Capacity & Network Planning Manager
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Retail
Closing date: 21 August 2025
Requisition ID: 400011650
We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. As the link between sellers and buyers, retail and head office, our retail operations team is the cog that keeps things running. With teams focused on store facing, labour, transformation, online, delivery and contact centre work, we touch almost every part of the business. It’s an incredibly fast-paced environment where you need to pivot not just daily, but often hourly. So while we plan all we can, it’s vital that we all think outside our job descriptions and look to optimise and improve how we do everything. There’s also a real team ethos. After all, it’s people like you who are going to truly transform this part of the business.
Why join us
As a Capacity & Network Planning Manager at Sainsbury's, you will have the opportunity to play a pivotal role in shaping the digital experience for our customers and contributing to the growth of one of the fastest-growing areas within our organisation. You'll be at the forefront of strategic planning, leveraging your analytical skills and spatial expertise to develop innovative solutions and drive impactful decisions that will enhance our online property network. By joining our team, you'll be part of a dynamic environment where your contributions will directly influence the success of our digital initiatives, supported by a culture that values curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
What you'll do
You will play a crucial role in overseeing the Digital (Groceries Online) capacity expansion strategy planning process through robust network, location, and capacity planning modelling. Your responsibilities will include managing and iterating the online store network capacity model to ensure it reflects operational reality and operating model requirements, as well as developing a live network plan to inform a strategic property and capacity plan for Digital. You will collaborate with key stakeholders to define a pipeline of investment opportunities and manage the financial viability of capacity investment programmes, while also working to identify tactical opportunities to alleviate capacity constraints and optimise delivery territories. Your advanced analytical skills, knowledge of Geographical Information Systems, and ability to present complex analyses to senior stakeholders will be essential in driving the success of our online retail operations.
Who you are
You are a highly analytical and strategic professional with a strong background in location planning and analytics within the retail industry. Your expertise in handling large datasets, developing complex models, and utilising GIS tools enables you to drive the capacity expansion strategy for the Digital (Groceries Online) sector, ensuring optimal network planning and property investment decisions. With exceptional communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with stakeholders at all levels, you play a pivotal role in shaping the future of Sainsbury's digital customer experience through data-driven insights and strategic planning initiatives.
Essential skills
- Highly analytical and comfortable working with large data sets and developing complex models. This includes strong Excel and SQL skills.
- Accomplished knowledge of Geographical Information Systems - ArcPro preferable, and be able to think spatially in your analysis and appraisal.
- How to apply advanced GIS skills to ensure we present, interpret and model our data spatially – ensuring geographic consideration forms an integral part of our thinking.
- Experience within retail property / location planning industry.
- Good knowledge of UK geography.
- Strong PowerPoint capabilities and able to present complex analysis in clear and engaging ways to senior stakeholders.
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).
