Partnerships Assistant
Vanilla Underground — Officially Licensed Pop Culture Merchandise
Lichfield / Tamworth, Staffordshire · Full-time
Salary: £27,500 - £30,000 per annum, depending on experience
About us
Vanilla Underground supplies officially licensed pop culture merchandise to major UK retail partners — including NEXT and Matalan — alongside a growing wholesale business.
About the role
We're looking for a commercially minded, proactive Partnerships Assistant to support the day-to-day running of these accounts. This is a varied, fast-paced role sitting at the centre of our partner relationships. You'll be a key point of contact for external partners, keep our listings and stock in great shape, turn sales data into useful insight, and work closely with our buying and production teams to keep everything moving. You'll act as a trusted second pair of hands — confident enough to represent us in meetings and keep things running when needed.
Key responsibilities
Partner & marketplace operations
- Run regular NEXT listing health checks — reviewing tone of voice, product titles and imagery to keep our presence on-brand and best-in-class.
- Manage NEXT replenishment runs to keep stock at healthy cover levels.
- Raise range plans and Product Information Forms (PIFs) for our partnered marketplaces.
- Work on NEXT splits of goods inbound ahead of delivery, ensuring stock is allocated correctly.
Sales analysis & planning
- Produce daily and weekly sales analysis and maintain information tracking for our partners.
- Assist with forward planning for the season ahead, helping spot trends and opportunities early.
Stakeholder & partner communication
- Act as a key touchpoint for external partners, communicating in a calm, clear and professional manner.
- Consolidate information requests from internal and external stakeholders into clear, actionable summaries.
- Filter and triage wholesale enquiries, directing them to the right place.
- Handle day-to-day admin questions, keeping partners and colleagues informed.
- Attend meetings on the team's behalf when needed, representing the business and feeding back clearly.
- Collate information on new product development from the buying team and prepare it to showcase to our external partners.
Cross-functional collaboration
- Work alongside the buying and production teams on raising purchase orders where needed.
This is not an exhaustive list — the role will flex as the business and our partnerships grow.
Skills & experience
Essential
- Strong Excel skills, with a confident understanding of XLookup as a minimum.
- A calm, clear and professional manner when dealing with external partners.
- A commercial mindset with an outside-the-box approach to spotting and reviewing growth opportunities.
- An independent, proactive attitude — always looking at how we can do things better and improve processes.
Desirable
- Experience working with retail partners, marketplaces or concessions (e.g. NEXT, Matalan).
- Familiarity with replenishment, range planning or listing management.
- An interest in licensed / pop culture merchandise or the wider retail sector.
The right person for this role
We're looking for someone who is naturally proactive and energised by improving things — someone who spots an opportunity or a better way of doing something and just gets on with it, rather than waiting to be asked. You'll be a confident, engaging communicator who's comfortable being the face of the business with external partners and happy to represent us in meetings.
You'll also bring enough structure and attention to detail to keep listings, stock and data accurate — but this isn't a role for someone who wants to quietly process admin in the background. We need someone commercially curious, quick to build relationships with new contacts, and comfortable trying new approaches rather than sticking rigidly to how things have always been done.
What success looks like
- Our partner listings, stock cover and data are consistently accurate and on-brand.
- Partners experience us as responsive, organised and easy to work with.
- The manager can step away knowing accounts are in safe, capable hands.
Pay: £27,500.00-£30,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
