How to Apply to Marks & Spencer

13 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 53 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • All M&S applications are submitted via the official careers site jobs.marksandspencer.com, which hands off to Oracle HCM Cloud Recruiting at fa-eqid-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com (site CX_1); LinkedIn Easy Apply and emailed CVs are not used for substantive vacancies.
  • In Store application is a 45-minute Oracle form followed by a face-to-face interview in the store; Customer Assistant roles in 2026 advertise at around GBP 13.41 per hour plus a GBP 3.00 per hour unsocial premium where applicable.
  • Support Centre hiring runs a recruiter screen, one to two competency interviews, and typically a task, case or presentation, operated on a hybrid model of three days on-site at Waterside (Paddington) or regional offices and two days from home.
  • Early Careers (Graduate Scheme, Industrial Placement, Apprenticeship) requires a Situational Strength Test, numerical and logical tests, a HireVue-style video interview, and a half-day to full-day assessment centre with group, case and panel exercises.
  • M&S has an explicit, published AI policy: AI is welcomed as a support for structuring and refining applications, but copy-pasted generic answers, fabricated examples and live AI assistance during interviews are rejected and filtered out.
  • The April to May 2025 cyberattack is recent context every serious candidate should understand; the business recovered online ordering after 46 days, rebuilt customer trust, and has since accelerated investment in InfoSec, platform resilience and engineering hiring.
  • M&S Food, the Ocado Retail joint venture, the clothing and home turnaround, and the International growth agenda are the four strategic narratives Stuart Machin consistently references; candidates who can speak to at least one will materially strengthen their application.
  • Customer Assistants are the backbone of the business and the most common hiring route: there is no shame in starting there, and internal progression to Section Coordinator, Team Manager, Commercial Manager and Store Manager is an actively promoted path.
  • Benefits span a colleague discount (typically 20% on most M&S products), bonus scheme, life assurance, workplace savings, Cycle to Work, family-friendly policies, a virtual GP via the Wellbeing Hub, and an explicit commitment to wellbeing and giving back.

About Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer Group plc, known universally as M&S, is one of the most recognised brands in British retail. Founded in 1884 as a Penny Bazaar stall in Leeds Kirkgate Market by Michael Marks, a Jewish refugee from what is now Belarus, and formally partnered with Thomas Spencer in 1894, the company grew into a FTSE 100 constituent with its registered office and Support Centre at Waterside House, 35 North Wharf Road, London W2 1NW, adjoining Paddington Basin. M&S trades from more than 1,000 UK stores plus an international footprint, employs approximately 64,000 to 65,000 colleagues, and turns over in excess of GBP 13 billion across its twin pillars of Food (M&S Food) and Clothing, Home and Beauty. Chief Executive Stuart Machin, appointed in May 2022, leads a turnaround and growth strategy framed as 'reshaping M&S for growth,' with Katie Bickerstaffe having previously served as co-CEO. Archie Norman chairs the board. The business is in the middle of what Machin describes as its biggest transformation in a generation, combining a store rotation programme, a sharp Food business acceleration, a clothing and home turnaround, a joint venture with Ocado Group (Ocado Retail) that delivers M&S Food online, and a heavy investment in digital and technology under Chief Digital and Technology Officer Rachel Higham. For a job seeker, it helps to understand that M&S operates three very different hiring worlds under one brand. The first is In Store: roughly 50,000 colleagues spread across Customer Assistants (the front line, serving customers on the shop floor, on tills, in the cafe, and on Click and Collect), Section Coordinators, Team Managers, Commercial Managers, and Store Managers. The second is the Support Centre: thousands of head office colleagues working hybrid out of Waterside (Paddington), Castle Donington, Stockley Park and regional offices, covering Buying, Merchandising, Design, Food Technology, Digital and Tech, Data, Finance, HR, Property, Legal, Marketing, Sustainability, and International. The third is Supply Chain and Logistics: distribution centres, depots, and the Castle Donington e-commerce hub, plus a growing technology and data estate that supports the Ocado partnership, the Sparks loyalty programme, and the reinvention of the M&S app and website. In April and May 2025, M&S was the victim of a major, widely reported cyberattack attributed by UK press to the Scattered Spider threat cluster, with ransomware deployed after attackers compromised a third-party helpdesk contractor. Online ordering was suspended for 46 days, store operations and contactless payments were disrupted, and the company publicly estimated a hit of around GBP 300 million to group operating profit. Some customer data, including names, addresses, dates of birth and order histories, was exfiltrated, though payment card details and account passwords were not compromised. M&S has since rebuilt its digital estate, accelerated a cyber resilience programme, and publicly reset its technology hiring posture. Candidates applying to M&S in 2026, particularly into Digital and Tech, InfoSec, and Supply Chain, should expect questions that touch on resilience, operational continuity, customer trust, and what the business learned from the incident. The recovery context is part of the story, not a taboo subject.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Search live vacancies on the official careers site at jobs

    Search live vacancies on the official careers site at jobs.marksandspencer.com, which aggregates every advertised role across In Store, Support Centre, Distribution, Digital and Tech, and Early Careers, and filter by team (In Store, Food, Digital and Tech, Fashion Home and Beauty, International, Support Functions, Supply Chain and Logistics), hours per week, position type, and country.

  2. 2
    Click 'Apply now' on any individual advert, which redirects you to the Oracle HC

    Click 'Apply now' on any individual advert, which redirects you to the Oracle HCM Cloud Recruiting candidate experience hosted on fa-eqid-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com under site CX_1 (the M&S tenant), where you create a candidate account with a personal email address you will keep beyond any current employment.

  3. 3
    Complete the online application form, which for In Store roles takes approximate

    Complete the online application form, which for In Store roles takes approximately 45 minutes and requires personal details including your National Insurance number, documentary evidence of right to work in the United Kingdom, and your availability to book an interview slot directly in the store once you submit.

  4. 4
    For Support Centre roles, upload a tailored CV (and a cover note or answers to m

    For Support Centre roles, upload a tailored CV (and a cover note or answers to motivation questions where prompted), complete any role-specific screening questions, and submit; a Talent Acquisition partner will then review, screen by phone, and invite you to the structured stages described in the advert.

  5. 5
    If invited to interview, In Store candidates attend a face-to-face interview at

    If invited to interview, In Store candidates attend a face-to-face interview at the store, typically with the Store Manager or a Commercial Manager, while Support Centre candidates progress through a mix of virtual and in-person stages: telephone or video screen, competency and motivational interviews (one or two rounds), and where relevant a task-based exercise, a written case, or a presentation.

  6. 6
    Early Careers applicants to the Graduate Programmes, Industrial Placements and A

    Early Careers applicants to the Graduate Programmes, Industrial Placements and Apprenticeships follow a more structured funnel: online application, a Situational Strength Test and Numerical or Logical reasoning test, an asynchronous video interview with six to seven questions and short preparation and response windows, and a virtual or on-site assessment centre combining a group exercise, a case study or presentation, and a final competency interview with senior leaders.

  7. 7
    Successful candidates receive a verbal offer from the hiring manager or Talent A

    Successful candidates receive a verbal offer from the hiring manager or Talent Acquisition, followed by a written offer issued through Oracle Recruiting, with pre-employment checks covering right to work, referencing, and where relevant DBS/credit checks, and onboarding for Support Centre roles typically converging on a cohort start date with a structured induction at Waterside.

Resume Tips for Marks & Spencer

recommended

Use a UK-style two-page CV for In Store and most Support Centre roles (three pag

Use a UK-style two-page CV for In Store and most Support Centre roles (three pages maximum for senior leadership or deep specialist posts), written in British English with British date formats (DD/MM/YYYY), and tailored specifically to the role family you are applying for rather than a generic retail CV.

recommended

Mirror M&S's own language directly: phrases like 'customer-first,' 'raise the ba

Mirror M&S's own language directly: phrases like 'customer-first,' 'raise the bar,' 'pace and purpose,' 'commercial results,' 'inclusion,' 'fast-paced,' 'sharp service,' 'standout style,' and 'every detail matters' come straight from the live job adverts and the Life at M&S pages, and appear repeatedly in internal competency frameworks.

recommended

Quantify commercial impact in concrete numbers: like-for-like sales uplift, conv

Quantify commercial impact in concrete numbers: like-for-like sales uplift, conversion rate, basket size, average transaction value, shrinkage reduction, availability percentage, staff turnover reduction, NPS or Customer Satisfaction score, waste reduction, and budget controlled; M&S's turnaround narrative is numbers-led and shortlisters reward numbers-led CVs.

recommended

For Support Centre and Digital and Tech roles, show evidence of shipping at reta

For Support Centre and Digital and Tech roles, show evidence of shipping at retail scale: peak-season resilience, Black Friday or Christmas trading, omnichannel integration between store and online, Click and Collect, Sparks loyalty, Ocado Retail integration, or migration and hardening programmes, particularly if you worked through a major incident or cutover.

recommended

For In Store roles, lead with customer service evidence, shift flexibility (earl

For In Store roles, lead with customer service evidence, shift flexibility (early starts, late finishes, weekends, bank holidays), practical examples of leading a small team or deputising for a manager, food safety or allergen training if applying to Food, and any retail-specific certifications such as Personal Licence, food hygiene, or first aid.

recommended

Be authentic: M&S publishes an explicit 'Using AI in your application' policy on

Be authentic: M&S publishes an explicit 'Using AI in your application' policy on jobs.marksandspencer.com that welcomes AI as a support for structuring and refining your application, but flatly rejects copy-pasted generic AI answers, fabricated examples, and live AI assistance during interviews or assessments; overly polished, impersonal CVs are spotted and penalised.

recommended

Save your CV as a PDF named 'Surname_Firstname_CV

Save your CV as a PDF named 'Surname_Firstname_CV.pdf' for cleaner handling in Oracle, keep file size under 5 MB, avoid graphics-heavy templates that break Oracle's parser, and use standard section headings (Profile, Experience, Education, Skills, Interests) so the ATS reliably surfaces your content to recruiters.

recommended

If you are applying to Early Careers programmes (Food Business Graduate Programm

If you are applying to Early Careers programmes (Food Business Graduate Programme, Food Technology Industrial Placement, Retail Graduate, Digital and Data Apprenticeships, Buying and Merchandising placements), include a short motivation paragraph that demonstrates you have actually visited an M&S store recently, read the latest trading update, and can name a specific product, campaign, or store experience that illustrates why you want to join.

ATS System: Oracle HCM Cloud Recruiting (Oracle Fusion HCM / Oracle Recruiting Cloud)

Marks & Spencer runs its candidate experience on Oracle HCM Cloud Recruiting, hosted on the tenant fa-eqid-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com under site CX_1. The jobs.marksandspencer.com careers site is the marketing and search surface, and every 'Apply now' button redirects to the Oracle Candidate Experience, where you create an account, complete a structured online application, upload a CV (PDF preferred, under 5 MB), answer role-specific screening questions and, where relevant for store roles, book an interview slot directly in the store. Oracle handles status tracking, recruiter communications, offer issuance and onboarding in the same environment, so the candidate journey remains inside a single ecosystem from advert through to first day. Oracle's resume parsing is reasonably literal, which rewards keyword alignment with the advert and the published values, and the portal supports saved job alerts by category, team, location and hours.

  • Create your Oracle candidate account with a personal email address and a strong password you can reuse across future M&S applications; account history is tied to that login and recovery is slower than applying fresh.
  • Upload your CV as a PDF under 5 MB named 'Surname_Firstname_CV.pdf' and avoid multi-column, graphics-heavy templates so Oracle's parser reliably extracts your roles, dates and skills.
  • Mirror the exact language of the advert and of the Life at M&S values pages (customer-first, pace and purpose, raise the bar, inclusion, every detail matters) in your CV and screening answers; Oracle surfaces keyword matches to recruiters.
  • For In Store roles, book your interview slot promptly after shortlisting through the Oracle portal, because slots are limited and rescheduling is discouraged; if you cannot attend, cancel via the link in your invite rather than emailing.
  • For Support Centre roles, complete every screening question in full rather than relying solely on the CV upload, because recruiters filter on structured answers before opening attachments.
  • Set up a saved search in the Oracle candidate portal filtered by team, location and hours, so new requisitions matching your profile trigger an email the day they open; M&S refreshes In Store vacancies frequently as trading patterns shift.
  • Check your Oracle 'Notifications' and 'Jobs Applied' tabs directly for status changes (Under Review, Interview Scheduled, Offer, Unsuccessful) rather than relying solely on email, which can lag behind portal state.

Complete Oracle HCM Cloud Recruiting (Oracle Fusion HCM / Oracle Recruiting Cloud) Resume Guide →

Interview Culture

M&S's interview culture is best described as warm, practical, and unapologetically commercial.

The brand prides itself on service, quality and detail, and interviewers from Customer Assistant roles through to Director-level Support Centre posts test for the same underlying traits: genuine interest in customers, pace, resilience, commercial awareness, and a willingness to own a problem end-to-end. The tone is friendly rather than adversarial, but it is never soft: M&S is in the middle of a publicly stated transformation and interviewers are looking for people who raise standards rather than simply meet them. For In Store roles, the process is deliberately compact. After a 45-minute online application, shortlisted candidates book a face-to-face interview in the store itself, typically a 30 to 45 minute conversation with the Store Manager or a Commercial Manager, sometimes alongside a Section Coordinator. Expect scenario-style questions about handling a difficult customer, covering an absent colleague, prioritising tasks on a chaotic Saturday, responding to a complaint about a Food allergen, or managing a queue during a system outage. Interviewers want to see your body language on the shop floor as much as your verbal answers: friendliness, energy, tidiness, and the instinct to engage a customer rather than avoid one. Candidates are encouraged to visit the store before their interview and, where possible, make a small purchase so they can speak authentically about the customer experience. For Support Centre and Digital and Tech roles, expect a more structured funnel run out of the Talent Acquisition team in Waterside. A typical process includes an initial 20 to 30 minute telephone or Teams screen with a recruiter to check motivation and logistics, a first-stage competency interview with the hiring manager covering role-specific skills, and a final interview that often includes a task-based exercise: a buying plan review, a data analysis, a product roadmap critique, a system design discussion, a written brief, or a short presentation. Panels of two to four are standard, usually combining the hiring manager, a senior stakeholder, and an HR partner. Answers are expected in STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format, with concrete numbers and named projects, and panels probe hard on trade-offs, commercial reasoning, and how you handled setbacks. Early Careers candidates experience the most formal and assessment-heavy process. After an online application, most schemes require a Situational Strength Test plus Numerical and Logical reasoning assessments, followed by an asynchronous video interview on a HireVue-style platform with six to seven questions, roughly 30 seconds to prepare and up to two minutes to answer each. Successful video candidates are invited to a virtual or on-site assessment centre lasting half a day to a full day, combining a group case exercise, a role-specific task (for example, a store scenario presentation with an hour of prep for retail streams, or a product or buying brief for Fashion/Home/Beauty and Food), and a final one-to-one interview with a senior leader. Graduate-level assessment centre interviews can run up to 90 minutes and are deliberately demanding, reflecting Machin's public stance that the business has 'high expectations' and moves 'at pace.' Cross-cutting behaviours that M&S consistently tests for are: customer obsession (evidenced, not claimed); commercial instinct and numeracy; willingness to have direct, constructive conversations (what the company calls 'confident, difficult conversations'); digital confidence; pride in detail; and a team-first rather than individualist mindset. Reasonable adjustments are offered proactively, interviews can be rescheduled within limits, and the application portal explicitly invites candidates to flag any support needs up-front via the Oracle candidate profile or by emailing [email protected] for store roles.

What Marks & Spencer Looks For

  • Genuine customer focus: candidates who can give concrete, dated examples of going out of their way for a customer, recovering from a service failure, or turning a complaint into loyalty, rather than vague claims of being 'people-focused.'
  • Commercial awareness and numeracy: the ability to read a simple P&L, talk sensibly about like-for-like sales, margin, stock-turn, and shrinkage, and to tie day-to-day decisions back to commercial outcomes; this applies as much to Customer Assistants as to Buyers.
  • Pace and resilience: M&S repeatedly describes itself as 'fast, focused and full-on'; interviewers want people who can handle simultaneous priorities on a peak Saturday, absorb change without losing composure, and recover quickly from setbacks.
  • Pride in detail and in craft: food quality, product finish, visual merchandising, in-app polish, data accuracy, and a consistent brand feel across every touchpoint are non-negotiables in M&S's positioning, and they test for it at interview.
  • Willingness to have direct conversations: candidates must evidence coaching, performance feedback, difficult stakeholder conversations, and holding the line on standards without being harsh; this is explicitly listed in multiple 2026 adverts as 'confidence having constructive, sometimes difficult conversations.'
  • Digital confidence: even for store and food-production roles, M&S is rolling out a programme called Digital Essentials across 26,000 colleagues, and interviewers routinely ask how you adopt new tools, apps, and ways of working rather than treating digital as a specialist topic.
  • Inclusive mindset: M&S markets itself as 'Everyone is welcome at M&S. No exceptions,' and actively weighs evidence of inclusion work, colleague network participation, mentoring of under-represented groups, and accessibility improvements across every role family.
  • Authenticity: M&S's published AI policy is unusually explicit in warning against overly polished or AI-generic answers; interviewers prize specific, lived examples and a distinctive voice over a textbook-perfect but bland candidate.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ATS does Marks & Spencer use to manage job applications?
Marks & Spencer runs Oracle HCM Cloud Recruiting (Oracle Fusion HCM / Oracle Recruiting Cloud) on the tenant fa-eqid-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com under site CX_1. All applications are submitted through the Oracle Candidate Experience portal after being redirected from jobs.marksandspencer.com; M&S does not accept CVs by email for advertised vacancies and does not use LinkedIn Easy Apply for substantive roles.
Where do I find current Marks & Spencer vacancies?
The official live vacancy list sits at jobs.marksandspencer.com/job-search, with filters for hours per week, full/part time, team (In Store, Food, Digital and Tech, Fashion Home and Beauty, International, Support Functions, Supply Chain and Logistics), roles, and country. Clicking 'Apply now' on any advert hands off to the Oracle Candidate Experience at fa-eqid-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com. At the time of writing (April 2026) M&S was advertising approximately 277 live roles across the UK.
How long does an M&S application take?
For In Store roles the online application on Oracle takes around 45 minutes and requires your personal details including a National Insurance number, right-to-work evidence, and interview availability. For Support Centre and Digital and Tech roles, application time varies from 20 to 60 minutes depending on screening questions, and for Early Careers programmes you should budget one to two hours plus 45 to 90 minutes for the Situational Strength and reasoning tests.
Does M&S sponsor Skilled Worker visas?
M&S sponsors Skilled Worker visas selectively for senior Support Centre, Digital and Tech, and specialist Buying or Food Technology roles where the business cannot reasonably recruit from the domestic market and the role meets UK Home Office SOC code and salary thresholds. Routine In Store and early-career roles are not generally sponsored. Individual adverts or the recruiter will confirm sponsorship availability for a specific vacancy.
What is the interview process for In Store Customer Assistant roles?
Apply via the Oracle candidate experience, which takes about 45 minutes; if shortlisted you will be invited to book a face-to-face interview slot in the store, typically a 30 to 45 minute conversation with the Store Manager or a Commercial Manager. M&S asks you to visit the store in advance and to come prepared to talk about your motivation for retail, handling difficult customers, and working shifts including early starts, late finishes and weekends.
What does the M&S graduate assessment centre involve?
Successful graduate candidates progress through an online Situational Strength Test plus numerical and logical reasoning, an asynchronous HireVue-style video interview with six to seven questions (roughly 30 seconds to prepare and up to two minutes to answer), and a half-day to full-day assessment centre combining a group case exercise, a role-specific task (store scenario presentation, buying or product brief, data or technology case, depending on scheme), and a final competency interview with a senior leader, all benchmarked against M&S's published values and competencies.
Can I use ChatGPT or other AI tools to prepare my M&S application?
Yes, within clearly published limits. M&S's explicit AI policy on jobs.marksandspencer.com/using-ai-your-job-application welcomes AI as a tool for organising ideas, refining grammar and flow, and practising interview questions. It prohibits copy-pasting generic AI answers into applications, fabricating examples, using live AI assistance during interviews or assessments, and relying on AI as your sole source of research about M&S. The stated rule of thumb is that AI should improve, not define, your application.
Is M&S still hiring after the 2025 cyberattack?
Yes. The April to May 2025 ransomware incident disrupted online orders for 46 days and the company publicly estimated a circa GBP 300 million hit to group operating profit, but the business resumed online ordering in June 2025, rebuilt its digital estate, and has since increased investment in InfoSec, platform engineering, and customer trust. As of April 2026 M&S continues to advertise actively across In Store, Support Centre, Digital and Tech, and Early Careers, with 277 live roles on the careers site at the time of writing.
What pay and benefits can I expect at M&S?
In Store Customer Assistants in 2026 are advertised from GBP 13.41 per hour, with a GBP 3.00 per hour unsocial premium applying to qualifying hours. Management and Support Centre roles are quoted as 'Competitive plus Benefits' with individual salary ranges confirmed by the recruiter. Benefits typically include a colleague discount (generally 20% on most M&S products), bonus scheme, life assurance, pension and workplace savings, Cycle to Work, Smart Tech, family-friendly policies, enhanced leave, and a Wellbeing Hub with a free virtual GP service.
What are the M&S Support Centre hybrid working arrangements?
M&S Support Centre teams operate a hybrid working model that is typically three days in the office and two days from home per week, though this varies by team and operational demand. The primary Support Centre is Waterside House at 35 North Wharf Road, London W2 1NW, adjoining Paddington Basin, with additional offices at Castle Donington (Distribution and e-commerce), Stockley Park, and other regional locations. Store, distribution, and many Digital and Tech infrastructure roles remain on-site by necessity.
Who can I contact about my M&S application?
For In Store and retail recruitment queries, the published contact is [email protected]; application status is also visible in your Oracle candidate portal. For Support Centre and Early Careers queries, the Talent Acquisition partner assigned to your requisition is the first point of contact and is named in your Oracle notifications. Rescheduling an interview slot is limited; candidates are asked to cancel using the link in the invite if they cannot attend, rather than relying on email.

Open Positions

Marks & Spencer currently has 53 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 53 open positions at Marks & Spencer

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