Build your technical expertise. Deliver exceptional quality. This is an exciting 12-month placement in the industry-leading M&S Food team. Learn how we ensure the quality, safety and standards that M&S products are known for.
You’ll start with an induction to the Food Technology team. Then, spend two weeks in one of our stores, building an understanding of our business and how customer needs shape everything we do. You’ll also see how we deliver the high standards we’re known for.
After this, you’ll spend the rest of your first six months tackling live projects in technical areas including food safety, supplier management and innovation. From there, you’ll complete your final six months working with one of our top-rate suppliers to amplify your experience within Food Technology and step up your knowledge of the full supply chain.
A curiosity for how things work. A genuine enthusiasm for the products we make. These are the skills that will see you making the most of this one-of-a-kind experience.
This role carries real responsibility to ensure the consistent quality and safety our customers expect from us. So, you’ll need an eye for detail and the confidence to speak up and ask questions. Alongside that, an ability to communicate clearly, collaborate across teams and stay focused under pressure.
This placement is designed for experts in the making, helping to elevate your skills and put you on the path to a Food Industry career with big impact. Once you graduate, you can re-join M&S on a graduate programme. Then, over time, advance into roles where you’ll be shaping product quality, influencing product innovation or setting strategy for entire food categories.
Our food is not just any food.
We've built our reputation on quality, value and innovation, creating products that excite people. And it shows, with over 32 million customers and new stores continuing to open across the nation. This doesn’t happen without our Food Technologists, helping us reinvent the UK’s favourite foods and bring our customers new flavours.
Our five-year vision is to reshape retail for the future and as a future leader of our Food business, you could play an important role in this transformation.
Growing responsibility. Project leadership. Influential ideas.
Wherever your ambitions lie within M&S Food, we’ll help you get there with structured learning and development, coaching and career mapping.
After your placement and graduation, this is the kind of career path you could take.
We're at our best when we're close to customers, and for many of us at M&S, that means working in store every day.
To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected. It also means we can solve problems as soon as they arise, learn and grow as a team, build trust, and get closer to our colleagues.
Your development is our priority at M&S. We’re committed to helping you grow and aim higher every day. You’ll benefit from a structured programme that includes mentoring, on-the-job training, and opportunities to solve real challenges. This hands-on experience will be instrumental in building a long-term career in the Food industry.
We believe in being bold and ambitious, so if we see that you can reach your potential faster, we’ll provide the tools and opportunities to make it happen. However, the person who will drive this development is you. With our support, we want you to own and take charge of your growth. Your proactive approach and commitment to learning will be key to your success.
Your first step will be to complete our online application form. You can only apply to one programme per annual recruitment cycle, and we’d encourage you to choose the one that feels like the best fit for you.
We close our vacancies on a rolling basis and closing dates can change. We recommend submitting your application as soon as possible.
We’ll invite you to take part in a two-stage online assessment, where you can find out more about M&S whilst we find out more about you.
If your online assessment is successful, you’ll be invited to an in-person Assessment Centre. The recruitment process for store-based roles will also include an opportunity to attend your final interview in one of our stores.
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