Learning Partner - Kent & Sussex

Please note: As this is a role working across a number of areas and/or regions, you will be required to travel to stores and sites within your area multiple times per week.

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.

By joining Sainsbury’s as a Learning Partner, you will be part of a dynamic regional team (Kent & Sussex) dedicated to helping colleagues and managers grow, thrive and deliver outstanding results. You don’t need to come from a People or HR background – what matters most is your ability to build strong relationships, collaborate across a region, and ensure learning is deployed brilliantly in a fast‑paced retail environment.

We will provide full facilitation and learning‑delivery training, enabling you to bring your strengths in communication, organisation and teamwork to a role that truly shapes the colleague experience. As we continue to build our culture of inclusion, continuous improvement and operational excellence, you will make a meaningful impact on both individuals and the wider business.

What You'll Do

As a Learning Partner at Sainsbury’s, you will be instrumental in creating a welcoming, consistent and inspiring learning environment that enables colleagues and managers to grow and thrive. You will take ownership of deploying learning brilliantly across your region, ensuring that every colleague receives a high‑quality experience – whether they are attending induction in a training store, joining a virtual session, or learning on the job in their store. While we will provide full facilitation and content training, your strength will lie in how you build relationships, guide others through their development journey, and ensure learning and people processes are executed consistently in a fast‑paced retail environment.

You will partner closely with training stores to shape and deliver exceptional induction and learning programmes for new and existing managers, supporting them with regular check‑ins and tailored development conversations as they progress. Working collaboratively with Regional Store Directors, Area Managers and People teams, you will help ensure every new manager receives a brilliant and consistent business welcome, and that talent pipelines at all levels are supported through timely development opportunities.

Using data, insight and feedback, you will continually evaluate how learning is landing across your region, identifying performance opportunities and recommending interventions that can make a real difference. You will champion our learning products and policies, becoming a trusted expert for store leaders and training store managers, and you will coach and challenge these teams to strengthen people processes and drive high performance. Your role will also involve supporting regional people activity and contributing to key transformational projects such as store openings, closures and refreshes, coordinating the delivery of both technical and behavioural training to ensure change is well‑supported.

At the heart of your work will be a commitment to consistency, operational excellence and empowering colleagues to take ownership of their development by fostering a strong, self‑serve learning culture across the region.

Who You Are

You are someone who thrives on building relationships, understanding people, and helping others grow. You don’t need to be a People professional already – but you do need to be someone who enjoys connecting with others, working as part of a regional team, and driving high‑quality execution of learning and people processes.

With curiosity and a forward‑thinking mindset, you understand how learning supports store performance and contributes to wider business priorities. You value inclusion and create an environment where colleagues feel supported, confident and encouraged to develop. You’re organised, proactive and comfortable navigating retail operations to ensure learning lands brilliantly and consistently across your area.

Essential Criteria

• Strong relationship‑building skills, with the ability to connect with colleagues at all levels and support learning in a busy retail operational setting.
• Confidence delivering messages, guiding groups, or supporting learning – even if you haven’t facilitated formally before (we’ll provide full training).
• Ability to follow processes accurately and consistently, ensuring learning and people activities are deployed brilliantly across multiple stores.
• Good organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities across a regional landscape.
• Experience using insights or data to understand performance or identify opportunities for improvement.
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a regional team, sharing best practice and contributing to continuous improvement.

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. 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 10% 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. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, 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.