Head of Trading & Content

Howdens Joinery are looking for an experienced Head of Trading & Content to be responsible for driving traffic and sales through the Howdens.com website.   This role will be based in our Northampton office in Brackmills Business Park until 2020 when during the year, the office will move to Raunds.

As a Head of Trading & Content, you will create an effective strategy for continuous improvement and optimisation of the Howdens.com website encompassing merchandising, trading and accurate, structured product content.  Therefore, it’s essential that you’re a strategic thinker who is capable of making decisions for short term tactical benefit but with an eye on and considering the long term E-Commerce and overall business ambitions and milestones.

Reporting to our Head of Digital Commerce, you will lead a large team to define and deliver best practice strategies, work with the Digital Marketing & Performance functions within E-Commerce to ensure a consistent approach for the customer and utilise your extensive knowledge of Google Analytics to work with the performance function to create a robust reporting platform.  As Head of Trading & Content, you will also influence the customer experience of the Howdens.com website based on analytical, data driven insight and you will be at the forefront of emerging technologies that can add incremental benefit to the business.

Key experience and skills required: 

• Inspirational leadership qualities with a passion for delivering E-Commerce success.
• An encyclopaedic knowledge of digital and E-Commerce and previous experience of trading for a large, multi-channel website where you have been accountable for the sales and margin performance.
• A strong knowledge of PIM systems and understanding of how to optimise them for output into different channels such as web and print.
• An excellent communicator who has the ability to create a wide, maintained network and to make the complexities of the web easily understood and relatable to various stakeholders across the business.
• Able to manage and lead a team effectively with experience of running appraisals and development plans for direct reports, absence reporting, and clear communication of expectations to the direct and wider E-Commerce team.
• Previous experience of using enterprise sized systems
• Able to provide guidance and mentorship to team members in development of optimisation skills and ensure skill coverage is available through effective knowledge transfer.

Howdens Joinery is a highly successful business, with more than 670 depots nationwide and more than 8,000 staff. Last year our sales reached circa £1.3 billion and we continue to experience significant growth and success. Despite our scale, Howdens remains a local business with traditional values. 

We have a very competitive salary and benefits package including 25 days holiday increasing to 27 days after 5 years, annual company bonus, fully expensed company car or car allowance, private medical insurance and a contributory pension.  There is also great coffee and other refreshments and snacks, onsite car parking, subsidised gym membership, exceptional social events such as go-karting tournaments and golfing trips and a friendly and supportive working environment.  As well as the opportunity to develop within a high profile FTSE 250 company, you will be part of a rewarding organisation recognised for excellence in the workplace in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For. 

#LI-SB1