Digital Operations Manager
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Retail
Closing date: 22 March 2026
Requisition ID: 400053314
About the team
Our On Demand Operations team makes it simple for customers to get Sainsbury’s favourites in minutes via Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat and our own Chop Chop service. Sitting at the heart of Food Digital Operations and Transformation, we turn strategy into safe, simple, consistent in‑store execution. It’s a complex, fast‑growing and fast‑changing space—and we’re obsessed with building clear processes, enabling colleagues with the right tools and training, and partnering brilliantly with our third‑party providers to deliver great customer outcomes.
More about the role
As OnDemand Operations Manager, you’ll own the key components of our On Demand Operating Model—end to end. You’ll lead a central team (two Operations Support Managers and one Operations Support Executive) and be the operational point of reference for process, performance and change. You’ll set and deliver the annual Operations Joint Business Plan, converting priorities into measurable outcomes across safety, service, cost and commercial performance.
Day to day, you’ll land operational change clearly and compliantly in stores; align labour to demand so productivity and service stay on target; own central systems administration and controls; and ensure the right equipment is available where and when it’s needed. You’ll lead the technical training proposition for all On Demand propositions—designing the right blend of digital and in‑person learning—and drive ongoing digitisation to improve engagement and speed to competence. You’ll also account‑manage our third‑party final‑mile partners, holding performance to SLA through strong governance, and you’ll represent On Demand Operations at Retail Governance to drive timely decisions and clear actions. At peak and during contingency, you’ll coordinate divisional store communications so execution is simple, consistent and fast.
More about you
You’re confident translating On Demand fulfilment processes into safe, legal and repeatable standards that stores can execute every day. You can write operational processes, standards and technical requirements that improve service, productivity and compliance—and you’re comfortable using data to bring clarity and pace to ambiguous scenarios. You scope new ideas pragmatically, understand system and process dependencies, and move from trials to sustainable ways of working.
You’re a practical leader who sets clear outcomes, develops people and flexes resources to meet changing priorities. You simplify complex problems into decisions and plans, anticipate issues across teams, and remove blockers before they impact colleagues or customers. You build alignment and momentum across central, divisional and store stakeholders, and you manage third‑party providers through a balanced rhythm of support, challenge and escalation.
Essential criteria
- Proven delivery of end‑to‑end in‑store process changes with documented safe & legal compliance (e.g., signed‑off SOPs, audit pass rates, and incident‑free launches).
- Track record of converting an Operations plan into measurable results across safety, service, cost and commercial KPIs (e.g., order on‑time %, units per labour hour, cost‑to‑serve, DSAT/defect rate).
- Evidence of managing third‑party partners to SLA through structured governance (e.g., on‑time pickup %, cancellation rate per 100 orders, issue resolution within agreed timeframes).
- Demonstrated optimisation of labour to demand, with clear task ownership and completion controls (e.g., planned vs. actual hours, productivity targets met across multiple sites).
- Design and rollout of blended technical training (digital and in‑person) with measurable outcomes (e.g., >95% completion, competency checks passed, time‑to‑competence improvements).
If you’re ready to shape a high‑impact, fast‑moving channel and make it simple for stores to deliver brilliant On Demand experiences, we’d love to hear from you.
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).
