Retail Assistant Buyer - Temporary (up to 9 months)
Salary: £29,079 - £34,210 pro-rata (dependent on experience)
Contract type: Temporary: Fixed Term Contract or Secondment
Hours: Full Time
Location: Poole, Dorset, England
Location description: Hybrid
Interview date: w/c 8 December
Closing Date: 30-11-2025
Reference: 20716
About us
Our purpose is simple: to save lives at sea. 24 hours a day, every day, RNLI lifesavers are ready to launch to the rescue.
Our vision is to save every one. To help us raise vital income, we’re looking for a Retail Assistant Buyer to support the buying team with developing unique products and branded ranges for RNLI shops and online.
As the charity enters its third century of lifesaving, this is an exciting time to join a passionate team of retail professionals who are dedicated to delivering an engaging retail experience for RNLI customers and supporters.
About the role
As a Retail Assistant Buyer, you will support the team across the following areas:
- Assist the Retail Buyer with sourcing and development of product ranges, introducing innovative and commercial products that meet the product strategy
- Support the team by completing range plans and regularly updating all product master data with suppliers, ensuring compliance with RNLI requirements
- Identify new and ongoing market trends and customer shopping behaviours through competitive shops, sales, and trend analysis, to translate into RNLI products
- Manage supplier relationships alongside the buying and merchandising teams, to ensure maximum flexibility and minimum risk to the business
- Work closely with colleagues across the retail team to achieve critical path deadlines for product launch and support marketing opportunities for shops and online
About you
You’ll be an organised and proactive person who has an interest in product development and buying as a career, as well as a team player with a positive attitude towards creative and administrative tasks, whilst keeping a calm approach to a busy workload. To be considered as the Retail Assistant Buyer, you will need:
- Experience in a similar role and/or within the retail sector
- Experience within a Buying and Product development team
- Knowledge of developing own brand ranges, including interpretation of design and market trends
- Understanding of the life of a product and a buying critical path
- Excellent organisational, prioritisation and time-management skills
So, as a Retail Assistant Buyer with a proactive ‘can do’ attitude, high attention to detail and excellent organisation skills, if you want to see how the Retail element of the RNLI supports our organisation’s aim to reduce drowning, this could be the role for you. Please apply via the button shown.
Safeguarding
The RNLI is committed to safeguarding; protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and have a zero-tolerance approach. The suitability of all prospective employees and volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. This will include relevant criminal record checks being carried out, dependent on the eligibility of the role. (England & Wales; DBS check, Scotland; Disclosure Scotland PVG, Northern Ireland; Access NI, Republic of Ireland; Garda Vetting; International, International Child Protection Certificate process).
Diversity at the RNLI
Our staff and volunteers have been saving lives at sea without prejudice for 200 years. We respect and value diversity of background, skills and perspectives within our teams, and consider it essential to help us deliver a world-class lifesaving service. We are an inclusive organisation and welcome applications from everyone. In addition to having the skills needed for the role, we also look for applicants who share our commitment to living our RNLI values (trustworthy, courageous, selfless, and dependable), and helping us work towards Our Vision: To save Every One