Food Manager

Retail; Hitchin; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discount card

Annual bonus

Free food & drinks

Holiday entitlement

Pension match

Share scheme

Wellbeing support

Colleague networks

Cycle to Work

Special offers

Job summary

Sainsbury's is seeking a Food Manager for our Hitchin store to lead and develop a high-performing team across the food hall. You will drive customer service, ensure operational excellence and role-model best practices to deliver outstanding shopping experiences.

With proven leadership in fast-paced retail, you will manage performance, scheduling, and compliance, while coaching colleagues to meet KPIs and keep customers at the heart of everything we do.

Qualifications

• Track record of delivering exceptional customer experiences and coaching others.
• Experience leading teams in dynamic, customer-facing environments.
• Leadership in high-volume, fast-paced retail or hospitality.
• Proven success delivering KPIs across sales, stock, and satisfaction.
• Experience handling disciplinary, performance, and employee relations.

Responsibilities

• Role model high standards and coach teams to maintain efficiency across the food hall.
• Managing compliance to processes while bringing passion and flair for shop keeping and customer service.
• Ensure customers get the food they want when they shop with us and are first choice.
• People management: performance, capability, disciplinaries, scheduling, and pay.
• Occasionally run the store with direction and support to deliver for customers.

Skills

Leadership

Customer service

People management

KPI management

Disciplinary handling

Job description

What you’ll be doing:

• Role modelling and coaching for high standards and efficiency across the whole food hall.
• Managing compliance to processes whilst bringing the passion and flare for great shop keeping and customer service.
• Ensure every single one of our customers gets the food they want when they shop with us to help ensure we are the first choice for food.
• People management is a big part of the role, managing performance and capability, conducting disciplinaries and ensuring scheduling and pay are accurate.
• At times you will assume overall responsibility for running the store, making sure that all colleagues are given direction and support to deliver for the customer.

What makes a great food manager:

• Previous line management responsibilities in a fast-paced, operational environment.
• Provides brilliant customer service and coaches a team to do the same.
• Delivers KPI's or other performance indicators.
• Can manage disciplinaries, performance issues or other similar employee relations issues.
• Leads operations and comfortable doing this alone in the absence of more senior management.

Essential Criteria:

• A track record of delivering exceptional customer experiences, with evidence of coaching others to consistently raise the bar.
• Experience leading teams in a dynamic, customer-facing environment - you’ve inspired others, driven high performance, and created a culture where colleagues thrive.
• Leadership experience in a high-volume, fast-paced operational setting - whether in retail, food service, or hospitality - where you’ve overseen daily operations, solved business problems, and kept teams focused on what matters most: delivering for customers.
• Proven success in delivering against a wide range of KPIs - from sales and stock availability to customer satisfaction and colleague engagement, you’ve made a measurable difference.
• Experience managing complex people matters, including performance, absence, and formal employee relations cases, with confidence and fairness.

Leading in our stores:

Our management teams don’t just run stores - they’re the driving force behind our business. With bold leadership, a passion for service and an eye for opportunity, they empower teams to raise the bar every single day for our customers. Whether it's product availability, safety standards, or delivering seamless daily operations, they’re hands-on, sleeves-rolled-up changemakers. And the impact? Work becomes more rewarding for our colleagues, and shopping becomes a next-level experience for every customer who walks through our doors. This is how we bring our purpose to life, one powerful action at a time.

Working for us has great rewards

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 our managers, including:

• Discount card - 10% discount off on your shopping at Sainsbury’s, Argos, Tu and Habitat after four weeks. This increases to 15% discount off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday.
• An annual bonus scheme based on our, and your, performance.
• Free food and hot drinks provided for Colleagues in all our stores.
• 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.

An inclusive place to work and shop:

We are dedicated to being a truly inclusive retailer, where every colleague can achieve their full potential and every customer feels welcome when they shop with us.

To support this commitment, our colleagues may be entitled to a range of enhanced discretionary leave for families, as well as support for carers. We provide our colleagues resources to help them understand and support their role and their team effectively. Our internal colleague networks seek to ensure true representation for everyone, helping us identify and remove barriers that our colleagues may face. We are proud to offer a range of development opportunities, including mentorship, training, and career progression pathways, to help our colleagues grow and succeed. We also celebrate diversity through various initiatives and events, fostering a culture of inclusion and respect. If you would like to learn more about our commitment to inclusivity, please take a look here.

Should you require any reasonable adjustments during the application or interview stages, please let us know, and we will endeavour to support you.