Head of Assortment – Womenswear

  • London
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 6 days ago
Job DescriptionAre you a visionary leader with a passion for product strategy and customer connection? COS is looking for a Head of Assortment to shape and deliver a compelling, on-brand, and commercially successful product assortment for our Womenswear collections.In this pivotal role, you'll be responsible for defining and executing the assortment strategy that drives sales, profit, and customer value. You'll identify growth opportunities, champion brand-defining products, and ensure our collections resonate emotionally and commercially with our target audience.In this role, you will lead a team of 25, including 8 direct reports - among them Senior Buyers, Senior Assortment Planners, Collection coordinator, Global sourcing and production leads.Key Responsibilities
  • Assortment Strategy: Lead the end-to-end assortment strategy for Womenswear, ensuring alignment with brand identity, customer needs, and commercial goals.
  • Customer-Centric Innovation: Identify and develop growth areas (emerging trends, white space, underpenetrated categories) and belief areas (brand icons, sustainability, innovation) to deepen customer engagement.
  • Commercial Performance: Build a balanced, relevant, and profitable assortment across categories, price points, colours, and end uses.
  • Execution Excellence: Own the delivery of the strategy, ensuring strong collection building and agile in-season trading to meet targets within budget.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Align with key stakeholders across Core Offer, Marketing, and Experience teams to ensure a unified and customer-focused approach.
  • Team Leadership & Culture: Foster a high-performance, collaborative culture that encourages creativity, salesmanship, and strategic thinking.
  • Strategic Translation: Turn high-level direction into actionable seasonal frameworks and product strategies that empower your team to execute with clarity and confidence.
  • Insight-Driven Planning: Use data and customer insights to inform decision-making and anticipate future needs.
  • Agile Adaptation: Steer the collection-building process and adapt in real-time to market shifts and performance trends.
Qualifications
  • Leadership: Ability to inspire high-performing teams by setting clear goals and empowering individuals to take ownership of their work. You should be able to foster a culture of trust through honest, transparent communication and ensure every team member feels respected, valued, and able to contribute. With a focus on growth and development, you'll provide timely, constructive feedback to help your team thrive and succeed together.
  • Strategic Vision: Ability to define and execute long-term assortment strategies aligned with brand identity and customer needs.
  • Customer-Centric Thinking: Deep understanding of customer behaviour, emotional drivers, and market trends and aligning business actions to those needs
  • Business Acumen: Strong grasp of pricing architecture, margin management, and sales performance metrics.
  • Analytical Skills: Proficient in using data and insights to inform decisions and optimise assortments.
  • Agility & Adaptability: Comfortable working in fast-paced environments with the ability to pivot based on in-season performance and market shifts.
  • Communication: Clear and confident communicator, able to translate strategy into actionable plans.
Additional InformationThis is a full time permanent contract based at our Head Office in London.BenefitsWe offer all our employees attractive benefits with extensive development opportunities around the globe. All our employees receive a 25% staff discount usable on all our H&M Group brands in stores and online. In addition to our staff discount, all our employees are included in our H&M Incentive Program - HIP. You can read more about our H&M Incentive Program .In addition to this UK based colleagues also receive
  • 25 days holiday
  • Annual health checks
  • 25% staff discount
  • Pension scheme
  • Discounts on various activities and financial/lifestyle products via our benefits hub
  • Cycle to work scheme
  • Discounted gym membership
  • Employee assistance via retail trust
  • Private health & dental care
Inclusion & DiversityAt COS we're determined to create and maintain inclusive, diverse and equitable workplaces throughout our organisation. Our teams should consist of a variety of people who share and combine their knowledge, experience and ideas. Having a diverse workforce leads to a positive impact on how we address challenges, what we perceive as possible and how we choose to relate to our colleagues and customers all over the world, therefore all diversity dimensions are taken into consideration in our recruitment process.Brand DescriptionCOS offers a wardrobe of ready-to-wear and accessories rooted in exceptional quality and lasting design. The brand has an elevated aesthetic that embodies luxury with an emphasis on craftsmanship, innovation and compelling fashion movements.Due to the high level of cross-department collaboration, an office presence of 4-5 days per week is required to foster strong teamwork and effective communication.Ready to apply? Click on the I'M INTERESTED link where you can upload your CV securely. Once we have received your application, we will keep you updated regularly about the status of your application so please look out for our email.Closing Date: Friday 12th September 2025We are looking forward to hearing from you!

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