Lead General Merchandise Manager

• Locations Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd, London, Greater London, SW6 2SY
  , GB
• Closing Date 02/13/2026, 12:00 PM
• Full Time or Part Time Full time
• Contract Type Permanent
• Advertised Salary From £38,600

Leading in our stores:

Our management teams don’t just run stores - they’re the driving force behind our business. With bold leadership, a passion for service and an eye for opportunity, they empower teams to raise the bar every single day for our customers. Whether it’s product availability, safety standards, or delivering seamless daily operations, they’re hands-on, sleeves-rolled-up changemakers. And the impact? Work becomes more rewarding for our colleagues, and shopping becomes a next-level experience for every customer who walks through our doors.

This is how we bring our purpose to life, one powerful action at a time.

What you’ll be doing:

• Direct a small team of managers to showcase all our non – food products from homeware to beauty, including our fantastic TU and Habitat brands
• Planning for upcoming key trading activity by working closely with the rest of the store leadership team
• Regularly taking full accountability for the store in the absence of a store manager, role modelling and coaching for high standards and efficiency across the store.
• Ensuring correct management of stock in our in-store warehouse
• People management is a big part of the role, managing performance and capability, conducting disciplinaries and ensuring scheduling and pay are accurate.

• A passionate leader who is consistently ambitious for their customers and colleagues, every day, growing their team to do the same.
• Experience of managing managers, in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment – doing this in a retail merchandising environment would be advantageous.
• An operator who is comfortable managing alone in the absence of more senior management.
• Driven to deliver high performance with a focus on efficiency and engagement.
• Confident in the use of data, and understanding / interpreting KPI's or other performance indicators, and has experience of improving these.
• Puts inclusivity at the heart of what they do and uses this to build an inclusive team and working environment.
• Can manage disciplinaries, performance issues or other similar employee relations issues (Up to dismissal).
• Experience leading large teams in a fast-paced, customer-focused environment — you’ve developed leaders, built high-performing teams, and created a culture of ownership and accountability.
• A track record of delivering exceptional customer experiences across complex operations, with evidence of delivering these through your team.
• Proven success in delivering and improving KPIs — from sales and stock availability to customer satisfaction and colleague engagement, you’ve driven results that matter.
• Experience managing sensitive and complex people matters, including performance, absence, and formal employee relations cases, with confidence, fairness, and sound judgement.
• Leadership experience in an operational environment — whether in retail, hospitality, or food service — where you’ve owned departmental performance and confidently led the store in the absence of senior leadership.
• Can evidence leading change — whether rolling out new ways of working, embedding new systems, or shifting team mindsets, you’ve brought people with you and made change stick.

Working for us has great rewards

Salary will be dependent upon your experience as well as the store size, complexity and location. Alongside this, we also offer a great range of benefits for our managers, including:

• Discount card – 10% discount off on your shopping at Sainsbury’s, Argos, Tu and Habitat after four weeks. This increases to 15% discount off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day.
• An annual bonus scheme based on our, and your, performance.
• Free food and hot drinks provided for Colleagues in all our stores.
• Generous holiday entitlement, maternity and paternity leave.
• Pension – we’ll match 4-7.5% of your pension contributions.
• Sainsbury’s share scheme – build up an…