Head of Buying
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: Coventry Store Support Centre - Ansty Park and Home, Coventry, CV7 9RD
Contract type:
Business area: Argos
Closing date: 15 July 2026
Requisition ID: 400068199
About the team
Our GM Commercial team is at the heart of shaping the ranges and customer propositions that make Argos a destination for brilliant products, value and convenience. Working across Product, Merchandising, Design, Global Sourcing and our wider support functions, the team sets the direction for market-leading categories and brings together commercial insight, customer understanding and supplier partnerships to deliver ranges that perform across our multichannel business.
More about the role
As Head of Buying, you’ll lead a large and broad commercial area, setting the long-term category strategy and translating it into compelling ranges, pricing and promotional plans that grow sales, profit and market share. You’ll work closely with the Head of Merchandising and cross-functional partners to deliver customer-led, profitable range plans aligned to business strategy, budgets and channel requirements.
You’ll lead and develop a team of buyers, create strong supplier strategies and build effective relationships with senior stakeholders across global brands and own-brand manufacturers. From range build and launch milestones through to trading, financial management and supplier negotiations, you’ll be accountable for making balanced commercial decisions that support growth, improve performance and deliver an excellent customer proposition.
More about you
You’ll bring strong commercial leadership experience from a retail buying or category environment, with the ability to create clear strategy, lead complex negotiations and use customer, market and trading data to make high-quality decisions. You’ll be comfortable influencing senior stakeholders, working across multiple functions and operating in a fast-paced multichannel environment.
You’ll also be an inclusive and effective people leader who can set direction, coach teams and create a high-performing culture. You’ll be resilient, collaborative and confident making autonomous commercial decisions, while ensuring activity remains legal, compliant and aligned to customer, brand and business priorities.
Essential criteria
- Experience developing or leading a retail buying, category or commercial strategy with measurable impact on sales, profit, margin or market share
- Evidence of leading supplier negotiations, supplier business plans or sourcing decisions that improved commercial outcomes such as cost, margin, availability or supplier income
- Experience using customer, market, competitor and trading data to inform range, pricing, promotional or category decisions
- Experience leading, coaching or developing buying/commercial teams, including performance management, succession planning or capability building
- Experience influencing senior internal and external stakeholders across cross-functional teams in a complex retail or multichannel environment
- Experience of leading or contributing to change or transformation initiatives, including improving processes, product ranges or ways of working within a commercial environment
- Experience working in an omni-channel or digitally led retail environment, with understanding of online customer behaviour and how this informs trading and commercial decisions
- Experience leading or contributing to change or transformation initiatives, with evidence of improving processes, product ranges or ways of working in a commercial or retail environment
- As a digitally native business, over 75% of our sales originate online, so understanding how customers engage across digital channels and using that insight to inform commercial decisions is key
#LI-MB1
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 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 65% of salary, depending on how we perform (in cash and shares). 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, 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. You'll also receive a company car cash allowance unless you are going to travel 10,000 business miles in your role, then you'll be able to choose a car. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too. 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).
