Talent & Performance Manager in London

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work–life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. We’re the first to say we do HR differently here. For a start, we work as business partners and specialists. Whether that’s making sure nearly 150,000 colleagues are paid on time, or shaping a strategy that helps us attract the right people, put them in the right place, and unlock their potential. This is a fast-moving business, and our policies and rewards evolve with it. That’s why we’re as flexible as we can be about where and when you work. We’re also flexible about your future. There’s always room to move up or across, if that’s what you want. We really value different perspectives, so there’s no one opinion, no single path, and yours matters.

As a Talent and Performance Manager, you will be a key contributor to our talent and performance strategy. You will input into and implement our corporate talent and performance strategy through research and adoption of best practice talent management approaches, ensuring we are equipped to identify, retain, mobilise, and develop diverse talent profiles that meet the needs of the business now and in the future. You will be part of a team that views talent and performance as fundamental pillars of our growth. This is an exciting time to join our team on an interim basis as we refresh our approaches to talent and performance in line with the future strategic needs of our business.

What you'll do

• You will develop and manage talent and performance workstreams to drive organisational success.
• Supporting the design and delivery of the annual talent review, you will propose interventions, and develop action plans, whilst working closely with the Head of Talent and Performance and Heads of People to identify internal talent challenges and provide solutions that drive business performance.
• With a curious and analytical mindset, you will leverage data and insights and relationships to identify key opportunities and support the building of business cases for change to deliver the business strategy.
• As a natural communicator, you will build close collaborative relationships with teams across the People function to ensure key talent and performance initiatives are adopted, embedded and continuously improved.
• You will lead or support cross divisional projects to design and implement key talent products and processes, such as performance management, talent mobility and reskilling, through internal and external research.
• Always looking at continuous improvement, you are searching for opportunities to embed and improve our performance management approach through internal research and review of external trends and approaches.

Who you are

• You are a highly skilled and strategic professional with experience in delivering strategic people change, products and processes that drive positive business impact.
• With your strong analytical skills, you can convert complex data into meaningful insights, supporting evidence‑based decision‑making.
• Your exceptional communication skills allow you to effectively communicate complex processes and strategies to stakeholders at all levels.
• Moreover, you showcase strong commercial awareness, enabling you to think strategically and contribute to the development of strategies across multiple business areas.
• Your ability to engage, influence and collaborate with others, coupled with your forward‑thinking mindset, enables you to drive the long‑term view of talent development.

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrable experience in designing and delivering people programmes, with the proven ability to develop and implement strategic change that aligns with organisational strategy and drives measurable employee outcomes.
• Evidence of building business cases for talent and performance interventions, using qualitative and quantitative data to support proposals and evaluate impact.
• Track record of managing cross‑functional projects or programmes, including ownership of product lifecycles and coordination with internal teams and external suppliers.
• Ability to analyse complex data sets to inform talent strategy, including benchmarking, reporting, and continuous improvement of leadership development products.

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.

Here are some of them: 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 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.