Asda creates hundreds of tech roles to untangle IT systems from Walmart’s

The Grocer, By Steve Farrell|17 November 2021

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Source: Asda

Roles are based at Asda House in Leeds

Asda has created hundreds of new roles in a transformation project to separate its IT systems from former owner Walmart’s.

The programme – dubbed Future – will see Asda move all its IT processes off Walmart’s platforms onto its own newly created ones, following the sale of the supermarket to TDR Capital and EG owners Mohsin and Zuber Issa earlier this year.

An Asda spokesman said the scale of the supermarket’s operations made it a major project requiring a high number of professional IT recruits.

He said a sizeable number had already been recruited but roles would continue to be created throughout the lifespan of the project.

The roles include cloud architects and engineers, data scientists, solution architects and business change managers, among others.

A current ad for an applications solutions architect says: “Future is the name for the programme that will see Asda create their new operating model, independent from Walmart.

“We’re undertaking an unparalleled exercise to build a new IT operating environment; this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in shaping the way the entire business will operate in the future through technology decisions, and the design of solutions in current technologies.”

The programme is “probably the largest retail/IT transformation in the UK right now”, according Ian Scholes, Asda senior director – infrastructure tower leader.

Scholes and Asda talent acquisition manager Clare Tempest have been appealing for candidates on LinkedIn. Tempest said “hundreds of new positions” had been created and a “high amount” had yet to be filled.

With all the positions based in Leeds, where Asda is headquartered, Tempest was this week polling LinkedIn users about working-from-home expectations attached to a commute of over 50 miles.

“We seem to have attracted a lot of local candidates, but we are also looking at different options with even more new roles coming through shortly,” she said.

All the positions are based on ‘hybrid working’, with staff at home some of the time if they chose but expected to travel to Leeds when needed at the office, according to the spokesman.