Transformation Manager - Discovery Team
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Finance & Business Development
Closing date: 26 May 2026
Requisition ID: 400060837
About the team
The Transformation Division plays a central role in turning business strategy into impactful programmes that drive growth, improve customer experience, and enable long‑term, sustainable performance. Working in close partnership with senior stakeholders and teams from across the business, the Transformation team shapes and delivers initiatives that help the organisation compete in a rapidly evolving retail environment.
As part of this agile and collaborative team, you will contribute to a multi‑year transformation agenda that makes a genuine difference for colleagues and customers alike.
More about the role
We are recruiting for a Transformation Manager within our Discovery team. You will play a key role in discovering what big bets we need to make to deliver on our long-term strategic ambitions and translate the company's strategy into actionable programmes that drive transformation and growth to enhance the customer experience and ensure sustainable and profitable competitiveness over time.
You will lead cross-functional teams in shaping and delivering the Transformation agenda, working collaboratively with stakeholders across the organisation to accelerate change and drive innovation. Your focus will be on driving end-to-end thinking, employing an outcome-centric and hypothesis-led approach to complex problem-solving, while setting up and running programmes effectively to deliver change at pace and create high-performing teams.
Your role will also involve championing a transformation mindset, building strong relationships, and supporting engagement at critical governance meetings to drive successful programme delivery.
More about you
You are an experienced, creative strategic thinker with a growth mindset, driving end-to-end strategic thinking to deliver successful cross-functional programmes of work, with excellent stakeholder management and the ability to influence at all levels.
Your ability to use data, insights, and external innovation to drive complex decisions, coupled with your curiosity, passion for retail and customers, and drive to identify opportunities and challenges, enables you to connect the dots across projects and parts of the business, presenting recommendations in a clear and structured manner.
You champion a collaborative and agile approach to working, facilitating an environment for delivery at pace with a focus on continuous improvement and innovation.
Essential criteria
- Strong experience of shaping and leading strategy, innovation and change projects in large, complex organisations, taking them from instigation through incubation and into delivery.
- Strong experience of working in a role with strategy focus and training in strategy and/or innovation (Strategy, Proposition, Product, Innovation teams or Management Consulting).
- Extensive evidence of successful cross-functional working across the breadth of the business, at scale (£20m+ benefits) and over a multi-year horizon.
- Experience and training in using data, insight, and external innovation to drive complex decisions/projects.
- Can demonstrate high level of stakeholder management skills across broad teams and to a senior level.
- Ability to identify strategic issues, synthesise information and present recommendations in a clear and structured manner with excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to craft compelling narratives.
- Creativity, curiosity and the ability to drive innovative thinking.
Desirable
- High level of interest in Retail/FMCG, with experience working in these areas is beneficial
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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).
