Job Description

Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni-channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with our colleagues working in stores across several retail fascias in many markets around the world.



JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 publicly quoted company since 2019 and continues to grow in the UK and internationally.



We want to be the leading global omnichannel retailer in the sports and outdoor industry. To be a part of this successful company and help us to achieve this you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people-led, innovative and customer-focused organisation which provides operational excellence whilst identifying new areas of growth as part of our day to day objectives.

Job Title:

Global Head of Customer Planning and Insight (Brand / Market)

Location:

JD Sports Group PLC, Bury, UK Headquarters

Company Overview:

JD Sports Group PLC is a leading international multi-channel retailer of sports, fashion, and outdoor brands. With an extensive portfolio of globally recognized brands, JD Sports has established itself as the 'King of Trainers' and a beacon for sportswear enthusiasts around the world. Our commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences and innovative products drives our success in the competitive retail landscape.

Position Overview:

The Global Head of Customer Planning and Insight (Brand / Market) will be responsible for developing and leading the strategic customer planning function and insight capability through management of insight programmes such as Brand Tracking and NPS at a global level to deepen JD Sports understanding of its customers, drive customer centric decision making, be clear on key drivers and barriers and support customer growth across all markets. This role owns customer planning working closely with other teams in the function to bring a clear narrative together across insight, analytics, marketing effectiveness, customer forecasting and cross functional, global collaboration. The incumbent will lead a team of insight, planning and analytics professionals, partner with senior leaders across the business, and translate data into actionable insights to help shape the customer strategy.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Customer Proposition development & Planning:

Begin the journey to shape and evolve JD sports global customer proposition by leveraging key insight on behaviours, preference, barriers and cultural trends to help inform where and how JD can land a proposition that differentiates the brand & drives long term customer loyalty. Across all of the customer teams, and working collaboratively with key stakeholders, develop and produce clear and compelling customer planning briefs to drive focus on future intent rooted in key insight risks and opps. Develop the process and governance required to ensure there is cadence in Customer planning and effective ways of working around activation of briefs and evaluation of activity to drive learnings.

Brand & Market Insight and Analysis

Provide regular intelligence on our market performance & brand health (awareness and advocacy) of both our current and target audiences, by market. Design and implement the research methodologies (quantitative and qualitative) and associate programmes to gather all the market, brand and pricing insights across all JD markets. Own and develop our global Brand Tracking and Global Voice of the Customer (NPS) programmes so that they continue to mature and exploit key 'so what' insight. Provide the ongoing analysis & interpretation of the insights; building clear stories and narratives that help drives action and shapes future thinking. Manage the resource allocation, and establish the processes and ways of working to prioritise insight demands, based on available budgets and resources Identify, select and manage any 3rd party agencies/tech partners and their performance against defined SLAs.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence:

Work closely with marketing, merchandising, supply chain, operations, digital, product, and CX teams to ensure insight is embedded in planning, execution and decision-making. Influence senior leadership with data-driven storytelling: present clear, actionable recommendations rather than only data. Support regional/local teams to adapt global customer-insight frameworks to their markets and ensure relevancy.

Resource & Stakeholder Management:

Lead, mentor and grow a global team of planning and insight professionals; set goals, assign ownership, monitor performance. Manage relationships with external research agencies, data / analytics vendors, technology partners. Develop and manage budgets, timelines, tools, and processes to ensure insight deliverables are high quality, timely, and cost-effective.

Strategic Direction & Innovation:

Keep up with market, retail, sports fashion, culture and consumer trends relevant to JD Sports. Propose new ways to capture insight, new research methodologies, or partnerships. Support longer-term strategic planning (e.g., 3-5 year outlooks) as well as more immediate tactical needs.

Qualifications / Experience:

Strong experience (e.g. 5+ years) in customer planning and proposition development, insights, analytics, planning, or related fields, ideally with global or multi-market exposure in Brand Tracking and NPS. Proven track record of leading and developing high-performing teams. Excellent communication, presentation and stakeholder management skills - ability to translate complex data into compelling narratives and outputs that land with impact. Comfortable working in fast-paced retail / omni-channel environment with multiple markets. Strong business acumen: understand commercial levers (product, marketing, merchandising, operations). Degree in a relevant discipline (e.g. statistics, economics, marketing, business) and/or equivalent experience. Post-graduate degree a plus.

Personal Attributes:

Strategic thinker who is also hands-on when needed. Brilliant storyteller Customer-centric mindset; empathy for customer needs. Curious and data-driven; strong problem solving and decision-making ability. Excellent collaborator; able to work across cultures & markets. Agile and adaptable; comfort with ambiguity and change. Strong leadership presence; able to influence and inspire.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

Improvements in customer retention, NPS / customer satisfaction metrics. Insight lead-time and adoption: how quickly insights influence decisions. Commercial impact of insight-led initiatives (incremental revenue, cost savings, margin improvements). Stakeholder satisfaction (internal), efficiency in insight delivery. Budget Management, demonstrate added value and ROI on investment in Insight

We know our colleagues work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits including staff Discount On JD Group and other brands within the organisation and personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work.



Thank you for your time



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