Prevention Change Manager
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Retail
Closing date: 17 February 2026
Requisition ID: 400048782
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, labour, transformation, online, delivery and contact centre work, 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 all we can, it’s vital that we all think outside our job descriptions and look to optimise and improve how we do everything. There’s also a real team ethos. After all, it’s people like you who are going to truly transform this part of the business.
In a nutshell
To Provide Shrink & Cash Loss expertise within Sainsburys and Argos. To project manage and provide end to end support throughout the product journey from supplier to store, ensuring required next steps are taken to protect products and minimise loss. To business partner effectively with the category teams and other central functions to protect inventory. To understand and provide insight into the interdependencies between known and unknown loss across different product groups. To influence several business functions including Trading, Space & Formats, Tech, Finance and Retail Operations into taking action that improves business performance whilst also protecting colleague values and customer experience.
What you’ll do
- Lead end‑to‑end prevention change projects (supplier to store) that deliver measurable ROI.
- Partner with category teams to set and deliver annual prevention strategies that reduce shrink and cash loss.
- Advise trading on how to protect inventory at every step of the product journey.
- Influence Trading, Space & Formats, Tech, Finance and Retail Operations to take commercially sound, customer‑centred actions.
- Own capex/opex planning with strong financial governance; validate benefits with Retail Finance.
- Turn risk insight and store feedback into clear actions that lift performance.
- Work with suppliers and industry experts to test cost‑effective technology, process and software solutions.
- Maintain visibility across category plans and provide operational cover when needed.
What you need to know and show
- [Essential] Proven Agile project management expertise.
- [Essential] Strong commercial and financial acumen; fluent with financial management systems.
- [Essential] Practical understanding of Stock Operations and Retail Finance in the context of loss prevention.
- [Essential] Hands‑on retail operations experience and awareness of loss risks (ideally to Deputy Manager level).
- [Essential] Knowledge of logistics and operational processes across the end‑to‑end life of inventory.
- [Essential] High resilience with outstanding influencing and negotiation skills.
- [Nice to have] Broad category knowledge across products sold by Sainsbury’s and Argos.
- [Nice to have] Awareness of the loss‑prevention industry and cash management processes.
This is a project/change role focused on cross‑functional delivery, analytics and commercial impact. It is not a physical security, enforcement or investigations role. Candidates whose background is primarily in those areas should demonstrate clear programme/project delivery credentials aligned to the essential skills.
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 heathcare. 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 eligibiity criteria may apply).
