Response Specialist - North Zone
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: Manchester Store Support Centre and Home, Manchester, M4 3AL
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Retail
Closing date: 22 March 2026
Requisition ID: 400052971
The role of the Response Specialist will be to support their geographic area with the day to day management of incidents and ongoing risk to colleague and customer safety. The role will be reviewing risk and ensuring support is provided where required to ensure the welfare of colleagues and customers within Sainsburys and Argos stores and other/additional relevant Sainsbury’s locations. You will need to work both reactively and proactively utilizing internal and external data to identify opportunities for change and continuous improvement. Reacting quickly at pace where live incidents have occurred within the business is essential. You will be required to deliver and demonstrate effective communication skills across all levels of the business to show direction and ownership.
What you need to do
- End to end management of Response Sheet & Post Incident Risk Rreview (PIRR) completion, ensuring business expectations are met, with an accurate account of the incident, collecting relevant information including CCTV and Body Worn Camera footage and reviewing.
- Use investigation skills and sound judgement to identify the root cause of incidents and implement tactical solutions to mitigate future occurrences
- Highlighting stores at risk and working closely with the wider crime and security team to look at long term solutions to reduce risk for colleagues and customers.
- Working with the wider Crime and Security team to understand projects role out, and how this will be managed ensuring full engagement, communication, and updates to relevant stakeholders and representatives. Involving Mitie field teams where needed to ensure Store guarding officers are briefed.
- To lead, manage, influence the stakeholders to deliver ever improving results through robust process management and stretching targets that ultimately reduce risk for colleagues and customers.
- Ownership of working with the ECR to highlight geographical watch outs/trends, coaching key stakeholders around what should be logged through the ECR and the level of detail completed.
- Support Sainsburys projects
- Ownership of working with wider crime and security team to understand geographic level of intelligence being received, attending meetings in partnership or on ones own with key stakeholders at police meetings, NBCS and stores to support engagement.
- Auditing and reviewing the guarding performance on the evaluation dashboard periodically to highlight opportunities/risk at regional level, working with the guarding service geographic team to capture underperforming officers, to ensure agreed actions/time scales are put in place to improve service level both geographically and contractually.
- Utilise risk data to understand geographic risk/target areas, reviewing the number of incidents reported to ensure resource is being deployed based on risk
- Support where required with regional police meetings in high risk areas including local councils, universities, schools.
- Drive change and share continuous improvement ideas submitted through a business case, these should offer an increase to the safety of colleagues and customer alongside cost benefit where applicable
What you need to know and show
- Proven track record of demonstrating high levels of integrity and confidentiality.
- Ability to apply knowledge of policies and operating procedures, demonstrating sound judgement and decision-making support appropriate activities.
- Experience working successfully and collaboratively across different business functions and teams.
- Comprehensive understanding of Microsoft Office software packages including PowerPoint, Excel, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Power BI.
- Ability to analyse comprehensive business reporting and documentation, translating into a simple and effective activity to mitigate risk to colleagues and customers
- Ability to communicate effectively across functions and levels within the business.
- Ability to set and pursues project goals without direction, can manage workload through organization and priorities effectively to meet deadline
- Ability to listen to, understand and act on feedback given on personal and project performance
- Strong influencing and high levels of resilience to support in managing change
- A good understanding of criminal investigations, processes and procedures and the application of criminal law in a commercial business context
- National travel as and when required to support proactive and reactive support
- you'll work 5 days each 7 day week which may include weekends and bank holidays. You may be required to work during unsociable hours to support the role requirements, this will be supported by our ‘On Call’ policy
- Commercially aware, with sound business and wider industry knowledge.
Essential Criteria
- Experience working in retail or logistics with a focus on safety and risk.
- Knowledge of criminal investigations and crime prevention in retail/logistics.
- Able to investigate incidents, identify root causes and recommend solutions.
- Strong communication and influencing skills with stakeholders at all levels.
- Confident analysing incident data and turning insight into action.
- Flexible to work across a 7‑day operation, including occasional unsociable hours.
What decisions I can make including budget
- Tactical resource deployment
- Solutions to deliver colleague and customer safety mitigation
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 10% 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. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, 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).
