Customs Manager - Argos

Location: London, Coventry or Manchester Store Support Centre & Home – colleagues go into the office 1-2 days per week on average.

About the team

The Customs team sits within Finance and helps move goods in a compliant, efficient and well-controlled way. Working across Tax and Treasury, Supply Chain, Sourcing, Logistics and business change, the team protects value through effective risk management, sustainable duty optimisation and reliable customs data. This is a visible leadership role with the opportunity to shape customs governance, improve capability and influence decisions across a complex importing organisation.

More about the role

As Customs Manager, you will lead customs activity and manage two Customs Analysts. You will own customs declaration processes, procedures, systems and data, including duty payments and reconciliations, and ensure compliance with customs legislation across relevant goods movements, including those involving Northern Ireland. You will also maintain registrations, guarantees, authorisations and deferment accounts, including Simplified Customs Declaration Process requirements.

Day to day, you will lead governance for customs valuation, tariff classification and origin, identify sustainable opportunities to optimise duty, and provide practical advice on sourcing, suppliers, logistics and new routes. You will manage relationships with customs authorities, brokers, advisers and auditors, including enquiries, disclosures and remediation. You will also embed customs requirements into business and technology change, improve management information and automation, and build customs capability across the team and wider stakeholder community.

More about you

You will bring demonstrable knowledge of UK customs legislation and practice across classification, valuation, origin, declarations and customs authorisations. You will understand how brokers, supply-chain operations, import data, duty and import VAT accounting connect, and be able to turn complex customs requirements into clear, practical actions for senior and operational stakeholders.

You will combine analytical and commercial judgement with a clear commitment to compliance. You will be able to assess risk, identify sustainable duty opportunities and lead constructive relationships with external authorities and partners. As a people leader, you will set priorities, develop customs capability and provide direction through operational or technology change. A relevant customs or tax qualification, or equivalent substantial experience, is required.

Essential criteria

• A relevant customs or tax qualification, or equivalent demonstrable experience leading customs activity.
• Practical knowledge of UK customs legislation and practice covering tariff classification, valuation, origin, declarations and customs authorisations.
• Proven experience of leading customs compliance and risk management within a large or complex importing organisation.
• Evidence of managing customs authority audits or enquiries and working with customs brokers, external advisers or logistics partners.
• Demonstrable experience of leading colleagues and embedding customs requirements into supply-chain, systems or business change.

#LI-SA1

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you here at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not leading projects, we’re supporting teams across the wider group to achieve their goals. And here, you can see the impact of your work as soon as you walk into a store, giving you a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Better still, the team around you will listen to your ideas and opinions, and you’ll have every chance to try something new. The scale and complexity of our business mean there’s always something new to learn, and we’ll support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen.

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).