Functional & Technical Skills Specialist
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Group HR
Closing date: 25 September 2025
Requisition ID: 400011813
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. That’s whether we’re making sure that nearly 180,000 colleagues are paid on time, or that our strategy is helping us attract the right people, put them in the right place, and unlock their talent. This is a fast-moving business and our policies and rewards keep up too. 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 is important. What’s certain is that you’ll be joining one of the happiest, most engaged teams in the business.
Why join us
Joining the People Team at Sainsbury's as a Functional & Technical Skills Specialist offers a unique opportunity to drive impactful learning strategies that align with business objectives and enhance the core skills competencies needed for strategic success. As a key player in consulting, defining, and managing enterprise-level functional and technical skills learning, you will have the chance to collaborate with senior stakeholders, influence curriculum development, and foster continuous improvement. With a focus on customer obsession, performance excellence, boundaryless leadership, and fearless team empowerment, this role presents a dynamic environment where you can contribute to shaping the future of learning and development at a leading multi-channel retail organisation, making a tangible impact on both the business and its people.
What you'll do
As the Functional & Technical Skills Specialist at Sainsbury's, you will play a pivotal role in consulting, defining, and product managing enterprise-level functional and technical skills learning programmes across the organisation. Your primary focus will be on ensuring that a robust and scalable skill-based learning offer is developed centrally to meet business needs, while also supporting divisional teams in customising learning to address their specific requirements. You will collaborate with senior stakeholders, leadership teams, and subject matter experts to shape the technical and functional skills offer, driving strategic impact and aligning development initiatives with performance outcomes. Your responsibilities will span from leading communities of expertise to partnering with divisional leadership teams in identifying and addressing new and emerging skills gaps, ultimately contributing to the continuous improvement of learning products and the overall business impact.
Who you are
As a Functional & Technical Skills Specialist at Sainsbury's, you are a strategic and results-driven learning professional with a proven track record in designing and implementing innovative learning strategies aligned with business objectives. Your ability to diagnose skills gaps, collaborate with stakeholders at all levels, and drive the development of robust skills and capability frameworks sets you apart. With strong project management skills, commercial acumen, and a data-driven mindset, you excel in creating scalable learning solutions that deliver measurable impact and drive continuous improvement. Your collaborative mindset, problem-solving capabilities, and commitment to customer-centricity align with Sainsbury's values and leadership expectations, making you a key player in shaping the future of learning and development within the organisation.
Essential Criteria
- Demonstrable experience in designing and implementing enterprise-level learning strategies aligned to business goals, including planning for both short- and long-term outcomes.
- Proven ability to define and deliver skills and capability frameworks that inform curriculum development and address organisational performance needs.
- Evidence of performance consulting with senior stakeholders, including diagnosing root causes of skills gaps and recommending targeted learning interventions.
- Track record of using data and insights to evaluate learning impact, including benchmarking, reporting, and continuous improvement of learning products.
- Experience managing cross-functional learning projects, including collaboration with subject matter experts, external providers, and delivery teams to produce scalable, high-quality learning solutions.
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).
