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Play a vital role in safeguarding the quality standards of the V&A Museum's retail products
Overview
Salary
£40770
Location
Cromwell Road, London
Expires
Expires at anytime
Join the V&A, the world's premier museum of art and design, with a rich collection of over 2.8 million artefacts. Our aim is to enrich lives by sharing our knowledge and passion for art and design to a broad audience. As a Retail Product Technologist, you will be part of our Retail Buying team, collaborating with Buyers and Merchandisers to maintain product quality and compliance. Key responsibilities include handling product testing, ensuring the compliance of both bought-in and own-brand goods and managing compliance strategies. A good understanding of legislation, risk assessment skills, and the ability to communicate compliance requirements and implement corrective actions are necessary for this role. At V&A you can enjoy a variety of benefits including a generous pension scheme, flexible working hours, discounts on V&A exhibitions and shops, and more.
The V&A is the world's leading museum of art and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects, books and archives that span over 5,000 years of human creativity. Our mission is to be recognised as the world's leading museum of art, design and performance, and to enrich people's lives by promoting research, knowledge and enjoyment of the designed world to the widest possible audience. We strive to make the V&A matter to more people and in that context we work to the following six strategic objectives: To create a world class visitor and learning experience across all V&A sites and collections. Focus and deepen the relevance of our collections to the UK creative and knowledge economy. Expand the V&A's international reach, reputation and impact. To operate with financial and organisational initiative and efficiency. Showcase the best of digital design and deliver an outstanding digital experience. Diversify and increase private and commercial funding sources.
The role: As a Retail Product Technologist at the V&A, you will be part of the Retail Buying team, working closely with Buyers and Merchandisers to oversee product testing and compliance documentation across all merchandise sold within the V&A shops and online. Reporting to the Head of Retail, your key responsibilities will include managing product testing, compliance and certification processes for V&A merchandise, in line with wider departmental strategy and critical path. You will work collaboratively with Buying, Merchandising and Design teams to ensure compliance across V&A Retail for both bought-in and own-brand products. You will own the compliance strategy and processes from start to finish, developing as needed and working with internal and external partners to implement.
Job requirements: To be successful in this role, you should be appraised of all relevant legislation and its communication to wider teams as needed. You will set out and communicate the compliance requirements for all categories and territories into which V&A Shops sell. Working closely with suppliers to ensure standards are met, investigate irregularities, report findings, and help implement corrective actions is crucial. You will also gather, review and approve third-party test documentation, maintain records and data related to compliance, review product labelling, warnings and back-of-pack information to ensure regulatory compliance, perform risk assessments and create/update policies and processes where necessary.
Benefits: The V&A offers a generous pension scheme, 29 days plus bank holidays, flexible working, tickets to V&A exhibitions, subsidised staff canteen, 25% discount in V&A shops, and a range of other benefits designed to support your personal and professional development.
