ABOUT US

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivaled service, and reassuringly good value.
We’re Ocado Retail, a market-leading, joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket ocado.com. Not only is Ocado.com the only place to shop a full range of M&S food online, but it’s also the home to the widest online supermarket range in the UK and champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.

KEY SKILLS:

• You apply a structured approach to strategic problems and can switch between the big picture and the detail
• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills and bring energy to every room you enter
• You have experience with commercial modelling and business case development and are comfortable working with financial metrics
• You are comfortable analysing and synthesising data and insights to tell a story in a concise and understandable way
• You build trusting relationships with a wide range of stakeholders and are comfortable working with and influencing senior leaders, developing strong alignment and partnerships
• You can quickly form high-performing working groups from across the organisation, setting a clear vision and energising the team to deliver
• You are highly organised and structured, but comfortable with ambiguity and pace, and always take the initiative and get stuck in
• You are able to run multiple projects simultaneously, creating clear and realistic plans and adapting to business priorities
• Most importantly, you demonstrate our core values:
• Always be Curious: ask why and keep on learning
• Bring our Best Selves: take ownership and deliver together
• Challenge What’s Possible: raise the bar and never give up

ABOUT THE TEAM AND THE ROLE

Join us as Chief of Staff, working directly for the CEO, where you’ll collaborate closely with our CEO and executive team, helping to define strategy, foster culture, and improve how we operate from high-level thinking to daily execution.
Your aim is to help define, clarify and communicate the company’s strategic direction; support the team to build a great culture across the business and with our partners; and assist the CEO on many day to day tasks from Board and governance preparation, external and internal comms and anything and everything else in between! You will be someone who is capable of high level thinking as well as happy to get their sleeves rolled up and get stuck in. You will be a great communicator and comfortable in debating and challenging the CEO and broader leadership team.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Lead the formation of the business strategy alongside the CEO, create the strategic narrative, and support the leadership team in cascading this throughout the organisation
• Prepare the CEO’s regular updates to the Ocado Retail, Ocado Group and M&S Boards on trading performance, progress against key objectives, and future plans
• Design the annual Board strategy day to ensure the Ocado Retail Board have a clear view of the state of the market and the business’ strategic direction;
• Oversee updates to the business’ five-year plan, in close collaboration with Finance
• Prepare briefings, scripts and presentation materials for the Executive team’s engagements with equity analysts and the media (e.g. results announcements), suppliers (e.g. conferences), and colleagues (e.g. town halls, huddles)
• Facilitate corporate governance and orchestrate objective-setting process for the business
• Design agendas and facilitate forums and offsites for the executive team and senior leadership to aid prioritising, problem-solving and decision-making
• Act as a sounding board for members of the executive team (e.g. CEO, CFO)
• Work with the EA to the CEO and CFO to ensure meetings and events are scheduled in line with the annual cadence and are run as effectively as possible
• Provide ad-hoc strategic support, problem solving, analysis and being a general sounding board for the CEO and leadership team.