How to Apply to Coles Group

11 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 4 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Coles Group uses Phenom People at colescareers.com.au for all external applications; Workday is the internal HR system but not the external candidate experience.
  • Apply direct to the Phenom portal rather than through SEEK, Indeed, or LinkedIn syndications to avoid attribution loss and unlock saved-search alerts.
  • Tailor every application to the specific brand (Coles Supermarkets, Liquorland, First Choice, Vintage Cellars, Coles Express, Coles Online) and category, mirroring the job ad's language.
  • Prepare STAR-format behavioural answers anchored in Coles' Leadership Standards: Customer Obsessed, Inclusive Leader, Results Focused, Enterprise First, Continuous Improver, Courageous.
  • Expect and prepare for Woolworths comparison questions — know the competitive positioning, recent pricing and promo moves, and what each chain does well.
  • Engage thoughtfully with the ACCC Supermarkets Inquiry and supplier-conduct scrutiny rather than deflecting; this is the commercial weather and candidates must show they can operate in it.
  • Hawthorn East is not inner Melbourne. Plan for a 20 to 40 minute commute from the CBD and factor this into your acceptance decision, especially for hybrid roles.
  • Early Careers (Summer Series internship and Graduate Program) applications open February to March each year with offers from August to October — apply early and complete the cognitive and video stages carefully.

About Coles Group

Coles Group Limited (ASX: COL) is Australia's second-largest supermarket chain and one of the country's largest private-sector employers, with roughly 120,000 team members spread across approximately 800 Coles supermarkets, 900-plus Coles Liquor stores (Liquorland, First Choice Liquor Market, and Vintage Cellars), and a national network of Coles Express fuel and convenience sites operated in partnership with Viva Energy under the Shell brand. The company's support centre is headquartered in Hawthorn East, Victoria, with distribution centres in Truganina (VIC), Kemps Creek and Smeaton Grange (NSW), Redbank (QLD), and Edinburgh Parks (SA), plus two flagship automated customer fulfilment centres (CFCs) built with Ocado technology in Truganina and Wetherill Park. Coles traces its history back to 1914, when G.J. Coles opened a variety store in Collingwood, Melbourne, but the modern corporate entity dates from its demerger and re-listing on the ASX in November 2018 after two decades under Wesfarmers ownership. Annual revenue sits around A$45 billion, generated almost entirely within Australia, with the Supermarkets segment contributing the majority and the Liquor business adding approximately A$3.8 billion. The company's scale makes it a bellwether for Australian retail, food inflation, and FMCG supplier relationships, and it sits in a tight competitive duopoly with Woolworths Group, with ALDI, IGA (Metcash), Amazon Fresh, and Costco pressuring from the margins. Leah Weckert became Group CEO in May 2023, stepping up from her role as CEO of Coles Commercial and Express after predecessor Steven Cain's retirement. Her agenda has been dominated by three interlocking challenges: stabilising the Ocado-powered CFCs after well-publicised commissioning issues and a delayed ramp-up, navigating an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Supermarkets Inquiry and broader political scrutiny on grocery pricing and supplier conduct, and absorbing the end of the long-running Ocado Online Retail Partnership as the company takes operational control of online fulfilment. Brand initiatives under Weckert's tenure include continued investment in the flybuys loyalty program (a 50/50 joint venture with Wesfarmers), the Coles 360 retail media business, the Own Brand portfolio (including Coles Finest, Coles Simply, and Curate), and the Coles Digital team based in Richmond, Victoria, which builds the Coles app, Coles Online, and in-store digital experiences. For candidates, this context matters. Coles is a stable, unionised, highly systemised retailer with well-defined progression ladders; it is also a company under intense regulatory, media, and political pressure, operating on thin margins in a mature market. Interviews and hiring decisions reflect that reality. The brand is respected, the benefits are solid, the career pathways from checkout to leadership are real — but the pace is relentless, the ACCC and media spotlight is constant, and corporate roles at Hawthorn East carry a commute from central Melbourne that candidates should factor into their decision.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Start at colescareers

    Start at colescareers.com.au — the single source of truth for all Coles Group vacancies including supermarkets, liquor, express, distribution centres, customer fulfilment centres, corporate at Hawthorn East, and digital at Richmond. Roles posted on LinkedIn, SEEK, or Indeed almost always route back to this portal, so applying direct avoids any syndication delay or tracking loss.

  2. 2
    Create a candidate profile in the Phenom People platform that powers the site

    Create a candidate profile in the Phenom People platform that powers the site. Coles' ATS is Phenom (not Workday, despite some older public listings suggesting otherwise). You will be asked to register with email and password, or sign in with LinkedIn, and to complete a short pre-application profile covering contact details, right-to-work status, availability, and preferred location radius.

  3. 3
    Search by brand and category

    Search by brand and category. The search-results page lets you filter by Brand (Coles Supermarkets, Liquorland, First Choice, Vintage Cellars, Coles Express, Coles Online, Coles 360), Category (Store Teams and Leadership, Customer Fulfilment, Distribution and Manufacturing, Corporate, Digital, Early Careers), Employment Type (Permanent Full Time, Permanent Part Time, Casual, Fixed Term, Graduate), and Location. At any given time there are typically 600-plus live requisitions across the group.

  4. 4
    Tailor your resume to the specific role before uploading

    Tailor your resume to the specific role before uploading. Phenom supports .pdf, .doc, and .docx; keep it to 2 pages, use a clean single-column layout, and mirror the wording used in the job ad for responsibilities, systems (SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Adobe Analytics, Snowflake, Looker, Jira), and safety or customer-service language. Retail roles value demonstrated shift flexibility and physical-role language; corporate and digital roles value quantified outcomes.

  5. 5
    Complete any role-specific assessments

    Complete any role-specific assessments. Retail team member applications typically include a short behavioural questionnaire assessing customer focus, teamwork, safety mindset, and reliability. Early Careers (Summer Series internship and Graduate Program) applications include cognitive and situational-judgement tests, a video interview stage, and an assessment centre. Corporate and digital roles may include a Pymetrics-style game or a take-home task depending on function.

  6. 6
    Expect a structured interview funnel

    Expect a structured interview funnel. Store team members typically go through one Group Interview or one-on-one with a Store or Duty Manager. Store Manager and Department Manager roles go through a Store Manager, State Manager, and sometimes a People and Culture Business Partner. Distribution Centre roles include a site tour and a safety briefing. Corporate and digital roles run two to four rounds, almost always including a behavioural deep-dive against Coles' Leadership Standards and a functional or technical panel.

  7. 7
    Pre-employment checks are thorough

    Pre-employment checks are thorough. Successful candidates complete a National Police Check, a Working Rights verification (visa, passport, or citizenship evidence), two professional references, and for some roles a Fit-for-Work medical or a pre-employment drug and alcohol screen (mandatory for DC, manufacturing, and safety-critical roles). Onboarding via the Coles Learning Hub begins before day one.

  8. 8
    Plan for a 3 to 6 week end-to-end timeline for retail roles and 4 to 10 weeks fo

    Plan for a 3 to 6 week end-to-end timeline for retail roles and 4 to 10 weeks for corporate, digital, and leadership roles. Early Careers applications open in February or March for Summer Series internships and in March for the Graduate Program, with offers landing from August through October.

Resume Tips for Coles Group

recommended

Lead with Australian context

Lead with Australian context. If you have Australian work rights, state them clearly near the top ("Australian Citizen" or "Full Working Rights — Permanent Resident"). Coles will not progress candidates without evidence of the right to work, and unclear visa status is the single most common reason application screens stall.

recommended

Quantify retail impact

Quantify retail impact. For store roles, include specific numbers: "Managed a team of 18 across 3 departments on weekend peak trade," "Reduced shrinkage by 14% through inventory audit cadence," "Maintained 95%+ on-shelf availability across 12,000 SKUs." Phenom's keyword engine and human reviewers both respond to measurable retail outcomes.

recommended

Use Coles' own language

Use Coles' own language. The careers site and job ads repeat specific phrases: "customer first," "team member," "store support," "availability," "safety mindset," "compliance," "Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA)," "Food Safety Supervisor." Mirror the vocabulary of the ad without copying sentences verbatim.

recommended

Name the systems you have used

Name the systems you have used. For corporate roles, list SAP S/4HANA, Oracle EBS, Salesforce, Workday (for HR roles), Adobe Experience Cloud, Google Analytics 4, Snowflake, Looker, Tableau, Power BI, Jira, Confluence, GitHub, AWS, and Azure where relevant. For store roles, list POS systems, handheld scanners, SAP inventory, and any rostering software (Kronos, UKG, or Ceridian Dayforce).

recommended

Certify compliance credentials for liquor and food-handling roles

Certify compliance credentials for liquor and food-handling roles. Any Liquorland, First Choice, Vintage Cellars, or Coles Express role will ask about RSA (state-specific) and for food-handling roles Food Safety Supervisor or Food Handler certification. List them with issue date, state of issue, and expiry where applicable.

recommended

For distribution and manufacturing roles, list licences explicitly: HR/MR/LR tru

For distribution and manufacturing roles, list licences explicitly: HR/MR/LR truck licence, Forklift (LF) licence, Order Picker (LO) licence, First Aid, White Card (construction), and any SQF or HACCP exposure. DCs are the largest hiring volume outside stores and list-screen on these credentials.

recommended

For corporate and digital roles, anchor on outcomes that map to Coles' strategic

For corporate and digital roles, anchor on outcomes that map to Coles' strategic pillars: trusted value, inspired customers, winning team, sustainable future, smarter selling. Every bullet should tie back to customer, team, safety, or cost. A resume that speaks in these terms will land better than one listing generic agile or corporate achievements.

recommended

For Early Careers applications, emphasise extracurriculars, leadership roles, pa

For Early Careers applications, emphasise extracurriculars, leadership roles, part-time retail or hospitality experience, academic achievement (WAM/GPA), and any diversity, equity, or inclusion community involvement. Coles' Summer Series and Graduate Program assess character and potential more than specific skills — the resume's job is to open the door to the assessment stages.

recommended

Keep formatting ATS-safe

Keep formatting ATS-safe. Single column, sans-serif font (Arial, Calibri, or Inter), 10 to 11pt body type, no tables, no text boxes, no graphics, no coloured bars. Phenom parses cleanly from well-structured .docx and .pdf files; fancy designs risk losing sections in parse.

ATS System: Phenom People (CareerConnect)

Coles Group runs its careers experience on Phenom People's CareerConnect platform, hosted at colescareers.com.au and powered by Phenom's widgets API, AI job matching, and candidate relationship management modules. Phenom provides the job search, candidate profile, application form, chatbot, and candidate nurture emails. Behind Phenom, Coles uses Workday as its HR system of record for employee data and internal mobility — which is why some older third-party listings and the Coles internal careers portal reference Workday URLs — but the external application experience is Phenom end-to-end. The platform supports resume parsing, job-match scoring, AI-assisted search, and a pre-populated candidate profile that carries forward across applications.

  • Upload a single-column .docx or .pdf resume for cleanest parse. Phenom's resume parser handles standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications) well but struggles with multi-column layouts, text boxes, and embedded images.
  • Complete every field in the candidate profile, even the optional ones. Phenom's match score surfaces higher-completion profiles first to recruiters and feeds better job recommendations back to you.
  • Use exact job-title and skill keywords from the posting. Phenom scores matches on role title proximity, skill matches, and location. Writing "Customer Service Team Member" rather than just "Retail Assistant" materially improves surfacing for Coles Supermarkets roles.
  • Set location preferences tightly. Coles has stores in every Australian state; a radius set to "Australia" will produce hundreds of irrelevant matches. Set to your actual commuting radius (typically 15 to 30 km) to receive useful recommendations.
  • Turn on job alerts by category and brand. The platform will email matching roles as they are posted, and responding within the first 48 hours of a posting meaningfully improves your odds of being among the first resumes reviewed.
  • Do not re-apply to the same role within 30 days. Phenom dedupes applications and repeated submissions can flag your profile for review.

Interview Culture

Coles interviews are structured, values-led, and fundamentally Australian in tone — direct, practical, and suspicious of self-promotion.

The company's Leadership Standards frame most behavioural questions: Customer Obsessed, Inclusive Leader, Results Focused, Enterprise First, Continuous Improver, and Courageous. For store and frontline roles, expect STAR-format behavioural questions anchored in customer service ("Tell me about a time you turned an unhappy customer into a happy one"), teamwork ("Tell me about a time you supported a teammate through a busy shift"), safety ("Describe a time you identified a safety risk and what you did about it"), and reliability ("How do you handle the unexpected — a colleague calling in sick on peak trade?"). Group interviews are common for high-volume recruitment and test collaboration, energy, and customer focus through role-plays and short team exercises. For corporate, digital, and leadership roles, the process typically runs two to four rounds: a recruiter phone screen (30 minutes, motivation and logistics), a hiring-manager behavioural and functional interview (45 to 60 minutes), a panel or stakeholder round with cross-functional partners (60 minutes), and often a case study, take-home, or presentation for senior roles. Expect at least one interviewer to drill into commercial acumen, because Coles runs on low single-digit margins and every function is measured on cost-to-serve, sales density, or operating leverage. Digital and tech candidates at the Richmond office should prepare for a mix of system-design or architecture discussion, agile-ways-of-working questions, and stakeholder-management scenarios — Coles runs a product-oriented model with tribe and squad structures in its Digital and IT groups. Culturally, Coles candidates who do well tend to be grounded, customer-centric, and comfortable with retail-operating rhythm. The company is large enough to feel corporate but close enough to stores that even senior executives are expected to do regular store visits. Interview panels often ask when you last shopped at a Coles store and what you noticed — a question that rewards candidates who have actually been in the aisles recently and can speak specifically to on-shelf availability, queue times, fresh presentation, or the self-checkout experience. The Woolworths comparison will come up, directly or indirectly; candidates who can articulate what they think Coles does well and where it needs to close gaps versus Woolworths without being disparaging of either competitor come across as commercially literate. Salary negotiation is conducted in a matter-of-fact Australian register — ranges are often tight and benchmarked against the enterprise agreement or corporate banding, and the best leverage comes from a competing offer, not bravado.

What Coles Group Looks For

  • Customer obsession expressed in specifics. Generic "I love helping customers" answers land flat; concrete stories about a specific customer, a specific problem, and a specific resolution are what advance candidates.
  • Safety mindset as table stakes. Every role, from checkout to CFO, touches safety. Candidates who mention safety proactively — near-misses they reported, hazards they remediated, training they completed — signal cultural fit.
  • Team-first energy. Coles' Enterprise First leadership standard penalises siloed behaviour. Stories that highlight cross-team collaboration, shared credit, and constructive disagreement resolved with peers outperform lone-hero narratives.
  • Comfort with scale and systems. A retailer operating 800 stores, 120,000 team members, and A$45 billion in revenue cannot run on heroics. Candidates who talk about process, playbooks, standard operating procedures, and system of record thrive; candidates who only talk about one-off wins struggle in later rounds.
  • Commercial literacy appropriate to the level. Store team members should understand shrink, availability, and sales per labour hour at a basic level. Corporate candidates should understand gross margin, cost-to-serve, supplier relationships, retail media economics, and the Own Brand versus proprietary brand trade-off.
  • Resilience under public scrutiny. The ACCC Supermarkets Inquiry, ongoing media coverage of grocery pricing, and political pressure on supplier conduct are the operating backdrop. Candidates who flinch at the mention of these issues read as fragile; candidates who engage with them thoughtfully — acknowledging the scrutiny is legitimate while pointing to concrete initiatives like Price Drop, supplier payment terms, and the Coles Nurture Fund — signal they can carry the brand.
  • Diversity and inclusion fluency. Coles has a strong public commitment to First Nations employment through its Reconciliation Action Plan, to gender pay equity, and to accessibility. Candidates should be able to speak to how they have built inclusive teams without reciting corporate boilerplate.
  • Flexibility and shift-work honesty for frontline roles. Retail, distribution, and customer fulfilment centre roles require genuine availability across evenings, weekends, public holidays, and overnight shifts. Candidates who overstate flexibility to land the role wash out in week one; honest, specific availability is valued.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Coles use Workday or Phenom People for applications?
Coles uses Phenom People externally at colescareers.com.au for all candidate-facing applications, profiles, and job search. Workday is used internally as the HR system of record for employee data and internal mobility — which is why some older third-party listings and the internal 'mycoles' staff portal reference Workday URLs — but as an external candidate you will apply through Phenom.
How many jobs does Coles typically have open at once?
Coles typically carries 600 to 1,000 live vacancies across the group at any time, split across Coles Supermarkets, Coles Liquor (Liquorland, First Choice, Vintage Cellars), Coles Express, distribution centres, customer fulfilment centres, and the Hawthorn East and Richmond corporate and digital offices. Retail store team roles are by far the largest category.
Where is the Coles head office and do corporate roles require being on site?
The Coles Support Centre is at 800 Toorak Road, Hawthorn East, Victoria — around 10 kilometres southeast of Melbourne CBD. Most corporate roles operate on a hybrid model with three days on site and two days remote, though some functions (procurement, store operations leadership) lean more heavily on site. Coles Digital and some technology teams are based in a separate office in Richmond, Victoria.
What are Coles' graduate and internship programs called and when do they open?
Coles runs the Summer Series, a 10 to 12 week paid summer internship for penultimate-year university students, and the Coles Graduate Program, a two-year rotational program across streams including Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance, Technology, Marketing, and People and Culture. The Summer Series typically opens applications in February or March, and the Graduate Program opens in March, with offers landing from August through October. Both programs are highly competitive and include cognitive assessments, video interviews, and an assessment centre.
How long does a Coles application take from submission to offer?
Frontline retail store team applications typically run 3 to 6 weeks from submission to offer, with higher-volume hiring periods (Christmas casual, Back-to-School) moving faster. Store leadership, corporate, digital, and early-career roles generally run 4 to 10 weeks given multiple interview rounds, assessment centres, and reference and background checks. Distribution centre applications run on the faster end because of continuous hiring needs.
Does Coles sponsor work visas for candidates outside Australia?
Coles rarely sponsors Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) or Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (subclass 494) visas for store, distribution, or early-career roles, because the local labour market can supply these positions. Sponsorship is more common for specialised corporate, digital, or technology roles in areas of demonstrated skill shortage — senior data engineering, specialised retail technology, or senior commercial leadership — but it is never guaranteed and adds time to the hiring process. Most candidates need existing Australian work rights to be competitive.
How do Coles interviews compare to Woolworths interviews?
Both retailers run structured, values-led interview processes with significant overlap: STAR behavioural questions, customer-first themes, safety mindset, and panel interviews for senior roles. Coles tends to emphasise its Leadership Standards framework and asks more commercial-acumen questions in corporate rounds, while Woolworths leans slightly more on its I CARE values and its Ways of Working for customer-facing roles. Both will ask about the competitor; candidates who have shopped both stores and can speak specifically to execution differences (on-shelf availability, fresh presentation, self-checkout experience, app usability) stand out in either process.
What is the ACCC Supermarkets Inquiry and how does it affect interviews?
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission conducted a price inquiry into the supermarket sector running through 2024 and 2025, examining competition, pricing practices, promotional transparency, and supplier conduct across Coles, Woolworths, ALDI, and Metcash. It is the operating backdrop for every corporate and store-leadership interview at Coles today. Candidates should engage with it thoughtfully rather than defensively — acknowledging the scrutiny is legitimate, referencing specific Coles responses such as Price Drop, Down Down, the Coles Nurture Fund for suppliers, and improved supplier payment terms, and demonstrating they can operate a large retailer under public and regulatory pressure.
What is happening with Coles Online and the Ocado partnership?
Coles built two automated customer fulfilment centres (CFCs) in Truganina, Victoria and Wetherill Park, New South Wales in partnership with UK-based Ocado, which went live with well-publicised commissioning and ramp-up challenges. Coles has since announced the end of the Ocado Online Retail Partnership, with Coles taking operational control of its online fulfilment platform while continuing to operate the CFCs. For candidates, this means Customer Fulfilment and Digital are active hiring areas as Coles invests in bringing more of the online stack in-house.
What is the dress code for Coles interviews?
Store team member interviews are smart casual — a collared shirt or blouse with clean pants or a skirt is appropriate. Store management interviews lean business casual. Corporate, digital, and graduate program interviews at Hawthorn East or Richmond run business casual to smart business — a blazer with smart pants or a dress is a safe default, and formal suits are rarely necessary. Distribution centre interviews are smart casual with closed-toe shoes, as you may be given a brief site tour.

Open Positions

Coles Group currently has 4 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 4 open positions at Coles Group

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Sources

  1. Coles Group Careers — Home —
  2. Coles Group Careers — Search Results —
  3. Coles Group Limited — ASX Company Profile (COL) —
  4. Coles Group Annual Report 2024 —
  5. ACCC Supermarkets Inquiry — Final Report —
  6. Coles Graduate Program and Summer Series —
  7. Phenom People — CareerConnect Platform —