Food Manager

Sainsbury's; Sale; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dynamic Food Manager to lead a team in a fast-paced retail environment. This role emphasizes operational management and people development, ensuring that grocery, fresh, and produce sections are always well-stocked and appealing. You will be responsible for training and supporting your team, driving customer service excellence, and collaborating closely with other managers to enhance store performance. With a clear path for career progression and a supportive management structure, this is an exciting opportunity to develop your leadership skills and make a significant impact in the retail sector.

Benefits

10% discount card after 4 weeks

15% discount on Fridays and Saturdays

Free food and hot drinks

Generous holiday entitlement

Pension matching

Share scheme

Wellbeing support

Cycle to Work scheme

Special offers on gym memberships

Colleague networks

Qualifications

• Experience managing or supervising people in a fast-paced setting.
• Strong focus on people development and customer service.

Responsibilities

• Manage a medium to large in-store team, ensuring smooth operations.
• Support the Lead Food Manager in delivering customer and retail outcomes.

Skills

People Development

Operational Management

Team Leadership

Customer Service

Performance Management

Education

Experience in Fast-Paced Environment

Tools

Digital Stock Management

Job description

You’re ambitious for more leadership responsibility. Maybe one day, you’d like to run your own store or take on a bigger role in the future. First, you want to focus on your people development skills – crafting a team that delivers what you need, when you need it.

This is a well-balanced management role with clear accountability – you’ll understand exactly what’s expected of you and who to turn to for support. Whether you already have some supervisory experience or you’re looking to make the step up, it’s the perfect chance to get close to your team and grow your skills.

What you’ll be doing

Our purpose is 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. 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 in-store 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 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:

1. You’re supporting the Lead Food Manager to deliver improved customer and retail outcomes in your area.
2. 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.
3. You’re confident being direct with your team – you’re giving honest feedback, early and often.
4. 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.
5. 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 is 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 in-store management structure is designed precisely to help people like you progress, and where everyone has the support and the opportunity to deliver excellence. When joining us, you will receive a clear induction and orientation alongside a training plan specific to your needs that you'll build alongside your manager. They will support and coach you to deliver great performance, whilst having plenty of time 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.
• Discount card – 10% discount off 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 and 15% off at Argos every payday.
• 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 fulfill 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.

Click ‘apply’ to start your Sainsbury’s journey.