Head of Technical - Electrical, DIY, Toys & Leisure
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: Coventry Store Support Centre - Ansty Park and Home, Coventry, CV7 9RD
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Non Food
Closing date: 16 September 2024
Requisition ID: 234429
We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. From fragrance to car care, clothing and pots and pans, our General Merchandise team delivers all the non-food items for Sainsbury’s, Habitat and Argos customers. This multi-brand environment means you get to work across most areas. You can also be a pioneer, because the team believes in being brave, iterating and learning as they go. They also develop deep connections to other departments, which opens up a lot of different career opportunities for you. What’s certain is that you’ll spend time on the shop floor to get closer to customers, and bring a broad perspective and the full support of your manager with you wherever you decide to develop next.
Why join us
Joining Sainsbury's as the Head of Technical means being part of a dynamic and fast-paced organisation that is committed to delivering exceptional quality and value to our customers. In this role, you will have the opportunity to lead and motivate a talented technical team, driving technical excellence, innovation, and sustainability across our Sainsbury's brand products. With a focus on safety, integrity, and compliance, you will play a key role in protecting and adding value to our business. Working closely with various stakeholders, you will have the chance to contribute to strategic decision-making and shape the technical vision of the company. Join us to be part of a team that is passionate about delivering great quality products consistently and making a real difference in the lives of our customers.
What you'll do
As the Head of Technical at Sainsbury's, your primary responsibility will be to manage the technical team and support the delivery of the technical vision, ensuring the protection and added value of our Sainsbury's brand products. You will oversee the category technical agenda, focusing on safety, integrity, governance, and quality management. Leading a team of Technical Managers and Product Technologists, you will drive technical excellence to consistently deliver great quality products that enhance our customers' lives. You will also play a key role in developing and implementing the technical strategy within the category, collaborating with the Category Leadership team to create and deliver category plans. Additionally, you will be accountable for ensuring compliance with safety, ethical, quality, and legal standards for all products, while continuously seeking opportunities to improve systems and processes. Building strong relationships with suppliers and promoting innovation across product, packaging, and sustainability will also be part of your responsibilities. Overall, your leadership and management skills will contribute to the development of a high-performing, motivated, and innovative technical team, as well as fostering collaboration with various stakeholders within the organisation.
Who you are
- General Merchandise background with experience in the technical field and industry either in retail or the supply base
- Experience, knowledge positive results of managing the supplier base and supplier chains
- Knowledge of risk appetite, technical KPI’s and governance
- Proven ability to initiate and drive category technical strategy and also dealing with incident investigations in a cost effective way
- Expert technical excellence and attention to detail from our suppliers and colleagues
- Able to build strong trusting relationships with colleagues and suppliers
- Experience in managing global teams
- Understand the importance of strong communication. Has the ability to communicate effectively and manage conflicting views to all stakeholders and team members delivering better engagement and output
- Create an open and approachable environment for the team and showing appreciation to individuals and teams
- Have high standards and expectations of the team and create an environment which enables both giving and receiving feedback as part of day to day working
- Passion for products and a genuine love of delighting the customer and leading people
- Ability to make complex decisions at pace
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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 get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. 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 65% of salary, depending on how we perform (in cash and shares).
Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional 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, pay 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. You'll also receive a company car cash allowance unless you are going to travel 10,000 business miles in your role, then you'll be able to choose a car. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.
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).