Stores People Partner - Essex & Suffolk (12 month secondment) in London

Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits

Location: London Store Support Centre - Field Based and Home, London, EC1M 6HA

Contract type: Fixed-Term Assignment

Business area: People

Closing date: 23 July 2026

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.

Fixed Term Contract - 12 months

Field based covering Essex and Suffolk regions (regular travel)

Joining Sainsbury’s as a Stores People Partner means being part of a collaborative, future‑focused People team committed to driving meaningful change across our store estate. You will play a key role in shaping how our people plans come to life in stores, ensuring consistency of execution and supporting leaders to build high‑performing teams. With the opportunity to influence regional people strategy, support effective workforce planning, and continually improve the colleague experience, you’ll be making a tangible impact every day. This role offers challenge, variety, and the chance to grow your career in a fast‑paced, customer‑centric, and people‑driven environment.

What you'll do

• Deliver consistent, high‑quality execution of the people plan across all stores in your region, setting the standard for great people delivery under the leadership of the Regional People Partner.
• Support workforce and talent and succession planning to ensure stores have the right people and skills in place.
• Use data, insight, and trends to identify risk stores, diagnose root causes, and agree targeted actions to improve performance, capability, absence, and engagement.
• Review progress against people plans, work closely with store leadership teams to embed agreed actions, and carry out sampling and quality checks to ensure People products and processes are implemented consistently and effectively.
• Lead the delivery of cyclical people activities - such as performance, engagement, talent and succession and support people‑impacting change projects including transformation by ensuring strong communication, clear expectations, and operational readiness in stores.
• Build strong, trusted partnerships with Store Managers, Store People Leads, and operational leaders to translate strategic priorities into practical, store‑ready actions that enhance colleague experience, build capability, and drive improved outcomes across your area.

Who you are

• An experienced professional with a proven track record of delivering people plans within fast-paced, complex, commercial organisations.
• Ability to collaborate effectively, analyse data, and support the delivery of people-impacting change projects.
• Focus on building strong relationships, championing continuous improvement, and driving business transformation.
• Lead by example and inspire a culture of excellence, always putting colleagues and customers first in every action you take.

Please note: As this is a regional role, you will be required to travel to stores and sites within your area multiple times per week.

Key Requirements:

• Demonstrable experience delivering people plans and cyclical people activities within a fast-paced, complex, commercial environment.
• Proven experience using people data to inform decisions, identify risk areas, track progress, and measure the impact of interventions.
• Evidence of supporting or implementing people-impacting change projects, including change management and communication.
• Ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders, presenting insight clearly and enabling consistent delivery across multiple locations.
• Experience planning, coordinating, and executing talent, performance, and reward activities in line with organisational processes and timelines.
• Experience supporting workforce planning and resource forecasting activities.
• Ability to review performance and risk stores, identify root causes, and drive targeted actions.
• Experience conducting sampling or quality checks to ensure consistent implementation of people processes or 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.

Benefits include:

• Colleague discount of 10% on shopping online and instore at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat, with increases to 15% at points during the year.
• Pensions scheme and life cover.
• Performance-related bonus of up to 10% of salary, depending on performance.
• Annual holiday allowance with the option to buy up to an additional week's holiday.
• Season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance, and access to discounts from hundreds of other retailers.
• Employee assistance programme.
• Up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

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