Procurement Buyer - Argos

Why join us

Argos is entering an exciting new chapter, and we're building a dedicated Procurement team to help shape it. This is a rare chance to join a lean team right at the start of its journey. Think start-up mentality inside a well-known, established business: there's plenty to inherit, and even more to build, challenge and improve.

The role is based in London or Coventry, with hybrid working – typically two days a week in the office on average.

What you'll do

As a Buyer, you'll support the development and delivery of commercial sourcing strategies across a blend of categories rather than one narrow area. You'll work closely with Procurement Managers, Heads of Procurement and stakeholders across Argos to make sure every sourcing decision gets the balance of cost, quality and risk right.

Day to day, you'll prepare and run sourcing activities, negotiate with suppliers, manage contracts and provide the analysis behind category plans, all in line with Procurement Policy. A big focus will be the legacy contracts moving across and helping Argos get its cost base in order. That means finding ways to reduce cost, bringing creative thinking and questioning how things have always been done. In a lean team, your contribution will be visible from day one.

Who you are

You'll bring a solid grounding in procurement and the hands-on experience to hit the ground running, including contract management, which is central to this role. You're comfortable managing suppliers and stakeholders, working across functions and owning your workload with limited supervision. You're curious about supply markets, methodical in how you solve problems and energised by pace, change and the chance to challenge the status quo.

Experience from any fast-paced, complex organisation, would be a great fit. Breadth gained in a smaller business, where you've worked across a range of categories, would also be a real plus. It would be great, though not essential, if you have category experience in technology and digital or logistics, or in marketing or property.

Essential criteria

• Demonstrable knowledge of procurement principles, sourcing techniques and category planning.

• Proven experience of preparing and managing sourcing activities, including supplier negotiations and contract management.

• Proven ability to analyse commercial and supply-market information, solve problems methodically and prioritise work with limited supervision.

#LI-SS1

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 10% 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. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, 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).