Senior Procurement Excellence Manager

Sainsbury's; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Colleague discount

Private healthcare

Pensions

Season ticket loans

Life insurance

Bonus up to 20%

Holiday allowance

Job summary

Sainsbury's is seeking a seasoned Procurement professional to join our Procurement Excellence team, delivering end-to-end governance and transformation across the function. You’ll direct projects, engage stakeholders and drive efficiency.

Based from our Store Support Centre locations (London, Coventry, Manchester) with 1–2 days remote, you’ll shape supplier management, sustainability initiatives and digital enablement to improve performance at scale.

Qualifications

• Proven experience designing and maintaining end-to-end procurement processes and governance.
• Delivery of large-scale procurement or business transformation projects with measurable improvements.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and advising on decisions affecting procurement.
• Practical experience using digital tools and data to improve procurement operations, compliance or scalability.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain end-to-end procurement process and governance frameworks across Procurement & Supplier Management.
• Lead large-scale, complex procurement projects; translate requirements into practical solutions and drive change.
• Influence senior stakeholders, challenge assumptions and translate strategy into implementable actions.
• Drive sustainability and supplier management initiatives to improve performance.

Skills

Procurement governance

Stakeholder management

Procurement strategy

Digital enablement

Job description

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you here at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not leading projects, we’re supporting teams across the wider group to achieve their goals. And here, you can see the impact of your work as soon as you walk into a store, giving you a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Better still, the team around you will listen to your ideas and opinions, and you’ll have every chance to try something new. The scale and complexity of our business mean there’s always something new to learn, and we’ll support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen.

This role can be based from any of our Store Support Centres in London, Coventry or Manchester, 1-2 days per week on average, with the rest of your time working from home.

Why join us

This is a specialist role at the heart of an award-winning Procurement team. Acting as the engine room for the function, Procurement Excellence brings strategy to life through people, process and technology. You’ll have the opportunity to shape how Procurement operates, connect strategy with delivery and accelerate performance with digital and AI technologies.

What You’ll Do

You’ll play a pivotal role alongside our Head of Procurement Strategy & Operations, developing and maintaining end-to-end process and governance frameworks across Procurement & Supplier Management. A central challenge will be landing change across Procurement, helping the team to understand “why” and “how” to put it into practice. You’ll lead large-scale, complex projects; connect teams and senior stakeholders; advance sustainability and third-party risk priorities; and drive performance through supplier management. As a trusted strategic adviser, you’ll challenge assumptions, influence decisions and translate business requirements into practical solutions that improve performance.

Who You Are

You’re a seasoned procurement professional with a proven track record of driving procurement excellence through clear strategy, disciplined policy and process governance, and project leadership. Your expertise in shaping and embedding enterprise-wide frameworks, particularly in sourcing, risk management, and sustainability, showcases your ability to deliver step-change improvements and ensure compliance and quality across the function. Operating confidently at senior levels, you excel in influencing stakeholders, translating strategy into practical solutions, and championing digital enablement to enhance procurement operations efficiently and at scale.

Essential Criteria

• Proven experience designing, implementing and maintaining end-to-end procurement process and governance frameworks across a leading Procurement function and complex supply base.
• Demonstrable delivery of large-scale, complex procurement or business transformation projects, translating business requirements into practical solutions and measurable improvements.
• Experience of influencing senior stakeholders, challenging assumptions and advising on decisions that affect procurement and wider business priorities.
• Practical experience using digital tools, data or technology to improve procurement operations, compliance, quality or scalability.

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. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to save 10% on your shopping online and instore at Sainsbury’s, Argos, TU and Habitat, and we regularly increase the discount to 15% at points during the year. 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 up to an additional week's holiday, and we provide private healthcare. 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, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well 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. 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).