Description
As a Senior Buyer within Essentials at Sainsbury's, you'll lead the end-to-end commercial and product strategy for a key growth category within TU Clothing.
You'll translate category strategy into a compelling, customer-led product proposition, ensuring ranges are relevant, profitable, and aligned to brand and business objectives.
This is a senior buying role with accountability for shaping and delivering ranges at scale, driving performance across sales, margin, stock, availability, and customer satisfaction.
Working in close partnership with Design and Merchandising, you'll lead sourcing, buying, and trading strategies that balance creativity, commerciality, and pace to market.
Responsibilities
- Define and deliver the category strategy for Essentials, owning range architecture, selection, sourcing routes, and in-season trading performance across all channels.
- Using strong customer, market, and data insight, lead the development of engaging, age-appropriate, and commercially sound product propositions that resonate with customers and deliver strong performance.
- Own financial performance, proactive trade management, and clear decision-making to optimise sales, margin, and stock outcomes.
- Build strong, strategic supplier partnerships to drive quality, innovation, and value.
- Work closely with Design, Merchandising, Product Development, Marketing, and Digital teams to ensure end-to-end execution.
- Lead, coach, and develop Buyers and Assistant Buyers, building capability, protecting talent, and driving high performance within the team.
Requirements
- Proven senior-level buying experience, with accountability for category strategy and financial performance.
- Strong commercial, analytical, and data-driven capability, using insight to shape buying and trading decisions.
- Experience building and delivering customer-focused ranges within Womenswear.
- Strong negotiation skills and experience developing strategic supplier partnerships.
- Ability to operate confidently at pace, making timely, well-informed commercial decisions.
- Proven experience leading, coaching, and developing others.
- Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across functions.
- Passion for product and customer experience, balanced with commercial discipline.
Benefits
- Competitive salary
- Colleague discount: 10% on shopping online and in-store at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU, and Habitat
- Pensions scheme and life cover
- Performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary
- Annual holiday allowance
- Private healthcare
- Season ticket loans
- Interest-free car loan of up to £10k
- Cycle to work scheme
- Health cash plans
- Salary advance
- Access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers
- Up to 26 weeks' pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks' pay for paternity leave