At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead transformation projects and ensure effective governance across Finance.
- Company: Join Sainsbury’s, a leading retailer with a commitment to innovation and inclusivity.
- Benefits: Enjoy discounts, flexible working, private healthcare, and performance-related bonuses.
- Other info: Collaborative culture with opportunities for continuous learning and career growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in a fast-paced environment while developing your skills.
- Qualifications: Experience in transformation or portfolio management with strong reporting skills.
The predicted salary is between 55000 - 65000 € per year.
Location: Hybrid – London or Manchester base, with approximately 2 days per week office-based.
About the team: You’ll join the Finance Operations & Change team at the heart of Sainsbury’s Transformation agenda. Working across Finance, Business Planning and Technology, the team provides clear visibility of change activity, resource demand, and delivery progress. As part of a small, high-impact team, you’ll help shape how transformation is delivered across Finance—driving consistency, improving connectivity, and supporting informed decision-making.
More about the role: As Portfolio Manager, you will provide a single, joined-up view of transformation activity impacting Finance. You’ll ensure consistent data capture, build reporting frameworks, and track programme performance, cost, and delivery milestones. A key part of the role is supporting governance—ensuring projects that are aligned, structured, and progressing effectively—while enabling leadership teams to prioritise with confidence. You will also connect Finance with the wider transformation community by facilitating engagement, supporting alignment sessions, and improving knowledge sharing. Through dependency mapping, resource alignment, and continuous improvement of tooling and processes, you’ll drive collaboration and support effective delivery. You’ll also champion a transformation mindset, enabling agile ways of working and continuous improvement across the organisation.
More about you: You are experienced in working in transformation or portfolio environments, bringing a strong focus on reporting, governance, and programme coordination. Confidence in working with complex data enables the development of your structured approaches and clear outputs that support effective decision-making. A key strength you bring is creating visibility into transformation demand through consistent data capture and reporting, providing a clear view of change activity, resource requirements, and programme progress. Comfortable in working independently and with ambiguity, you drive activity across multiple stakeholders while building effective relationships. Your communication style adapts to different audiences, including senior stakeholders, ensuring alignment and clarity. You will have regular engagement with wider transformation communities that support collaboration, knowledge sharing, and aligned outcomes across portfolios. Your contribution to decision-making is demonstrated through supporting the development of metrics, governance frameworks, and milestone tracking, ensuring programmes are structured and delivered effectively. You bring a collaborative mindset that underpins your approach, alongside role modelling agile ways of working and a commitment to continuous learning and improvement. You can balance analytical thinking with a pragmatic approach, ensuring delivery at pace while navigating complexity.
Essential criteria:
- Proven delivery of transformation or portfolio support, evidenced through structuring, tracking, and reporting on complex programmes and change initiatives.
- Established Management Information and reporting frameworks, demonstrating measurable use of data and dashboards to monitor delivery progress and outcomes.
- Coordinated cross‑functional projects and resource plans, with clear evidence of mapping dependencies and supporting governance and milestone tracking.
- Influenced and aligned stakeholders across business functions, demonstrating tailored communication to drive collaboration and decision-making.
- Applied structured problem-solving approaches, evidencing the ability to work independently, navigate ambiguity, and progress competing priorities to completion.
Responsibilities: We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you here at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not leading projects, we’re supporting teams across the wider group to achieve their goals. And here, you can see the impact of your work as soon as you walk into a store, giving you a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Better still, the team around you will listen to your ideas and opinions, and you’ll have every chance to try something new. The scale and complexity of our business mean there’s always something new to learn, and we’ll support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen.
Qualifications: 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 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 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 up to an additional week's holiday, and we provide private healthcare.
- 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, 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.
Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).
Portfolio Manager in London employer: Sainsbury's
Sainsbury's is an exceptional employer that prioritises employee well-being and development, offering a hybrid work model in vibrant London or Manchester. With a strong focus on transformation and collaboration, employees are empowered to make impactful contributions while enjoying a range of benefits including generous discounts, performance-related bonuses, and comprehensive health support. The inclusive work culture fosters continuous learning and innovation, ensuring that every team member feels valued and has the opportunity to grow within the organisation.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Portfolio Manager in London
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Get out there and connect with people in the industry. Attend events, join online forums, or even hit up LinkedIn. The more people you know, the better your chances of landing that Portfolio Manager role.
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for those interviews! Research Sainsbury’s transformation agenda and think about how your experience aligns with their goals. Be ready to share specific examples of how you've driven change and supported governance in past roles.
✨Tip Number 3
Show off your data skills! Since the role involves reporting frameworks and tracking programme performance, be prepared to discuss how you've used data to make decisions and improve processes in previous positions.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you’re serious about joining the team at Sainsbury’s.
We think you need these skills to ace Portfolio Manager in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application:Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter to highlight your experience in transformation and portfolio management. Use keywords from the job description to show that you understand what we're looking for.
Showcase Your Achievements:Don’t just list your responsibilities; share specific examples of how you've successfully delivered transformation projects. Quantify your achievements where possible to give us a clear picture of your impact.
Be Clear and Concise:Keep your application straightforward and to the point. We appreciate clarity, so make sure your writing is easy to read and free from jargon. This will help us see your communication skills right away!
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to submit your application through our website. It’s the best way to ensure it gets to the right people and helps us keep track of your application. Plus, it’s super easy!
How to prepare for a job interview at Sainsbury's
✨Know Your Transformation Stuff
Make sure you brush up on your knowledge of transformation and portfolio management. Understand the key concepts, frameworks, and methodologies that are relevant to the role. This will not only help you answer questions confidently but also show that you're genuinely interested in the position.
✨Showcase Your Data Skills
Since the role involves a lot of data capture and reporting, be prepared to discuss your experience with Management Information systems. Bring examples of how you've used data to drive decision-making and improve programme performance. If you have any dashboards or reports you've created, mention them!
✨Communicate Like a Pro
Tailor your communication style to suit different audiences, especially senior stakeholders. Practice explaining complex ideas in simple terms. You might even want to prepare a few scenarios where you've successfully influenced stakeholders or facilitated alignment sessions.
✨Embrace the Agile Mindset
The company values agility and continuous improvement, so be ready to discuss how you've applied these principles in your previous roles. Share specific examples of how you've navigated ambiguity and driven collaboration across teams. This will demonstrate that you can thrive in a fast-paced environment.
