Senior Buyer - Cooked and Continental Meats

Sainsbury's; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK retailer is looking for a skilled professional to join its Buying Team, focused on Cooked and Continental Meats. This role involves developing effective sourcing strategies, leading cross-functional teams, and managing supplier relationships to drive value and innovation. The ideal candidate will have significant experience in Fresh Food Buying, excellent negotiation skills, and the ability to influence stakeholders. A commitment to sustainability and quality is also key. Competitive benefits include discounts, performance bonuses, and personal development opportunities.

Benefits

10-15% employee discount

Performance-related bonus up to 20%

Health cash plans

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in Fresh Food Buying.
• Flexibility to travel to supplier locations.
• Track record in Fresh food Category Management.
• Experience managing relationships within a supplier agreement framework.
• Ability to handle complex stakeholder interactions.
• Evidence of a continuous improvement mindset.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute sourcing strategies for Cooked and Continental Meats.
• Lead a cross-functional team and manage buying models.
• Identify cost savings through supplier relationship management.
• Implement pricing and promotional strategies.
• Analyze data to optimize product range.
• Accountable for Category plan at Sub Cat level.

Skills

Supplier relationship management

Negotiation skills

Category P&L management

Stakeholder interaction

Problem-solving

Job description

Sainsbury's Buying Teams ensure that we get the best products at the best prices to help us deliver quality and value to our customers. We aim to deliver on a mission that matters: Helping Everyone Eat Better.

You will own, deliver and optimise the sourcing, buying and selling strategy for the Cooked and Continental Meats buying area. This will be achieved through brilliant sourcing, buying and selling strategies. Great product selection, product innovation, value and profit optimisation and supplier management.

This is a great role for someone looking to get involved in delivering a large scale strategy project as we aim to deliver several projects covering end to end sourcing and selling, considering quality, environmental credentials, sustainability and the future needs of our customers as we meet our corporate 'Plan for Better' objectives. Cooked Meats is a key area within MFP and being able to think short and long term in this area is key in the current and future success of the area.

The role requires strong supplier management, P&L management and delivery and training. We are looking for someone with positive energy, who thinks independently but works well in a team environment and can lead cross‑functionally and own critical commercial recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a customer‑focused, source and selection strategy for Cooked and Continental Meats
• Lead a matrix cross functional team (Agriculture, Development, Technical, Supply Chain, Finance)
• Manage complex E2E buying models
• Identify and negotiate cost savings through brilliant supplier relationship management and understanding of the end‑to‑end supply chain
• Taking a leading and driving role in key category projects to outperform the market
• Implement Pricing, Promotional & Ranging strategies
• Analyse financial, market and customer data to identify opportunities to deliver a market‑leading product range, including regularly review own label products against their appropriate competitor benchmarks
• Accountable for Category plan at Sub Cat level
• Work with Supply Chain, Own Brand and Retail to drive product range
• Deliver to business targets on sales, profit, value and range
• Support the implementation of NPD (New Product Development)
• Liaise with the Product Technologist/Developer in setting the quality criteria for products, ensuring the optimal balance between quality and price is maintained

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrable experience in Fresh Food Buying, ideally with exposure to own‑branded products and the ability to deliver results quickly in a fast‑paced environment.
• Flexibility to Travel: Willingness to travel to supplier locations as and when needed & travelling to weekly meetings at London Store support centre.
• Track Record in Fresh food Category Management - Showcasing the ability to manage a category P&L, balancing profitability, volume and market performance
• Experience managing relationships & proven negotiation skills within a long‑term supplier agreement framework with a track record of leveraging commercial terms and driving value in supplier agreements.
• Ability to handle complex stakeholder interactions, demonstrating resilience and confidence in challenging conversations and decision‑making.
• Evidence of continuous improvement mindset, including solving complex problems creatively and challenging existing processes to deliver innovative solutions.

Benefits

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you'll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there's always the chance to try something new – whether that's as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business – and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working.

Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury’s, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance‑related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well as access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks' pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks' pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).