Head of Retail Deployment Capacity and Implementation

Fixed Term Contract - 24 months 

From £95,000 + Pension + PMI + ShareSave + 6.6 weeks holiday + Company car allowance + Hybrid Working 

Reports to: Director of Retail Operations 
Direct Reports: 3 line reports, with a central and field operations team of 50 colleagues 

Location: The role is based in our Store Support Office (SSO) in Eastleigh, Southampton, with flexibility to work from home or B&Q locations. However, you must be able to do a minimum of 2-3 days a week in SSO Southampton Office to be face to face with your team and cross functional stakeholders. Occasional nationwide store travel & external meetings as required. Requirement to work occasional weekends on a rotated basis, to support Operational cover. 

We believe anyone can improve their home to make life better. From our Southampton Store Support office (SSO) we equip our stores, our people, and our whole business with everything it takes to help our millions of customers create a home they’ll love. Join us as a Head of Retail Deployment Capacity and Implementation  and you’ll be a big part of this. 

Step into a key role at the centre of our Retail Operations at B&Q. You will be the principal lead on planning our store capacity, store deployment and delivering operational excellence across 300+ stores. This role is for an experienced leader who can create a great environment for the subject matter experts in this team to flourish, whilst balancing the business needs to ensure our stores can operate and deliver effectively.  

You will spend time across both the planning as well as the execution. You will balance the detail of capacity planning and colleague deployment, whilst leading a field team to deliver effective implementation. You’ll work in close partnership with a large mix of cross functional teams and be influencing up director level. You will be experienced in the art of negotiation with senior stakeholders and making decisions which get the best outcome for the business whilst protecting volume of activity stores can deliver.  

Key Accountabilities / Responsibilities: 

• Lead end to end store capacity planning and oversee the central planning team to model workload volumes and ensure resources are deployed efficiently in stores.  
• Oversee the leadership of deployment modelling and store staff cost budgets to ensure effective resourcing and operational efficiency. Evolve deployment and work force management to be fit for the future.  
•  Lead the end to end implementation of business as usual operations as well as business change. Execute strategic plans, ensuring operational readiness, and coaching the implementation team (including field managers) to deliver consistent, effective change across the estate.  
•  Set clear measures of success, use insights to prioritise actions, and link operational improvements to commercial outcomes.  
• Reduce colleague time spent on task to increase customer facing time to make every customer count. Drive operational simplicity and reduce unnecessary complexity for stores. 
• Benchmark against industry leaders, bring in external expertise, and foster a culture of restless dissatisfaction. Always seeking better ways to serve customers and colleagues. 
• You’ll be the bridge between Stores and SSO. Partnering across regional, store and SSO teams to deliver consistent, scalable improvements, champion the store voice, and ensure business and operational changes land right first time while holding store teams to account.  
• Support the Director of Retail Operations with key information and decision making to support the restoration of normal business operations when required. Take the lead in communicating effectively with the field teams within Central Retail. Provide feedback on current reality and possible workarounds using intelligence from their field team and key retail contract partners.  

• Able to navigate complex conversations, negotiate effectively with senior stakeholders, and make balanced decisions that achieve the best business outcomes.  

• Experienced in simplifying, embedding, and sustaining change. Capable of managing cross functional stakeholders and telling compelling stories that bring teams with you.  

• Highly skilled at collaborating across multiple functions, influencing at all levels, and championing the store voice in key initiatives (including digital and operational change). Experienced in doing this within a matrix office environment.  

• Sets clear measures of success, uses insights and analytics to drive prioritisation and decision making, and links operational improvements directly to commercial outcomes.  

• Inspirational Motivator: Energises and motivates large, diverse teams. Creates a highperforming environment with a strong culture of accountability, learning, and continuous improvement.  

• Brings strong handson understanding of store operations, rhythms, digital fulfilment, and endtoend customer journeys.
• Presents with impact, builds strong rapport quickly, and confidently facilitates sessions with senior stakeholders and crossfunctional teams

Key Business Relationships 

• Retail – Stores, Regional Managers, Divisional Managers, Trade Point, Field teams 
• Finance, Commercial, Range change, Digital, Marketplace, Marketing, HR teams, Technology (SSO) 
• As required – Logistics, Strategy, Kingfisher Group 

Budget Responsibilities 

• Retail Deployment budget 
• Budget to deliver range change in stores, and projects as required  

Why This Role Matters 

This is your opportunity to shape the future of retail operations at B&Q - building the capacity, deployment, and operational foundations that empower our 300+ stores to deliver exceptional customer experiences every day. By leading the planning and implementation of major store and range change programmes, you’ll directly influence how effectively we serve customers, enable colleagues, and deliver the ambitions of the Retail growth plans. 

As part of a great team, you’ll be valued for who you are. We’re committed to making B&Q more diverse and representative of the communities we serve, where everyone can feel they belong and have equal opportunities. You will have access to a range of networks that represent our colleagues and allies and help us to continue to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of our business.

As a WL3 position, this role comes with a Company Car Allowance  

We also recognise that wellness means different things to different people, and we want to help colleagues be at their best and feel well by offering a range of benefits to help you. As well as a competitive salary, our benefits package includes an award-winning pension scheme, bonus, ShareSave options, 6.6 weeks holiday, payroll giving, an Employee Assistance Programme, shopping discounts, colleague wellbeing benefits and lots more! 

So we can support you during the application or interview process, please contact recruitment@b-and-q.co.uk for any recruitment adjustments.