Lead Supplier Auditor

Job description

Are you passionate about ensuring the highest standards of quality and safety in the food industry? Do you have a keen eye for detail and a knack for building strong relationships? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you to join our team as a Supplier Assessment Lead in our Food Commercial division.

This role requires a significant amount of travel on a weekly basis, in the UK and EU.

As a Supplier Assessment Lead, you will play a crucial role in driving supplier performance by delivering a risk-based programme of audits. This includes Onboarding Audits, Sainsbury’s Approved Audits, Reactive Audits, Food Safety and Non-Food Safety Audits, and Produce Audits. You will be field-based and report to the Head of Technical within the Central Technical Operations team.

In this role, you will maintain the flexibility to provide rapid responses to supplier and product issues as they arise. Your expertise will be vital in identifying and rectifying any unacceptable practices at suppliers related to the safety, quality, legality, and ethical standards of Sainsbury’s Brand products. You will work closely with the Category Technical teams to ensure all issues are resolved in a timely manner. In this role you will need to be organised to schedule your own audits and travel plans throughout the year, including booking travel and accommodation through our business travel provider and recuperating expenses in a timely manner. Communication is key, and you will be responsible for documenting and sharing the outcomes of all supplier audits with stakeholders. Ensuring that every visit is fully documented on Evolve and closed out within agreed timescales is essential. Additionally, you will ensure that all adverse audits are fully cost-recovered promptly.

Your role will also involve developing supplier-facing policies in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and ensure their effective implementation and compliance. Identifying emerging supply base risks based on current threats and industry trends will be part of your responsibilities.

To be successful in this role, you should have a degree in food, biological science, or a related discipline, along with experience in food, non-food, GM, or retail auditing. Knowledge of fraud detection and root cause analysis techniques, good IT skills, and a full driving licence are essential. You should have great attention to detail, the ability to follow issues through obsessively, and high standards for yourself and others. Being very organised and self-motivated and able to work on your initiative as well as within a team is crucial.

In return, we offer support from technical colleagues across Sainsbury’s Group SSCs and international hubs, access to IT systems, performance reviews, and a personal development plan. You will also have the opportunity to attend Sainsbury’s Technical Training Courses and other relevant external courses.

Join us in this dynamic role where you can make a significant impact on the quality and safety of our products. Apply now to become a part of our dedicated team and help us maintain the highest standards for our customers. We look forward to welcoming you to our team

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 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 additional holiday. 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, 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. 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).