Chief of Staff

Chief of Staff

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Hatfield (Hybrid working - 3 days in the office)

Working hours per week: 40 hours

Level: Lead

Application Closing Date: Friday 27th November 2026

About us

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivalled 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 a champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.

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.

You aim 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 your 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, support the leadership team in cascading the strategy throughout the organisation, and ensure continued engagement with the strategy

• Prepare the CEO’s regular Board papers to the Ocado Retail, Ocado Group and M&S Boards on trading performance, progress against key objectives, and future plans

• Plan and run the annual Board strategy day to ensure the Ocado Retail Board has a clear view of the state of the market and the business’ strategic direction;

• Design, plan and facilitate leadership away days for the executive team and wider senior leadership group, and run monthly leadership team lunches

• Oversee updates to the business’ five-year plan, in close collaboration with Finance

• Run the company-wide Objectives process, including setting new objectives three times a year and providing monthly updates to the executive team

• Support driving change and transformation across the business, ensuring that everyone is clear on priorities across different departments

• Own the agenda for executive team meetings, ensuring relevant and strategic topics from across the business are discussed at appropriate times

• 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, Slack messages)

• Act as a sounding board for members of the executive team (e.g. CEO, CFO) and bring external perspectives from other companies, industries and countries

• Work with the internal comms team to design the annual colleague engagement plan and support with key engagement moments throughout the year

• 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.

Who you are

• Experienced in strategy roles within a retailer, technology company or management consultancy

• Proven track record of influencing and collaborating with senior stakeholders across multiple functions, helping leaders see beyond their own areas

• Strong understanding of retail, operational performance metrics and financial accounts

• Comfortable working as an independent operator with very senior stakeholders, including at executive level

• Experience working in or with fast-growing/scaling businesses is desirable

Key Skills

• You apply a structured approach to strategic problems and can switch between the big picture and the detail and judge which one a situation needs

• You are an excellent communicator, especially in writing, and can turn complex information into clear, concise stories for audiences from the Board to colleagues

• You have experience with commercial modelling and business case development, and are comfortable working with financial metrics

• You build trust quickly, listen well, and are comfortable influencing and respectfully challenging senior leaders to create strong alignment

• You are proactive and completely reliable: you take the initiative, follow through, with great time keeping skills

• You are flexible and thrive on pace and ambiguity, happy to be thrown into anything and to get stuck in

• You are very curious about AI, use multiple different AI tools every day, run and manage your own agentic workflows, and are constantly experimenting and looking for better ways of doing things with AI

• You handle confidential and sensitive information with complete discretion

• 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

What’s in it for you

By joining Ocado Retail, you’ll have the chance to experience life at the world’s largest online retailer, work with an amazing bunch of people who challenge what’s possible each day, and grow your skills and career in online retail.

If that’s not enough to tempt you, you’ll also get access to loads of great benefits to sweeten the deal. Here’s a taste of what we offer:

Health & Wellbeing: Private medical insurance with the option to add your family, Digital GP appointments, market-leading family policies, mental health support, discounted gym memberships, dental insurance, and more.

Spend & Save: Annual bonus scheme split between personal and business objectives, recognition with reward platform, up to 7% matched pension contributions, 15% Ocado discount, 20% M&S discount, free breakfast every day in the office, electric vehicle leasing scheme, and free shuttle bus from Hatfield station to the office.

Never miss the moments that matter: Hybrid working, 26 days holiday plus 8 flexible bank holidays, options to buy extra holiday, 2 weeks work from anywhere, and lifestyle break opportunities.

Our Hiring Process

Lucky for us, we receive a high volume of applications and genuinely appreciate the time and effort invested by every candidate. To ensure a fair and thorough process, every application is reviewed by a member of our team. If your skills and experience are a strong match, a Talent Partner will contact you to discuss the role and guide you through the next steps of our hiring process.

Your Application and AI

In the spirit of innovation, we welcome you to use AI tools in your application, just as we use them in our own business at Ocado Retail. However, as you leverage this technology, please don't lose sight of the most important element: your unique self. Your experiences, passions, and personality are what truly set you apart. Ensure that your application still authentically conveys who you are and why you're a great fit for us.

Everyone’s welcome

We’re an equal opportunities employer, which means that we make sure all potential colleagues are treated fairly and equally. We want to ensure everyone has a fair chance to apply; if you need this job description in an alternative format (e.g., larger print, different document type, etc.), please reach out to us at careers@ocadoretail.com and we'll be happy to assist you, and if you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know on the application form.