Marks & Spencer has begun a recruitment push to find 85 tech specialists following a consumer shift online during the Covid pandemic.

The retailer is seeking 70 new software engineers to work in the tech team run by chief technology officer Mike Yorwerth and 15 ecommerce trading roles under Stephen Langford.

M&S, which was already switching to an online focus, is seeking experts to accelerate the growth of MS2, the online division with license to adopt pureplay attitudes and accelerate away from what are seen as old-fashioned retail ways of doing business.

The recruitment drive follows a rise in M&S’s online sales of 34% in the first half of the financial year.

Marks & Spencer already employs 1,900 staff in tech roles, and the creation of the MS2 division is intended to switch focus in response to changing shopper habits.

M&S aims to make online trading a priority as it changes emphasis, by ensuring “the product engine is focused on dotcom – ie buyers are buying the right product for online”.

The retailer said: “These changes & the recruitment drive are all part of MS2. MS2 brings together the data and online teams to invert the conventional model where M&S.com had been run as an extension of the stores business.

M&S chief technology officer Mike Yorwerth, said: “The rate of change at M&S is accelerating and under MS2, we’re dedicated to transforming into the digital-first, market-leading retailer we know we can be – truly pushing technology from our web stacks to machine learning, as far as possible.

“This exciting work is in the hands of some seriously impressive developers - a diverse group of the most empowered engineering teams anywhere in the UK and we’re so pleased to be growing this team as we drive online growth post the pandemic. 

“Great advances are being initiated and delivered by our tech teams week after week to make changes for our customers, colleagues and the communities we serve and we’re looking for new recruits who are passionate about developing both M&S and themselves.”

M&S’s online sales rose 34% in the first half and  app downloads in 2020 climbed 200%.

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