| Head Of Digital International Franchise |
| Responsible to : Franchise Director |
| Department : Franchise |
| Overview: You will be part of JD Sports expansion in international markets. The purpose of this role is to drive our Franchise partners to successfully launch and grow JD Sports online presence in their country. While working with multiple departments and countries, you will be managing the whole loyalty and ecommerce lifecycle and be responsible for the launch, technology development, digital marketing and commercial trade. |
| Strategic Objectives: Working closely with the Franchise GM, Ecommerce, Finance, and IT, the Head of Digital will drive the end‑to‑end digital strategy across Launch, Technology, Digital Marketing, Loyalty, Trade, and Finance to enable partners to successfully activate and scale JD’s digital ecosystem in every market. As the primary digital contact within the Franchise division, the role ensures partners have the frameworks, platforms, and commercial guidance needed to maximise launch performance and sustain long‑term growth. Acting as a digital brand guardian, the Head of Digital educates, supports, and empowers partners to deliver a consistent, insight‑driven, and commercially strong representation of JD across all digital channels. By building scalable processes, digital playbooks, financial models, and technology standards, the role ensures each partner can embed locally while operating with global excellence, ultimately accelerating their ability to grow at the pace expected of the JD Group. |
| Key Roles and Responsibilities: |
| Lead and orchestrate the end‑to‑end launch of all digital platforms (ecommerce, app, CRM, loyalty, digital trade tools) in new Franchise markets, ensuring seamless deployment, market readiness, and alignment with JD’s global digital ecosystem. |
| Own the digital commercial strategy across Ecommerce Trading, Digital Marketing, Loyalty, and Omnichannel, identifying growth opportunities, analysing performance trends, and challenging partners to achieve best‑in‑class results. |
| Drive market insights and localisation strategy, ensuring all digital plans reflect local customer behaviour, competitive landscape, regulatory needs, and cultural context while maintaining JD’s global standards. |
| Continuously review digital trading performance and benchmark against JD Group markets, identifying optimisation levers across conversion, media efficiency, customer retention, UX, and product performance. |
| Shape the digital technology roadmap for Franchise markets, partnering with Tech and Data teams to prioritise upgrades, integrations, analytics enhancements, platform improvements, and new capabilities that support revenue and scalability. |
| Lead the digital go‑to‑market strategy with partners across all channels: Ecommerce Content, Online Merchandising, Digital Trade, CRM & Lifecycle Marketing, Paid Media, Affiliates, SEO, CRO, and UX — ensuring full adherence to JD global best practices. |
| Build and maintain strong cross‑functional relationships with internal teams across Retail, Marketing, Digital Trading, Product, IT, Finance, Property, and Visual Merchandising to enable cohesive digital operations and commercial planning. |
| Use exceptional leadership, communication, and influencing skills to align global and local stakeholders on digital priorities, ensuring successful delivery of strategic initiatives and continuous improvement programs. |
| Troubleshoot operational challenges hands‑on, driving improvements across systems, processes, digital workflows, and partner capabilities — embedding JD’s global Centres of Excellence where applicable. |
| Champion digital operational excellence across all markets, ensuring consistent brand experience, strong visual execution, and customer‑first digital journeys across web, app, CRM, and loyalty touchpoints. |
| Own the development and evolution of the JD Digital Franchise Portal, acting as the gatekeeper of global standards, training materials, playbooks, and market‑specific guidance that support scalability and best practice adoption. |
| People and Talent Management: |
| Build strong, trust‑based, and effective cross‑functional relationships across the wider JD organisation, ensuring Digital partners seamlessly with Ecommerce, Tech, Data, Marketing, Retail, Finance, Property, and HR to deliver unified market launches and ongoing digital excellence. |
| Support and empower Franchise partners to build, develop, and coach high‑performing digital teams across ecommerce trading, CRM, digital marketing, analytics, product content, and digital operations. |
| Act as an inspirational and visionary digital leader with the ability to coach and mentor both internal teams and partner organisations |
| Skills & Experience |
| Significant experience (typically 5+ years) in senior Digital, Ecommerce, or Omnichannel roles, ideally within retail, fashion, or consumer brands. |
| Strong understanding of franchise models, international markets, or multi‑territory operations, with experience supporting partners or distributed teams. |
| Proven commercial acumen with the ability to interpret data, build business cases, optimise P&L levers, and influence financial decision‑making. |
| Demonstrable experience in project leadership, managing complex multi‑market digital deployments from planning through execution. |
| Excellent communicator and presenter, able to influence senior leaders and inspire cross‑functional teams across cultures and markets. |
| Experienced in building strong relationships across Digital, Marketing, Technology, Finance, and Operations in fast‑paced environments. |
| Strong understanding of the JD Brand, digital retail landscape, consumer journey, and global brand governance. |
| Willingness to travel internationally as required to support market launches, performance reviews, and team capability building. |