What you’ll be doing 

Our purpose is that driven by our passion for food, together we serve and help every customer. 

Food sets the standard for the rest of the store – getting it right means our customers choose to return again and again so it’s critical that grocery, fresh and produce are always available and looking their best. Your leadership will deliver throughout the day, every day. Reporting into our Lead Food Manager, your job is focused on operational in-store management, ensuring that your area is running smoothly, day in, day out. 

There’s an emphasis on managing a medium to large instore team – assigning tasks and planning breaks, creating rotas, addressing performance issues both sensitively and effectively, and helping with recruitment. You’ll be a visible leader on the shop floor, a role model who drives training and creates a team where everyone feels welcome, and colleagues feel safe to challenge the way things are done. 

What success looks like 

There’s lots to achieve. Here’s how you’ll know you’re developing: 

•    You’re supporting the Lead Food Manager to deliver improved customer and retail outcomes in your area

•    You’ll work closely with another Food Manager, sharing ideas and identifying ways to improve things, and provide a brilliant handover from each shift to the next

•    You’re confident being direct with your team – you’re giving honest feedback, early and often

•    You’ve learned how to help your team to put themselves in the customers’ shoes, taking genuine pride in how we deliver a better service

•    You’re increasingly making decisions at pace and comfortable not knowing all the answers 

About you 

We’re open minded about your career trajectory. You’re probably already managing or supervising people in a similarly fast-paced setting and confident to deal with the many different challenges each day throws up – your team are depending on you! 

You’ll need to share Sainsbury’s love of technology. We’re ahead of the curve here – we do as much as we can digitally – from stock management to rotas. 

What matters most is you – you’re motivated to develop, dedicated to bringing out the best in others and, like all of us, passionate about customer service. After all, that’s what our stores are all about.

Where next?

The Sainsbury’s instore management structure is designed precisely to help people like you to progress, and where everyone has the support and the opportunity to deliver excellence. You’ll be coached by your manager to deliver great performance, whilst having plenty of scope to develop. 

As a Food Manager you could move into a Lead Manager role in Food, In-store Customer Experience, Clothing or General Merchandise. Looking further ahead, it’s great preparation for a Store Management role or a leadership challenge across the Sainsbury’s family: Habitat, Tu, Argos, Sainsbury’s Bank and Nectar 360.  Trust us – we know how to make the most of your potential. 

Added benefits 

Salary will be dependent upon your experience as well as the store size, complexity and location. Alongside this, we also offer a great range of benefits for all our colleagues, including: 

•    Discount card (after 4 weeks) for you and a second user that gives you 15% off your Sainsbury’s shopping for five days every pay day, and 10% off at Sainsbury’s, Argos and Habitat throughout the year

•    Generous holiday entitlement, maternity and paternity leave

•    Pension – we’ll match 4-7.5% of your pension contributions

•    Sainsbury’s share scheme – build up an investment at discounted rates

•    Wellbeing support – access to emotional support, counselling, legal and financial advice

•    Colleague networks – link with like-minded people to help fulfil your potential

•    Our Cycle to Work scheme gives you the opportunity to hire a new bike and cycling equipment, whilst saving on tax and NI

•    Special offers on gym memberships, restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers and more