Clothing Supply Chain Lead
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: Coventry Store Support Centre - Ansty Park and Home, Coventry, CV7 9RD
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Logistics
Closing date: 25 July 2025
Requisition ID: 400004631
We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work/life balance. That’s waiting for you right here. Supply Chain and Logistics are the engine room for getting thousands of products from farms and factories, through the business and to our millions of customers every day. We plan around events from barbecue weekends to Sunday roasts, and who wants oven-ready cauliflower cheese to those who prefer to make it from scratch. Insight and data are everything. But so is judgement — if there’s an issue or ambiguity anywhere, we’re the first to spot it. There’s a big transformation going on. That calls for people who champion change, bring others with them, collaborate and communicate. Because those people can go a very long way.
As a Clothing Supply Chain Lead, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring we have the right stock, in the right place, at the right time, leading your team to manage and deliver agreed targets on stock and availability across a multi-channel environment. Working alongside the Head of Clothing A&R you will manage the day-to-day operations of your division across a multi-channel environment ensuring continuous improvement in availability levels and ensuring stock levels are at an optimum level to drive sales and profit growth. Leveraging your strong commercial acumen, analytical skills, and ability to work with cross-functional teams, you’ll influence outcomes, drive alignment, and enhance customer satisfaction, whilst your drive and support will aid the development of new tools to improve all our key metrics. The Clothing Supply Chain Lead will also be responsible for coaching and mentoring both the Supply Chain Analyst and Supply Chain Assistants, fostering a high-performance culture by creating an inclusive environment and actively participating in sharing best practices across the Commercial and broader Supply teams.
What I am accountable for
Leading Availability Strategy: Direct and guide analysts to achieve instore availability targets using Binary and Demand Weighted measurements. Identify risks and opportunities in forecast management to optimise availability across retail stores.
Balancing Retail and Digital Stock: Collaborate with digital partners to maintain stock balance across channels, ensuring customers receive market-leading availability whether shopping in-store or online.
Aligning Stakeholders to Strategic Goals: Work closely with commercial stakeholders, influencing and challenging decisions on stock packages to ensure alignment with shared business objectives.
Managing Outbound Stock Flow: Partner with the Clothing Stock Flow Planner and commercial teams to ensure targeted outbound levels are appropriate, achievable, and delivered—challenging where necessary.
Enhancing Launch Availability: Monitor, report, and challenge external stakeholders ahead of product launches to maximise availability and sales, ensuring business-wide awareness of potential issues and improvements.
Overseeing Promotional & Seasonal Stock Builds: Work with stock flow, retail, and digital teams to optimise stock flow into the right channels during promotional and seasonal events, keeping customer and store operations at the forefront.
Improving Systems & Processes: Proactively seek enhancements for existing systems by leveraging available tools and introducing new processes to improve efficiency.
Driving Future System Enhancements: Play a key role in shaping, testing, and delivering systemic improvements that meet operational needs and position the business for future success.
Providing Dynamic Leadership: Set the tone and direction for analysts and assistants alongside the Head of A&R, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, goal-setting, and succession planning.
Influencing Commercial & Retail Leadership: Build and sustain strong relationships with key stakeholders through clear communication and storytelling. Ensure process compliance while balancing commercial challenges with customer and operational needs.
What I need to know
Essential
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build relationships, have difficult conversations and influence stakeholders.
Experience and working knowledge of multi-channel retailing within commercial, analytical, or operational disciplines such as Demand Forecasting, Merchandising & Supply Chain
Strong understanding of customer demand forecast planning and forecasting methodologies
Highly numerate with an ability to create, interpret and use data to drive and influence commercial decisions
Ability to deal with ambiguity and ability to determine and evolve priorities at pace
Ability to build new relationships and work collaboratively, whilst effectively influencing and communicating with a broad range of stakeholders
Strong analytical skills to make informed data led decisions & strategies, critically analysing supply, division or event performance to achieve your full potential
Experience leading a team and an ability to deliver results to target, both as an individual and within a team. Setting stretching goals and developing long term strategies to support the wider business.
Ability to work under pressure in a fast-moving dynamic retail environment, with a strong understanding of how different departments, channels and markets operate
Product Lifecycle, knowledge of systemic levers and tools to execute the plan
An understanding of supply chain processes and how internal/external factors could impact routes to market and the customer proposition, coupled with the ability to make informed decisions taking these factors into account.
Highly computer literate, systems knowledge especially Excel and MS office
Desirable
An energetic and supportive leader of people
Project management or involvement experience outside of BAU that has driven business change
Understanding of AI systems and machine learning capabilities and benefits
Confidence to influence and engage at all levels
#LI-MS1
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 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 up to an additional week's holiday, and we provide private healthcare. 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, 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).
