Retail, Retail Marketing, Retail Media, Thought Leadership Retail Marketing
Retail Future: The Rise of Retail Media Job Role
In 2026, retailers have moved far beyond selling groceries and clothing. Many are now established as sophisticated media powerhouses, leveraging their high-value first-party shopper data to build massive, high-margin advertising businesses. With global retail media spending projected to reach up to £150 billion this year, the demand for specialised retail media talent is soaring.
Across the world, major retailers now operate full-scale Retail Media Networks (RMNs) that rival traditional digital publishers in reach and capability. And, by partnering with third-party platforms, small and medium size retailers are also starting to unlock significant retail media revenues.
Retailers are no longer just hiring “digital marketers”, they are recruiting highly specific retail media experts to manage and grow their retail media opportunities and inventory.
Here’s a look at the key job roles defining the retail landscape in 2026 and what they do:
This executive-level role leads the entire RMN business unit. They are responsible for high-level strategy, partnership growth, and ensuring the media business aligns with the retailer’s core commercial objectives.
What they do: They oversee the monetisation of the retailer’s digital and physical assets, manage relationships with major brand partners (CPGs). They lead the integration of advanced technologies like AI to scale operations.
Data is the currency of 2026. These specialists bridge the gap between complex shopper datasets and campaign performance.
What they do: They analyse real-time signals, such as product availability, pricing, loyalty data and purchase intent, to optimise ad campaigns. They are tasked with proving incrementality (proving an ad caused a sale that would not have happened otherwise) and providing clear ROI reporting to advertisers.
As the number of RMNs brands must manage jumps to an average of 11 by the end of 2026, retailers need dedicated partners to guide brands through their specific ecosystems.
What they do: They act as the daily point of contact for brand partners and agencies. They help brands navigate self-service platforms, assist with media planning, and ensure that advertising content enhances the shopping experience rather than disrupting it.
2026 is the year of the “Smart Store” (or in our opinion, the year of the store!). Physical locations are now major media hubs, with smart retailers investing in utilising all their in-store space and rolling out extensive networks of digital screens and shelf-edge displays.
What they do: They manage digital shelf-edge labels and screens in store environments. They ensure that digital ads are contextually relevant to the physical aisle the shopper is standing in, bridging the gap between online and offline journeys.
Retail media is increasingly moving towards Real-Time Bidding (RTB) and automated exchanges.
What they do: These technical experts manage the “plumbing” of the RMN. They implement automated buying across search, display and video, while also integrating off-site channels into the retailer’s unified ad ecosystem, enabling brands to activate retail data beyond owned platforms.
A critical challenge this year is maintaining consumer trust while increasing ad density.
What they do: UX Researchers study how shoppers interact with ads across mobile apps, websites and in-store. Their goal is to ensure ads feel like helpful recommendations rather than intrusive noise, protecting the retailer’s primary relationship with its customers.
Understanding these evolving roles is the final piece of the puzzle for retailers looking to move from a “shops-first” to a “media-first” mindset. In 2026, the retail media landscape is no longer siloed; it represents a fundamental overlap where marketing provides the creative storytelling, advertising drives the revenue, and operations ensures the physical execution is flawless.
For retailers, the real power of these new roles lies in their ability to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds. Platforms like Colateral.io have become essential in this transition, acting as the “connective tissue” that allows these new specialists to work in harmony. By automating the “plumbing” of in-store media, from store profiling to campaign compliance, technology allows a Head of Retail Media to scale their strategy without being bogged down by manual spreadsheets.
By embracing these roles and supporting them with robust management platforms, retailers can finally treat their physical stores with the same agility and data-driven precision as their websites, unlocking multi-million pound revenue streams that were previously hidden in plain sight.
To find out more about how Colateral helps multi-location businesses maximise their retail media inventory and revenues, get in touch today.
