Senior Editor, Fashion Buying (Fixed-Term)

The role We are looking to hire a Senior Trend Strategist to join our established team of data scientists, analysts and trend experts in London. This is a fixed-term contract until March 2026 to cover the maternity leave of a current employee. Working at WGSN Together, we create tomorrow A career with WGSN is fast-paced, exciting and full of opportunities to grow and develop. We're a team of consumer and design trend forecasters, content creators, designers, data analysts, advisory consultants and much more, united by a common goal: to create tomorrow. WGSN's trusted consumer and design forecasts power outstanding product design, enabling our customers to create a better future. Our services cover consumer insights, beauty, consumer tech, fashion, interiors, lifestyle, food and drink forecasting, data analytics and expert advisory. If you are an expert in your field, we want to hear from you. Role Overview In this role you will be joining a team of data scientists, analysts and trend experts to deliver AI-driven fashion planning and trend forecasting across our content platform and bespoke advisory services. If you’re passionate about fashion and lifestyle this is a great place to be, giving you the opportunity to work with the world's most creative trend experts, designers, analysts, account managers, marketers, product developers, customer service experts and much more in a meritocratic, high-performance company. TrendCurve AI is our predictive analytics model within WGSN Fashion Buying, combining powerful data science and quantitative forecasting with the world’s leading trend expertise. The foundation of WGSN is our passionate experts. WGSN seeks talent globally to work within a business that offers a unique blend of specialist problem solvers, data analysts and innovative thinkers who put trends and data together to provide the answers to create tomorrow. The individual will be highly analytical and skilled at interrogating multiple data sets, interpreting trends and translating data analysis into actionable insights for some of WGSN’s most strategic partners. With a focus on content creation, you will work with our global team of data scientists, data analysts and trend experts to extract key insights and recommendations for clients as part of our TrendCurve AI offering. With a commercial mind, the Senior Strategist will have an expert understanding of the role data and analytics plays in business success. Seen as a trusted industry expert, you will have significant career experience within the fashion sector, ideally within buying, merchandising or insights functions. This role is also client facing and meets regularly with Enterprise-level clients. Key Accountabilities • Delivery comprehensive seasonal category and key item fashion trend reporting that meet business objectives and client needs • Contextualise AI-powered trend forecasts and complex data sets through in depth analysis, cross-functional collaboration and secondary research to provide clear, comprehensive and actionable recommendations that drive growth for our clients’ businesses • Write concise and relevant action-oriented commentary with clear understanding of target personas and practical client application of insights • Apply global fashion market expertise to interpret macro and micro trends across womenswear and menswear, footwear and apparel, markets • Build cross-functional partnerships with data science, analytics, product, and fashion content teams • Manage workflow to seasonal content calendar deadlines • Source, curate and credit relevant imagery to complement data analysis • Present insights to clients in an engaging and inspiring manner as required This list is not exhaustive and there may be other activities you are required to deliver. Skills, Experience & Qualifications Required • In-depth experience of retail, apparel & fashion markets and industry practices that enable critical retail decisions. • Experience with other consumer lifestyle products and markets is a plus • Experience of working with and/or presenting to clients that span the fashion and retail sector and include leading global brands/retailers • Proven experience in a fashion retail buying, merchandising or insights/analytics role • Strong leadership and influencing skills; interacting with C-Suite stake-holders and leading/developing teams; highly personable, curious, flexible and strategic thinker • Strategic and customer-centric mindset with excellent research and analytical skills; able to work with Data Analysts to interrogate data and scope analyses to extract meaningful insights • Able to deliver multiple concurrent projects successfully, striving for excellence to exceed client expectations and push industry standards • Excellent at all forms of communication and collaboration, including presentation and writing skills; high degree of numeracy • Data literate, experience with data analytics and visualisation software (SQL, Tableau) an advantage What We Offer Our benefits and wellbeing package offers flexible benefits you can tailor to your own personal needs, including: • 25 days of holiday per year - with an option to buy/ sell up to 5 days • Pension, Life Assurance and Income Protection Flexible benefits platform with options including Private Medical, Dental Insurance & Critical Illness • Employee assistance programme, season ticket loans and cycle to work scheme • Volunteering opportunities and charitable giving options • Great learning and development opportunities More About WGSN WGSN is the global authority on consumer trend forecasting. We help brands around the world create the right products at the right time for tomorrow’s consumer. Our values We Are Everywhere The future is everything, it happens everywhere. WGSN is the world-leading forecaster because we track and analyse consumer behaviours, product innovation, design and creativity, everywhere. We Are Future Focused We utilise our global resources and intelligence to research, source and analyse quantitative and qualitative data to produce our forecasts. Everything we do is focused on working with our customers to create a successful and positive tomorrow. We Are Rigorous We source, review and assess quantitative and qualitative data to produce robust, actionable forecasts. To provide credible insights and design solutions for our clients, it is essential that rigour runs through everything we do. Our culture An inclusive culture is one of our key priorities. We want our people to truly be themselves and thrive. We love having a diverse team of people who bring new ideas, different strengths and perspectives & reflect the global audience we work with. Inclusive workforce We are committed to supporting the environment and sustainability, including ensuring our pension plan defaults to sustainable options and striving to be net zero by 2030. Recognising great performance is a key part of our culture. Our Awards schemes recognise and reward the brilliant achievements of our people. We offer a flexible working environment with a wide range of flexible, hybrid and agile working arrangements. Conversations about flexible working have always been—and will continue to be—actively encouraged here, but we do not offer full remote working. We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable during the process, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you. A Note for Recruiters Thank you so much for your interest in working with us at WGSN! Our internal Talent Acquisition team takes care of all our recruitment efforts. When we need some extra help, we partner with agencies on our Preferred Supplier List (PSL) that truly understand our business, culture and ways of working together. Since we focus on these established partnerships, we’re unable to respond to unsolicited contacts or CVs from outside our PSL. But don’t worry! If we decide to explore new partnerships, we’ll be sure to reach out.