Engineering Manager - Retail Operations
Posted 8 hours 2 minutes ago by Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd
Location: Coventry Store Support Centre - Ansty Park and Home, Coventry, CV7 9RD
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Sainsbury's Tech
Closing date: 24 October 2025
Requisition ID:
We'd all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That's waiting for you at Sainsbury's. Think about the scale it takes for us to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety it involves. Then you'll realise that ours is a modern software engineering environment because it has to be. We've made serious investment into a Tech Academy and into setting standards and principles. We iterate, learn, experiment and push ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to awesome opportunities in everything from AI to reusable tech.
Why join usJoining Sainsbury's Tech means becoming part of an inclusive and driven team that is passionate about creating innovative solutions. As an Engineering Manager, you will play a pivotal role in leading and coaching talented engineering teams, driving the delivery of impactful solutions that drive efficiency and enhance performance across the business. With a focus on continuous improvement, you will have the opportunity to shape a world-class engineering function and contribute to the development of cutting edge processes and technologies. At Sainsbury's, we value collaboration, diversity, and inclusivity, and offer a supportive and inspiring environment where you can make a purposeful contribution. Join us to be a part of an organisation that fosters technical excellence and embraces the power of diversity to shape the technology landscape of a leading UK retailer.
About the teamYou will be leading a team playing a vital role within Sainsbury's Retail Store Operations domain, managing in store stock systems that ensure products are accurately sequenced and placed across stores. The team keeps critical in store services running smoothly, as any downtime directly affects product ordering and overall store efficiency.
Our tech stack combines reliability and modern development practices. The backend is built with C# and .NET, exposing REST APIs such as the Stock Platform API and Code Control API. On the frontend, we use Next.js with Fable, powering the Colleague Hub - a central web platform that connects multiple store services through single sign on.
We manage data using MongoDB Atlas for NoSQL storage and Azure SQL Server for Azure hosted apps. Infrastructure runs across Bosun (AWS) and Azure, ensuring scalability and resilience. Our CI/CD pipelines automate builds, testing, and deployments, with Jira, ServiceNow, and GitHub supporting daily operations.
In stores, we deploy mobile applications on Android Zebra TC53e devices, integrated with DataWedge for seamless barcode scanning and stock management.
What you'll do- Lead and enable the delivery of technology solutions that create value, drive efficiency, and increase performance for the business.
- Line manage and guide a multi skilled engineering team, ensuring they have the necessary resources and skills to deliver end to end technical solutions for products.
- Mentor and coach team members, recruit diverse and talented individuals, and promote a culture of collaboration, learning, and respect.
- Work closely with Product Managers and Engineers to define the vision and technical direction, manage multiple deliveries, and take end to end ownership of products, including change management and service management.
- Drive the development of new features, promote best engineering practices, and advocate for agile/lean delivery methodologies.
- Manage initiative level budgets, ensure adherence to processes and standards, and demonstrate positive attitudes and behaviours that contribute to a culture of excellence and inclusivity.
- Passionate and experienced engineering leader with deep understanding of engineering practices and talent for coaching and developing teams.
- Strong leadership and communication skills, enabling strong relationships at all levels and contributing to an inclusive and diverse culture.
- Technical expertise combined with ability to prioritise and manage multiple deliveries, enabling successful development of large scale platforms.
- Well informed technical decisions and implementation of best practices, while managing Capex and Opex responsibilities.
- Demonstrable track record of leading engineering teams, encompassing team planning, performance management, setting objectives, conducting one to one meetings, developing technical roadmaps, and driving enhancements in engineering processes.
- Keen enthusiasm for promoting and integrating AI technologies within engineering teams.
- Solid technical foundation, with practical experience in back end programming languages.
- Demonstrable track record of leading engineering teams, encompassing team planning, performance management, setting objectives, conducting one to one meetings, developing technical roadmaps, and driving enhancements in engineering processes.
- Keen enthusiasm for promoting and integrating AI technologies within engineering teams.
- Solid technical foundation, with practical experience in back end programming languages.
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 also provide pensions scheme and life cover. You may also be eligible for a performance related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on performance.
Your wellbeing is important: annual holiday allowance, additional holiday purchase, season ticket loans, interest free car loan up to £10 k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance, employee assistance programme, and private healthcare.
Moments that matter: up to 26 weeks' pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks' pay for paternity leave.
Please see for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).