Head of Category Planning - Grocery General Merchandise
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Fixed-Term Assignment
Business area: Food Commercial
Closing date: 15 March 2026
Requisition ID: 400051874
As part of Sainsbury’s Commercial, our General Merchandise (GM) team is responsible for shaping a customer-led proposition that delivers both commercial success and a market-leading offer. Working across Buying, Category Planning, Supply Chain, Marketing and Retail, we collaborate to define strategy, deliver innovation and ensure our customers have a seamless and inspiring shopping experience. We are looking for a Head of Category Planning to join the team on a 12 month Fixed Term Contract, based out of either our London or Coventry office, with regular travel required to the other location.
More about the role
As Head of Category Planning for Sainsbury's General Merchandise, you will lead the transformation agenda for the GM category, shaping a future-fit strategy that delivers against customer needs and commercial ambitions. You will oversee the development and execution of the category plan, ensuring our range, space, value and promotional strategies are cohesive, insight-led and operationally robust.
Day-to-day, you’ll lead a high-performing team of Category Planners and Range Analysts, working cross-functionally with colleagues in Trading, Supply Chain, Commercial Operations, Marketing and Nectar360. You’ll set direction, enable smooth delivery of key projects, champion the customer throughout decision-making and manage strategic workstreams that shape the wider Business Unit.
More about you
You will bring proven experience in category planning, commercial strategy, project management or a closely related discipline. Analytical, commercially astute and customer-obsessed, you are confident working in complex and fast-paced environments, able to balance long-term thinking with agile decision-making.
As a highly adaptable and influential leader, you will be comfortable shaping concepts from early discovery through to implementation. You role-model inclusive leadership, building high-performing teams that embrace change and deliver excellent outcomes. You thrive when collaborating widely, creating alignment and driving momentum across multiple stakeholder groups.
Essential criteria
- Proven strategic leadership, with the ability to set long‑term vision while delivering short‑term commercial outcomes.
- Exceptional influencing and cross‑functional collaboration skills, able to drive change through multiple teams.
- High‑level analytical, project management and category planning/ranging experience, with the ability to manage complexity and ambiguity.
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Inspirational, inclusive people leadership, building, coaching and motivating a high‑performing team.
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Strong understanding of our buying and category planning practices.
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Experience in leading complex change programmes [end to end].
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).
