Lead Supplier Auditor
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: Holborn Store Support Centre - Field Based, London, EC1N 2HT
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Food Commercial
Closing date: 06 June 2025
Requisition ID: 3065877
We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Here, everything in our stores starts out in Food Commercial. Whether it’s the product, proposition, packaging or price, or the fact that something tastes great, our team is responsible for all food items available in store, digitally and on demand. You’ll discover it’s incredibly fast-paced. People here are in it together and not afraid to take risks. They’re enthusiastic too, and their amazing leadership team is right behind them. The knowledge and experience you gain here could set you up for career moves, anywhere else in the business. So, if you’re passionate about food and just as hungry to learn, you’ll fit in perfectly.
This role is field based and will require travel to multiple sites in the UK and EU on a weekly basis.
Why join us
Joining Sainsbury's as a Lead Supplier Auditor offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on the safety, quality, and ethical standards of Sainsbury's Brand products. With a focus on delivering a risk-based audit programme and driving supplier performance, this role provides a platform to showcase expertise in technical and ethical audit skills. Working collaboratively with internal stakeholders and external suppliers, you will play a crucial role in ensuring compliance, maintaining product quality, and mitigating supply base risks. With a supportive environment, continuous learning opportunities, and a commitment to personal development, joining our team means contributing to a culture of excellence and accountability in the food commercial division.
What you'll do
As the Lead Supplier Auditor, the primary responsibility is to deliver the Food Safety Audit Programme according to a risk-assessed schedule, aiming to reduce risk and improve compliance across the Sainsbury's own brand supply base. This involves conducting various types of audits, including onboarding, reactive, food safety, non-food safety, and produce audits, utilising reporting data to drive consistency and adherence to standards.
Key tasks include delivery of the audit schedule whilst maintaining flexibility to respond to supplier and product issues, identifying and rectifying unacceptable practices, communicating audit outcomes, and providing auditor judgement on risks, whilst using this insight to develop our supplier requirements.
Decision-making authority includes determining site audit ratings, stopping production, recommending product removal or quarantine. Support is provided through technical colleagues training and skills boost programme, systems support and personal development reviews.
Who you are
Experience in auditing food manufacturers is essential and demonstrating a risk assessed, pragmatic and challenging approach to drive best practice. Strong organisation skills are critical to deliver the audit schedule, arrange travel, and ensure accurate cost recovery. Building strong relationships across internal stakeholders and the supply base is fundamental to maintain our professional audit standards.
You are a highly skilled professional with a strong background in food, biological science, or related disciplines, coupled with extensive experience in food, non-food, GM, or retail auditing. You demonstrate exceptional attention to detail and a commitment to upholding safety, quality, and ethical standards in supplier practises, driving compliance and continuous improvement. With your expertise in fraud detection, root cause analysis, and strong communication skills, you play a pivotal role in delivering the risk-based audit programme, ensuring the integrity of Sainsbury's Brand products and fostering collaborative relationships both internally and externally.
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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: 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.
Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. 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 additional holiday. 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, pay 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, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.
Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).
