Lead Food Manager

Leading in our stores

Our management teams don’t just run stores – they’re the driving force behind our business. With bold leadership, a passion for service and an eye for opportunity, they empower teams to raise the bar every single day for our customers. Whether it’s product availability, safety standards, or delivering seamless daily operations, they’re hands‑on, sleeves‑rolled‑up changemakers. The impact? Work becomes more rewarding for our colleagues, and shopping becomes a next‑level experience for every customer who walks through our doors. This is how we bring our purpose to life, one powerful action at a time.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead a small team of food managers to manage the grocery shop floor in one of our supermarkets.
• Execute exciting trading events by working closely with the rest of the store leadership team – whether it’s Christmas or Easter you’ll help ensure we win.
• Regularly take full accountability for the store in the absence of a store manager, role‑modeling and coaching for high standards and efficiency across the food hall.
• Manage compliance to processes and safety while bringing the passion and flare for great shop‑keeping and creating fantastic shopping experiences.
• Be responsible for a large team of colleagues, ensuring they perform at their best, are present on the shop floor when needed and that all people matters are conducted properly – whether it’s celebrating someone’s success or managing difficult situations.

What makes a great Lead Food Manager

• A passionate leader who is consistently ambitious for their customers and colleagues, every day, growing their team to do the same.
• Experience of managing managers in a fast‑paced, customer‑facing environment.
• An operator comfortable managing alone in the absence of more senior management.
• Driven to deliver high performance with a focus on efficiency and engagement.
• Confident in the use of data and understanding or interpreting KPIs or other performance indicators and transforming these into meaningful actions.
• A champion of inclusivity, putting it at the heart of what they do, using this passion to build an inclusive team and working environment.
• Comfortable in managing complex people matters such as disciplinaries, performance issues or other similar employee relations issues.

Essential Criteria

• Experience leading large teams in a fast‑paced, customer‑focused environment – you’ve developed leaders, built high‑performing teams and created a culture of ownership and accountability.
• A track record of delivering exceptional customer experiences across complex operations, with evidence of delivering these through your team.
• Proven success in delivering and improving KPIs – from sales and stock availability to customer satisfaction and colleague engagement, you’ve driven results that matter.
• Experience managing sensitive and complex people matters, including performance, absence and formal employee relations cases, with confidence, fairness and sound judgement.
• Leadership experience in an operational environment – whether in retail, hospitality or food service – where you’ve owned departmental performance and confidently led the store in the absence of senior leadership.
• Can evidence leading change – whether rolling out new ways of working, embedding new systems or shifting team mindsets, you’ve brought people with you and made change stick.

Working for us has great rewards

Salary will be dependent upon your experience as well as the store size, complexity and location. Alongside this, we also offer a great range of benefits for our managers, including:

• Discount card – 10% discount off on your shopping at Sainsbury’s, Argos, Tu and Habitat after four weeks. This increases to 15% discount off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day.
• An annual bonus scheme based on our and your performance.
• Free food and hot drinks provided for colleagues in all our stores.
• Generous holiday entitlement, maternity and paternity leave.
• Pension – we’ll match 4‑7.5% of your pension contributions.
• Sainsbury’s share scheme – build up an investment at discounted rates.
• Wellbeing support – access to emotional support, counselling, legal and financial advice.
• Colleague networks – link with like‑minded people to help fulfil your potential.
• Our Cycle to Work scheme gives you the opportunity to hire a new bike and cycling equipment, whilst saving on tax and NI.
• Special offers on gym memberships, restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers and more.

An inclusive place to work and shop

We are dedicated to being a truly inclusive retailer, where every colleague can achieve their full potential and every customer feels welcome when they shop with us.

To support this commitment, our colleagues may be entitled to a range of enhanced discretionary leave for families, as well as support for carers. We provide our colleagues resources to help them understand and support their role and their team effectively. Our internal colleague networks seek to ensure true representation for everyone, helping us identify and remove barriers that our colleagues may face.

We are proud to offer a range of development opportunities, including mentorship, training, and career progression pathways, to help our colleagues grow and succeed. We also celebrate diversity through various initiatives and events, fostering a culture of inclusion and respect. If you would like to learn more about our commitment to inclusivity, please take a look here.

Should you require any reasonable adjustments during the application or interview stages, please let us know, and we will endeavour to support you.