Customer Experience Transformation Lead - Hawthorn East

At Coles, we have ambitious goals focused on transforming how Australia shops, today and for the long term. Our Customer Experience (CX) Transformation team partners across the enterprise to turn bold ideas into executable change, helping the business stay ahead of what’s next and deliver better outcomes for our customers every day. 

As we continue our transformation journey, we are building more connected, personalised and digitally enabled retail experiences. The CX Transformation team plays a critical role in this evolution, shaping where the next wave of growth will come from and translating that into enterprise priorities, coordinated roadmaps and measurable outcomes across the business. 

We’re looking for a curious, commercially astute and impact-driven Customer Experience Transformation Lead to help shape where the next wave of growth comes from across Coles’ customer and digital portfolio. Sitting at the intersection of strategy and transformation, you’ll help define the long-term agenda across omnichannel experience, eCommerce, loyalty, retail media and next-generation commerce capabilities and translate that into clear enterprise priorities, roadmaps and coordinated delivery. This is a high-exposure role with visibility to senior leaders and the opportunity to help shape the future of omnichannel retail at scale. 

About the role 

As a Customer Experience Transformation Lead within the CX Transformation team, you’ll be at the forefront of delivering Coles’ Accelerated by Digital strategy. You’ll help shape and drive priority transformation initiatives across the customer and digital portfolio, including omnichannel customer experience, eCommerce growth and the next generation of commerce capabilities. 

You’ll play a key role in shaping the 1, 3 and 5 year customer experience transformation agenda, informing corporate planning and investment prioritisation across Coles’ Customer Experience portfolio spanning eCommerce, loyalty, payments, retail media and AI-enabled commerce. You’ll help define where growth comes from next, from increasing online penetration and building more connected omnichannel journeys, through to the future of loyalty, retail media and emerging models such as agentic commerce. 

This role is highly cross-functional and highly visible. You’ll work closely with senior leaders across Customer, Digital, Technology, Finance and Group Strategy to shape enterprise priorities, align decision-making and progress strategically important initiatives. You’ll bring structure to complexity and help create a unified view of transformation across the portfolio, connecting strategy, prioritisation, roadmap planning, governance and delivery execution. 

A core part of the role will be owning the transformation cadence that keeps priority initiatives moving: setting goals, supporting prioritisation cycles, building and maintaining roadmaps, establishing governance, driving delivery readiness and tracking outcomes. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of omnichannel retail at scale while building next-generation commerce capability for one of Australia’s leading retailers. 

What you’ll be doing 

• Shape the future growth agenda — Help identify where the next wave of customer and digital growth will come from, translating market shifts, customer needs and emerging technologies into strategic priorities  

• Translate strategy into transformation — Turn strategic direction into clear goals, transformation plans, prioritised initiatives and enterprise roadmaps that can be mobilised across the business  

• Drive prioritisation and investment thinking — Support corporate planning and investment prioritisation across the Customer Experience portfolio, helping focus effort and resources on the highest-impact opportunities  

• Own the transformation cadence — Help run the operating rhythm for the portfolio, including prioritisation cycles, roadmap updates, governance forums, delivery readiness and outcomes tracking  

• Build delivery readiness — Ensure initiatives are clearly defined and set up for success, with strong problem statements, aligned outcomes, clear scope, sequencing, dependencies, risks and ownership  

• Lead cross-functional alignment — Work across Customer, Digital, Technology, Finance and Strategy to align stakeholders and progress enterprise-wide priorities  

• Solve complex problems — Bring structure to ambiguity and use data, insight and customer understanding to frame issues, generate options and inform decisions  

• Tell compelling stories — Develop clear, high-quality narratives, presentations and recommendations that support executive and Board-level decision-making  

• Progress strategic initiatives — Help move high-impact initiatives from concept through to mobilisation and execution, maintaining momentum and focus on customer and commercial outcomes  

• Build what’s next — Contribute to a culture of curiosity, collaboration and continuous improvement across the customer and digital transformation ecosystem  

What you’ll bring 

• Strategy-calibre thinking — Experience in strategy, transformation, consulting or a similarly high-problem-solving environment, ideally in retail, consumer or technology-enabled businesses  

• Strong transformation capability — Ability to move from insight and problem definition through to roadmap, governance, mobilisation and execution  

• Commercial acumen — Strong strategic and commercial judgment, with an interest in growth levers such as eCommerce, loyalty, retail media, payments and emerging commerce models  

• Structured problem-solving — Ability to cut through ambiguity, frame complex challenges and develop rigorous, data-led and customer-informed recommendations  

• Planning and governance experience — Experience supporting roadmaps, prioritisation, planning cycles, governance processes and tracking delivery against outcomes  

• Professional experience — Approximately 2–6 years of work experience post-degree  

• Compelling communication — Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience preparing materials for executive or senior stakeholder audiences  

• Cross-functional influence — Comfortable working across a large organisation and aligning diverse stakeholders around shared priorities and outcomes  

• Execution focus — Proven ability to turn ideas into action through thoughtful planning, disciplined follow-through and strong stakeholder management  

• Growth mindset and leadership — A self-starter who builds momentum, takes ownership and contributes to a high-performing, collaborative team culture