Driver Trainer Lead (Region S08 - Southampton area)

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. As the link between sellers and buyers, retail and head office, our Retail Operations team is the cog that keeps things running. With teams focused on store-facing activity, labour, transformation, online, delivery and contact centres, we touch almost every part of the business. It’s an incredibly fast-paced environment, where you need to pivot not just daily, but often hourly. So while we plan as much as we can, it’s vital that we all think beyond our job descriptions and look for ways to optimise and improve everything we do. There’s also a real team ethos here. After all, it’s people like you who will truly transform this part of the business.

In a nutshell, as Driver Training Lead you’ll be responsible for delivering technical and service-based training to our driver colleagues, so we always deliver safely to our customers and provide brilliant service at the doorstep. You’ll be ADI accredited to ensure you are fully skilled to provide technical training, risk assessments and coaching for our Driver teams. A key part of your role will be to balance the safety of our colleagues with operational and legal processes whilst also promoting great industry leading service for our Groceries Online or Fast Track Delivery customers. You’ll be field based covering an area of stores.

What You Need To Do

• Deliver high‑quality technical, service and safety training to new and existing drivers, including on‑the‑road assessments and coaching.
• Welcome new colleagues, ensuring they feel informed, confident and able to meet the expectations of the driving role.
• Conduct risk assessments, driving evaluations and shunter training, tailoring coaching to varied experience and skill levels.
• Identify gaps in practice and deliver group or 1:1 interventions based on customer, store or performance feedback.
• Provide post‑collision training, analyse incident data and determine the level of support required for each colleague.
• Review telematics and performance data to pinpoint trends and work with others on corrective action plans.
• Visit stores to ensure safe and legal delivery compliance while coaching store/hub managers and Driver Mentors.
• Engage stakeholders, maintain accurate records, and contribute to operational excellence across the driver population.

What You Need To Know And Show

• Have an Approved Driving Instructor qualification (ADI), or a willingness to study to get one, to both assess and coach drivers. (essential)
• Have great coaching skills and experience of meeting facilitation within training & coaching environment. (essential)
• Strong time management and organisational skills to have autonomy over your own schedule to ensure all training requirements are met across all stores within cluster. (essential)
• Have experience with and be able to demonstrate strong skills of managing and analysing data utilising internal digital systems paired with the problem‑solving skills to draw out conclusions. (essential)
• A minimum three‑year driving licence (with up to 6 points) and DBS clearance.
• Confident communication skills with the ability to influence, challenge constructively, and hold difficult conversations.
• Ability to work proactively, independently and collaboratively with store, central and digital teams.
• A positive attitude towards change, demonstrating motivation, resilience and a commitment to great customer service.
• Capability to interpret policies, coach safe/legal routines, and adapt flexibly to demand across geographical clusters.

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 in-store 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 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. 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.