Helping Everyone Eat Better – It’s what the adverts say, and we’re taking that seriously at Sainsbury’s. Our Seafood Team are key to delivering our Food First strategy, whether that’s where in the world our fish and seafood come from, what we feed them or the types of fish we sell. We ensure that Sainsbury’s provides our customers with  fresh, tasty, safe and healthy produce, sourced responsibly in line with our values and customer expectations.  

The team are close-knit, with a great combined knowledge of tech, fish & seafood and data, we’re driven to make a difference to our customers and our environment – and we like to have fun while doing it! We want to build and maintain resilient, secure and sustainable value chains to help us to provide great quality, taste, freshness and distinctiveness. This team is responsible for the kippers for our weekend breakfast to the fishfingers you sneak into a Sunday night sandwich – from mackerel to monkfish and from omega 3 rich salmon to seabass!

As Aquaculture and Fisheries Manager, you’ll help us to evolve and oversee the implementation of Sainsbury’s seafood sourcing strategy. You’ll work closely with Sainsbury’s category technical and commercial teams, our supply base and partner organisations; using robust tools and metrics and developing a clear strategy to source sustainably, differentiate our offer and deliver competitive advantage. Fish and Seafood has an enormous global supply base, so you’ll be dealing with suppliers from all over the world, and with the impact that fish has had on both healthy eating and the media recently, you’ll be presenting to stakeholders up Divisional Director and Ops Board level.

Using your existing knowledge and experience across the end to end value chain, you’ll ensure user friendly insight for the business and our stakeholder partners to enable data-driven, strategic day to day decisions. This role also has accountability for the delivery of the relevant elements of our Sustainability plan goals, net zero commitments and metrics for external reporting and compliance.

More about the role:

• Development, maintenance and implementation of sourcing policies for fish and seafood across all categories. 
• Define and manage delivery of CR&S targets for fish and seafood in line with Sainsbury’s net zero business commitments. 
• Provide support to category teams in the development and implementation of long term, cross category supply base strategies capable of delivering sustainable value to Sainsbury’s and our customers.
• Progression of a developing innovation agenda within fish and seafood with the aim of improving resilience, mitigating supply risk and further improving responsible practice and efficiency.
• Management of stakeholder relationships relevant to both farmed and wild caught fish and seafood including government departments, eNGOs, standard holders, science and academia.
• Provide support to consumer and public affairs teams on issues relating to seafood.
• As part of Agriculture Senior Leadership Team, provide support to development and implementation of overarching Agriculture and Technical plans
• Act as an ambassador for the Sainsbury’s at the relevant industry forums and engage key stakeholders ensuring we are at the forefront of industry knowledge and are effectively communicating our position and achievements to the appropriate audience
• Work with the technical team to ensure safety & compliance of all products within the context of ever-changing UK (and relevant international) legislation

More about you:

• Degree/equivalent qualification in related scientific subject or relevant experience in this area
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Sector experience preferable with demonstrable experience in aquaculture and / or fisheries and technical innovation
• Have an analytical mindset and proven experience managing data and analysis
• Experience of working in a cross-functional team to deliver business-wide projects
• Ability to represent the business externally at a high level

Work-life balance is important to us, so we offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible in line with the needs of their role. We trust them to decide how, where and when they work, combining remote and collaborative working with a flexible approach to hours, giving them plenty of time and space for life outside of work whilst delivering against our business goals.