Retail Buying & Visual Manager

About the role

A critical member of the Ashmolean Retail team, you will be responsible for our buying, product development and visual standards of our on-site and online shops. You’ll research the collections, and work with curatorial teams to develop exhibition retail ranges and follow retail trends to ensure the shop product selection and development reflects the Ashmolean brand and exceeds customer expectations. You’ll be a strong negotiator – someone who is able to build relationships with valued suppliers. You’ll ensure that our suppliers and products meet our sustainability standards and our ethical trade policy requirements. You’ll be organized, creative, sales-orientated and customer-focused. Reporting directly into the Commercial Director, you’ll have line management responsibility for our Buying & Product Development Co-ordinator and you’ll work collaboratively alongside our Retail & Ticketing Manager and Merchandising & Online Manager to achieve and deliver against the department’s retail objectives.

This is a full-time, fixed-term role, working 37.5 hours per week for 12 months maternity cover. You may occasionally be required to work some evenings and weekends. This role can support a maximum of 1-2 days of remote working per week.

This role requires regular manual handling – full training will be required.

About You

• You’ll have relevant retail buying experience with a proven track record in building and developing supplier relationships to optimise buying results.
• You’ll have experience of working collaboratively to deliver projects and meet range buying timelines.
• You’ll be passionate about retail and in achieving sales, margin and product mix targets and supporting a small team to achieve theirs.
• You’ll be organised, and able to prioritise your own workload and that of your team.
• You’ll be passionate about creating sustainable retail ranges – focused on finding and securing the best and most sustainable products and suppliers.
• You’ll possess creative flair and have strong attention to detail.
• You’ll be a strong communicator (verbal and written) with excellent interpersonal skills, and the ability to build effective working relationships with suppliers and colleagues at all levels.

What We Offer

As an employer, we genuinely care about our employees’ wellbeing and this is reflected in the range of benefits that we offer including:

• An excellent contributory pension scheme
• 38 days of annual leave
• A comprehensive range of childcare services
• Family leave schemes
• Cycle loan scheme
• Discounted bus travel and Season Ticket travel loans

More information is available at https://hr.admin.ox.ac.uk/staff-benefits

Diversity

Our staff and students come from all over the world, and we proudly promote a friendly and inclusive culture. Diversity is positively encouraged, through diverse groups and champions, as well as a number of family-friendly policies, such as the right to apply for flexible working and support for staff returning from periods of extended absence, for example, shared parental leave.

Only applications received online by 12.00 midday (BST) on Friday 25 April 2025 can be considered. Interviews are expected to take place during the week commencing Monday 12 May 2025.

* An automatic annual increment each year will be paid up to (and not including) the discretionary range within the University of Oxford’s Grade 6 salary scale

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