Stores People Partner - Central Zone (Central & East Midlands)

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. Location: This is a truly regional role, giving you the opportunity to work across our locations throughout the Central & East Midlands (e.g., Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Birmingham, and Warwickshire). You can expect to travel around 3–4 days per week, so you’ll need to be comfortable working flexibly and travelling regularly across the region. Why join us Joining Sainsbury’s as a Stores People Partner means being part of a collaborative, future‑focused People team committed to driving meaningful change across our store estate. You will play a key role in shaping how our people plans come to life in stores, ensuring consistency of execution and supporting leaders to build high‑performing teams. With the opportunity to influence regional people strategy, support effective workforce planning, and continually improve the colleague experience, you’ll be making a tangible impact every day. This role offers challenge, variety, and the chance to grow your career in a fast‑paced, customer‑centric, and people‑driven environment. What you'll do As a Stores People Partner at Sainsbury’s, you will be responsible for delivering consistent, high‑quality execution of the people plan across all stores in your region, setting the standard for great people delivery under the leadership of the Regional People Partner. You will support workforce and talent and succession planning to ensure stores have the right people and skills in place, and use data, insight, and trends to identify risk stores, diagnose root causes, and agree targeted actions to improve performance, capability, absence, and engagement. You will review progress against people plans, work closely with store leadership teams to embed agreed actions, and carry out sampling and quality checks to ensure People products and processes are implemented consistently and effectively. Alongside this, you will lead the delivery of cyclical people activities - such as performance, engagement, talent and succession and support people‑impacting change projects including transformation by ensuring strong communication, clear expectations, and operational readiness in stores. By building strong, trusted partnerships with Store Managers, Store People Leads, and operational leaders, you will translate strategic priorities into practical, store‑ready actions that enhance colleague experience, build capability, and drive improved outcomes across your area. Who you are As a Stores People Partner for Sainsbury's, you are an experienced professional with a proven track record of delivering people plans within fast-paced, complex, commercial organisations. Your ability to collaborate effectively, analyse data, and support the delivery of people-impacting change projects is essential for translating strategic objectives into consistent execution that drives performance, capability, and colleague experience. With a focus on building strong relationships, championing continuous improvement, and driving business transformation, you lead by example and inspire a culture of excellence, always putting colleagues and customers first in every action you take. Essential Criteria Demonstrable experience delivering people plans and cyclical people activities within a fast-paced, com