Overview

9 month FTC 

Up to £60,000 + Pension + BUPA + ShareSave + 6.6 weeks holiday + Hybrid Working

Southampton, Store Support Office

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 Category Marketing Manager and you’ll be a big part of this. 

Role Purpose: As a Category Marketing Manager at B&Q, you’ll be shaping the future of your category at the heart of one of the UK’s most loved brands. You’ll own the marketing plan for your category end-to-end — balancing immediate trading priorities with long-term growth opportunities. You’ll be the single marketing point of contact for your category, using customer insight and commercial priorities to shape annual marketing plans, set direction, and lead the briefs that bring them to life across channels.

What's the job?

• Own and deliver the annual category marketing plan – insight-led, customer-focused, and aligned to business and marketing priorities.
• Lead quarterly reviews of the plan with the category leadership team and MLT, ensuring objectives are met, insights embedded, and forward plans adapted.
• Act as single point of contact for all category marketing activity – shaping initiatives, managing trade-offs, and ensuring seamless execution across channels.
• Champion customer insight and category expertise – becoming the authority on customer behaviours, needs, and perceptions within your category.
• Brief and lead cross-functional teams – setting clear direction for creative, channels, and agencies, ensuring consistency and integration across touchpoints.
• Balance trading needs and brand building – delivering short-term sales-driving initiatives alongside longer-term growth priorities.
• Maximise vendor-led and retail media opportunities – working closely with commercial and retail media teams to enhance plans.
• Simplify and prioritise – making clear recommendations, driving decisions, and removing duplication in campaign planning.
• Lead cross-category initiatives where relevant (e.g., Prices Nailed, Special Buys) to ensure integrated delivery.
• Report performance and share learnings – providing clear analysis and recommendations to senior stakeholders

What we need:

• Significant marketing experience, ideally within retail or FMCG.
• Proven track record of building and delivering annual marketing plans, and large-scale, multi-channel campaigns.
• Strong commercial acumen with ability to link insight and activity to business performance.
• Exceptional communicator – able to inspire, influence, and challenge senior stakeholders.
• Highly customer-focused, always keeping customer needs at the heart of campaign and trading decisions.
• Skilled at balancing strategy and execution – from big-picture planning to operational detail.
• Strong project management skills — comfortable juggling multiple priorities, adapting plans at pace, and holding teams to account to deliver.
• Collaborative and resilient, thriving in a dynamic retail environment.
• Continuous improvement mindset — always looking for opportunities to simplify ways of working, sharpen processes, and drive greater efficiency.

What's in it for me?

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.

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 [email protected] for any recruitment adjustments.