Pension scheme
Flexible working
Discounts & tickets

Retail Product Technologist

Salary £40,770
Location Cromwell Road, London
{Mergefield Value}
{Mergefield Value}

This is a Permanent, Full Time vacancy that will close in {x} days at {xx:xx} BST.

The Role

This position is located within the V&A 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, the role is key to the V&A’s commitment to the highest standards of design, ensuring all products meet regulatory and certification standards, across a wide range of categories that includes toys, food, toiletries, homeware and fashion. 

Responsibilities include:

To manage product testing, compliance and certification processes for V&A merchandise, in line with wider departmental strategy and critical path.

To work collaboratively with Buying, Merchandising and Design teams to ensure compliance across V&A Retail for both bought-in and own-brand products 

To own the compliance strategy and processes from start to finish, developing as needed and working with internal and external partners to implement

To act as a first point of contact for internal and external parties for technical and
compliance queries relating to retail product 

To be appraised of all relevant legislation and its communication to wider teams as needed

To set out and communicate the compliance requirements for all categories and territories into which V&A Shops sell 

To work closely with suppliers to ensure standards are met, investigate irregularities, report findings, and help implement corrective actions 

To gather, review and approve third-party test documentation. To maintain records and data related to compliance. To review product labelling, warnings and back-of-pack information to ensure regulatory compliance 

To perform risk assessments and create/update policies and processes where necessary 

To support GPSR processes by maintaining and providing relevant product and packaging specifications

To develop and implement a product recall strategy for in-store and online 

To work closely with internal teams such as Warehouse, Front of House, Merchandising and Web to conduct training and co-ordinate process improvements 

To ensure V&A Retail sustainability targets are monitored, updated and recorded across retail activity including GOTS, FSC etc 

The V&A

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. The museum holds many of the UK's national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design, theatre and performance.  

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.

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Benefits

Generous pension scheme

29 days plus bank holidays

Flexible working​

Tickets to V&A exhibitions

Subsidised staff canteen

25% discount in V&A shops

Give as you earn scheme

Bicycle loan

Interest-free season ticket

Interest-free rental deposit loan

Free safety checks and small repairs to your bike with Doctor Bike

Wide range of training and professional development opportunities

Employee Assistance Programme

Staff diversity networks

ED&I at The V&A

At the V&A, we are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for all and strive to go above and beyond public duty placed upon us by the Equality Act 2010.  As such, we are delighted to share that we are a Disability Confident Employer Level 2. The V&A makes the following commitments to all applications:  

  • The Disability Confident Employer scheme offers guaranteed interviews – Interviewing applicants with a disability who successfully evidence the essential criteria on a person specification and consider them on their abilities;  
  • Providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process.  
  • Making reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process so disabled job applicants have the best opportunity to demonstrate that they can do the job.  
  • Supporting employees and adjustments during employment.  

In some circumstances, such as when we receive a high volume of applications that meet the minimum criteria, we may not be able to guarantee an interview under the scheme. In these cases, we will interview only the highest-scoring applicants, from both people with disabilities and people without a disability.

Job Descriptions are currently uploaded as PDF's, if for any reason you require the documents in Word Format, please email careers@vam.ac.uk with your request.

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