Finance Manager - General Merchandise (GM)
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Finance & Business Development
Closing date: 27 March 2026
Requisition ID: 400053877
We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you here at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not leading projects, we’re supporting teams across the wider group to achieve their goals. And here, you can see the impact of your work as soon as you walk into a store, giving you a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Better still, the team around you will listen to your ideas and opinions, and you’ll have every chance to try something new. The scale and complexity of our business mean there’s always something new to learn, and we’ll support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen.
Location
Hybrid - London-based, office working approx. 2 days per week
About the team
At Sainsbury’s, our General Merchandise (GM) Finance team plays a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of our brands. Working in a fast‑paced, commercially driven environment, we partner closely with senior stakeholders across Buying, Commercial, Strategy and Operations to influence decisions that impact millions of customers every day. This is a collaborative, forward‑thinking team that thrives on innovation, analytical thinking and driving performance.
More about the role
As Finance Manager for General Merchandise, you will act as a trusted partner to the Category Director and Buying teams, providing high‑quality financial insight to support category planning, pricing and promotional strategies, investment decisions and margin delivery. You will lead key analyses (with line management responsibilities for a Financial Analyst), to drive decision‑making and support the GM business in delivering sales, margin and working capital targets.
You will also play a central role in our major GM transformation project—building robust financial appraisals, improving reporting processes, and supporting the move to new reporting and product management platforms. Alongside this, you’ll provide coaching and commercial training to enhance financial understanding across the wider team.
More about you
You will be a proven finance professional within either the Retail or FMCG industry, with experience partnering with commercial teams to support strategic decisions. You use data confidently to influence stakeholders, simplify complex financial information, and provide insights that drive measurable improvement.
You will bring demonstrable skills in financial analysis, modelling, forecasting and reporting, with the ability to work autonomously while building strong relationships across the business. Your approach is proactive, solutions‑focused and underpinned by strong communication and stakeholder engagement. Experience coaching or developing analysts is beneficial.
Essential criteria
- Recognised accounting qualification (CIMA, ACCA, ACA or equivalent)
- Demonstrable business partnering experience within a Commercial, Retail/FMCG Finance environment
- Advanced Excel and PowerPoint capability, including pivot tables, lookups and automation techniques
- Proven ability to communicate financial insight clearly to senior stakeholders
- Demonstrable ability to translate financial information for non‑finance audiences
Desirable criteria
- Leadership and coaching abilities, demonstrating a commitment to guiding and developing others
#LI-MY1
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).
