Senior Buying Manager

• Cornwall based – relocation allowance available of 10% the offered salary

• Salary: up to £66,950 depending on experience (Band 4)

• Full-time

• Permanent

• Interviews likely to take place w/c 23rd November

At Seasalt, creativity is in our DNA. We began in 1981 in a small shop in Penzance, crafting workwear for local mariners and artists. Today, we’re a modern lifestyle brand with over 80 shops across the UK and Ireland, 400+ wholesale stockists, and a growing global presence. We may have grown, but we’ve always stayed true to our roots with Cornwall’s artistic influence and maritime heritage woven into every garment.

As a certified B Corp and winner of Drapers “Best Place to Work” in 2024, we’re proud to balance our culture with long term growth. It's an exciting time to join us as we build on our distinct creative handwriting, brand differentiation, and expanding both internationally and in the UK.

The Senior Buying Manager is responsible for shaping and delivering a forward-thinking product strategy across a significant product portfolio. Working at the heart of the business, you will ensure our product offering reflects the brand’s aesthetic, resonates with our customers, and delivers against ambitious commercial objectives and long-term growth plans.

Leading a high-performing team, you’ll drive commercial success through strategic decision-making, strong supplier partnerships, and cross-functional collaboration. Working closely with Design, Merchandising, Marketing, and Supply Chain teams, you will optimise profitability, accelerate speed to market, and enhance operational efficiency. As a key member of the leadership team and deputy to the Director of Buying & Sourcing, you will play an influential role in shaping product direction, driving strategic initiatives, and delivering cohesive, commercially successful product campaigns that support business growth and innovation.

Please note, as part of our Seasalt Connected approach to ways of working, this role will be based flexibly across our Cornwall head office locations (minimum 40% of working week but the nature of some roles may require more working time in our head offices) and remotely within the UK.

You’ll help us by:

• Executing a long-term product strategy in line with the business strategy, ensuring alignment with brand vision, customer expectations, market trends, and financial objectives, while leading end-to-end product development and strategic range planning.

• Being financially responsible for your business area, driving revenue, margin targets, and profitability growth through effective buying decisions and a commercial-led approach informed by competitor activity, sales data, and emerging trends.

• Identifying opportunities to optimise the range across all sales channels, ensuring product selections are customer-focused and commercially viable.

• Leading speed-to-market initiatives, optimising lead times and supply chain efficiency, while working closely with Buyers and the supply base to improve lead times and flexibility.

• Driving seasonal strategic product initiatives and collaboration projects, working closely with Marketing teams to ensure product launches and campaigns are effectively positioned for brand growth and customer engagement.

• Developing and executing a robust supplier and sourcing strategy in partnership with the team and cross functionally to ensure sustainable and ethical sourcing, while fostering supplier partnerships that drive innovation and commercial opportunities.

• Overseeing supplier performance and negotiations to ensure consistent quality, service and delivery, and to drive cost efficiencies and margin improvements.

• Responding to market changes impacting sourcing decisions such as currency, duty, commodity, political and freight.

• Building and managing a robust cross-costing process to minimise workload on product teams, achieve the best prices and lead times, and oversee fabric and capacity planning to minimise risk and maximise commercial opportunities.

• Leading and developing a high-performing buying team, providing mentorship, coaching and development opportunities, while driving cross-functional collaboration.

• Deputise for DoF in key business trade meetings and presentations, and overseeing strategic trade reporting, driving a data-led mindset by providing insights and swift action to drive trading opportunities.

• Owning the competitor benchmarking process and implementing pricing and promotional strategies, ensuring pricing, product assortment, and category strategy remain competitive within the market, and that margin protection is balanced with commercial agility.

• Overseeing the governance of critical paths, approvals, and best-practice frameworks for the buying function and supporting digital transformation initiatives, leveraging PLM, ERP, and other buying technologies to improve operational effectiveness.

The skills you’ll be sharing with the team:

• Proven established experience in a Head of Buying or a Senior Buyer role within a premium, lifestyle, or fashion retail environment.

• Critical path and supply chain management: strong grasp of lead times, product lifecycle management, and ensuring products land on time and at the right price and margin.

• Proven experience of strategic planning, objective setting and team alignment. 

• Proven experience in leading, managing, hiring and developing team members to achieve department goals (ideally a team of 6+).

• Previous experience in overseeing day-to-day operations and change management, ensuring team members are meeting performance standards, and addressing any issues that arise. 

• Ability to make quick, commercially sound decisions based on data, market insights, and brand positioning

• Dynamic, trend-aware, commercially minded.

• Handles challenges with a problem-solving mindset.

• Strong eye for detail.

• Excellent communication skills and a strong presenter, particularly when presenting to senior leaders, including Exec level.

• Ability to work collaboratively with cross functional teams.

• Adaptable and agile: responds quickly to market changes, ethical considerations, and shifts in consumer behaviour.

• Demonstrates a proactive growth mindset, continuously developing skills, embracing feedback, and adapting positively to new challenges to enhance creative and commercial impact. 

Why we hope you’ll love working with us:

The success of Seasalt is down to the skill and hard work of our team. We don't just want to attract the best and brightest people to come and work with us, we want you to stay and grow with us.

As well as doing everything we can to support your development professionally, we believe encouraging personal growth is just as important. So you can fulfil your passion and purpose, not just at work but in life, we offer a range of benefits that are designed to enhance your career and wellbeing:

• 34 days paid annual leave (including bank holidays), increasing with length of service 

• Attractive 50% employee discount  

• Flexible benefits allowance to personalise your benefits package 

• Private Medical Scheme including 24/7 virtual GP 

• Free access to our Employee Assistance Programme through Retail Trust with 24/7 support  

• Pension plan with generous 7% employer contributions 

• Life assurance programme  

• Enhanced family leave policies 

• Flexible working opportunities with our hybrid working approach 

• Learning and Development opportunities

• Do Good Things with our two days per year paid volunteering opportunities

• Employee networks to develop and provide support to our people, including the Inclusion & Belonging Network

• 100s of savings on top retailers and gym memberships through our discount hub 

At Seasalt we have a brilliant team of people – they're what make Seasalt a fantastic place to work. We love to celebrate uniqueness and are committed to making Seasalt a place where everyone feels they belong. As an inclusive employer, we want to invite a diverse range of candidates to apply for our roles.

We aim to work flexibly where possible and value a range of perspectives - diversity of thought helps us to grow – so please apply if this is a role that would make you excited to come to work every day. We're happy to help with any adjustments to our recruitment process and beyond. Just drop us an email at careers@seasaltcornwall.co.uk