Senior Buyer - Pizza, Bread and Party Food (Part Time Job Share - 12m FTC)

Why join us

Joining Sainsbury's Buying Teams means being part of a dedicated and friendly group working towards a mission that truly matters: We make good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day. As a Senior Buyer, you will have the opportunity to own, deliver, and optimise the buying and selling strategy within a specific category, contributing to the sustainable growth of market share and cash profit. Collaborating across functions, you will leverage your commercial acumen and analytical skills to drive product improvement, develop new offerings, and identify cost savings. With a focus on customer centricity, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the product range, influencing stakeholders, and making key decisions to enhance our customers' experience. Join us and be part of a team committed to delivering quality and value, while enjoying a flexible work life balance and a culture that fosters continuous learning and growth.

What you'll do

As a Senior Buyer in our Sainsbury's Buying Teams, you will play a vital role in ensuring that we get the best products at the best prices to deliver quality and value to our customers. You will own, deliver, and optimise the buying and selling strategy for a specific buying area within the Food for Later category, with the responsibility of driving sustainable market share growth and cash profit through a competitive and distinctive customer offer. In this role, you will work cross functionally to review product ranges, identifying opportunities for product improvement, new product development, and cost savings. You will make key decisions in both the Buying Strategy and Selling Strategy, influencing stakeholders and using financial, market, and customer data to drive a market leading product range. Additionally, you will optimise the supply base, manage supplier relationships, and lead cross functional projects to deliver successful outcomes. With your strong commercial acumen, analytical skills, and effective communication, you will contribute to the overall success of the team and help us achieve our mission: We make good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day.

Who you are

You are a highly experienced professional with a proven track record in negotiating with suppliers and optimising product ranges to deliver quality and value to customers. With your strong commercial acumen, you develop and execute customer focused category plans aligned with the company's strategy, aiming to sustainably grow market share and cash profit. Your ability to analyse financial, market, and customer data allows you to identify opportunities for product improvement, new product development, and cost savings. Collaborating cross functionally, you review product ranges, make key decisions in buying and selling strategies, and effectively manage supplier relationships to achieve performance objectives. With excellent communication skills, adaptability, and resilience, you navigate complex information, influence stakeholders, and lead relevant projects to successful delivery.

Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrable experience in Food Buying, ideally with exposure to both branded and own branded products and the ability to deliver results quickly in a fast paced environment.
• Proven experience negotiating with suppliers, confidently influencing commercial terms to secure value adding agreements that support category performance.
• Ability to build, manage and trade an effective trade plan, ensuring promotional activity, space execution and commercial decisions drive both customer impact and profitability.

• Ability to handle complex stakeholder interactions, demonstrating resilience and confidence in challenging conversations and decision making.