of statistical and programming skill
• Drive a culture of experimentation and maintain and develop governance to support

The Team:

You will work within the Commercial Analysis team of Food Data Science. This team provides insights using analytical and statistical techniques to drive better business decision making across our award-winning food business.

You would also work closely with various stakeholders from across the food business (including Supply Chain, Category Transformation, and Strategy and Transformation), working on a mix of longer-term and shorter-term projects.

Technical requirements

• Practical knowledge of Python and SQL preferred - particularly for data manipulation, analysis and visualisation
• A structured, analytical approach to problem solving
• Able to consider problems end-to-end; think critically; and select metrics that accurately and fully reflect business scenarios
• Able to learn new domains and concepts quickly to enable you to design fair experiments in areas you are not familiar with
• Able to distil out key information from collaborators into what is useful and relevant for robust trialling and sound analyses

Personal skills

• Clear communication of commercial and analytical findings and approaches technically to team members and generally to non-specialists
• Dedication to continuous development of professional skills
• Able to provide an appropriate level of challenge and accountability - on the basis of data-based evidence
• Highly organised and able to work across multiple projects simultaneously
• Excellent attention to detail and a love of nuance
• Enthusiasm for the power of experimentation to drive commercial transformation

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the retail industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That’s why we’re revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. There’s never been a better time to be part of our team. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact.

We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk flexible working.

If you consider yourself to require reasonable adjustments to any part of our recruitment process, we invite you to share those requirements with us when completing your application. We will make every effort to ensure your needs are met to provide a fair and transparent process of assessment.