Response Manager - North Zone
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: Manchester Store Support Centre and Home, Manchester, M4 3AL
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Retail
Closing date: 22 March 2026
Requisition ID: 400053055
As a Response Manager for our North Zone you’ll use your operational expertise and project management skills to provide effective and timely responses to crime and security‑related incidents across our business. You’ll lead the future strategy for incident response, ensuring effective escalation, smooth information flow and clear guidance to colleagues and leadership teams. Working closely with the wider Asset Protection Team and external partners, you’ll help keep colleagues and customers safe while reducing loss and enhancing business resilience.
This role is contracted to 37 hours per week, 5 over 7 days with the requirements to operate out of hours and to support major incident management across 7 days. This role will require regular travel.
What you’ll be accountable for
- Creating and managing channels of information to guide the business response to crime and security risks.
- Leading, coaching and supporting Response Specialists and the Incident Response Assistant.
- Proactively identifying and targeting high‑risk stores or areas to reduce colleague and customer safety risks.
- Partnering with third‑party providers (e.g., IRC, Mitie) to recruit, train and manage skilled first‑response operators.
- Translating data into clear and timely intelligence for the wider business.
- Supporting business projects by helping design out criminality and mitigate risk.
- Providing subject matter expertise to senior leaders on crime threats, from safety to criminal damage.
- Building and maintaining strong external relationships to improve Police collaboration and stay up to date on retail and logistics crime.
Essential knowledge & experience
- Proven track record of successful project management. You will have strong influencing skills and high levels of resilience to support successful project delivery.
- A detailed understanding of criminal investigations, processes and procedures and the application of criminal law in a commercial business context including in a logistics environment.
- Strong crime prevention knowledge within the retail and logistics landscape.
- Knowledge and background in a retail and logistics environment and knowledge of colleague/customer safety landscape.
- Highly commercially aware, with sound business and wider industry knowledge.
- Excellent communicator with the ability to influence across all levels, manage teams, and support out‑of‑hours incident response.
- Comprehensive understanding of Microsoft Office software packages including PowerPoint, Excel, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Power BI.
What you need to show
- Ability to communicate effectively across all functions and levels with strong decision‑making and problem‑solving skills.
- Ability to build a credible network across retail leadership and Store Support Centres.
- Proven experience working collaboratively across multiple business areas.
- A strong sense of ownership with the ability to prioritise and deliver at pace.
- Confidence in handling and simplifying large volumes of data into clear messages.
- A proactive mindset, continuously seeking better ways of working.
- Flexibility to support Crime & Security and Central Retail teams during weekends and out‑of‑hours on‑call cover.
- Openness, curiosity and willingness to adapt in changing situations while role‑modelling our Valued Behaviours.
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).
