External Campaigns Manager

Joining our team at Sainsbury's as an External Campaigns Manager means being part of a dynamic and purpose-driven organisation. Here, you will have the opportunity to make a significant impact by building reputation for Sainsbury’s, with a focus on a campaign which brings to life our purpose.

Collaborating with talented colleagues in the External Campaigns team, you will deliver impactful campaigns that drive positive reputation for the business, championing our purpose and our role in creating a resilient, future-ready food system. While there will be a focus on media engagement and storytelling, there will also be opportunities to work with the Government Relations team and build partnerships with industry bodies, campaign groups, and suppliers.

As part of an inclusive and collaborative culture, you will have the support and resources needed to excel in your role and drive continuous improvement. Join our team and be part of a collective effort to make good food joyful, accessible, and affordable, while making a real difference in the lives of our colleagues, customers, and the broader community.

What you’ll do

• Deliver a long-term campaign plan to build reputation for Sainsbury’s, with a focus on a campaign which brings to life our purpose: We make good food joyful, accessible, and affordable for everyone, every day.
• Deliver a media engagement programme that maintains a drumbeat of positive storytelling that supports the campaign plan and drives positive reputation for the business on key themes related to our purpose.
• Develop materials to support the delivery of campaigns – e.g., press releases, briefing documents for senior spokespeople, social copy/content.
• Work closely with CR&S and Food Commercial teams to identify and understand business activity that aligns to our purpose.
• Work closely with the wider Corporate Affairs Team to develop and deliver the campaigns to ensure resonance across multiple audience groups.
• Build strong relationships with relevant stakeholders both within Sainsbury’s and with a wide range of external stakeholders, including campaigning groups and suppliers.
• Build and maintain relationships across media, enhancing relationships across broadcast, print, and digital to increase the quality of coverage.
• Support with the management of an agency/agencies to execute the campaign. You will need to clearly brief them and monitor output.
• Support the measurement of campaigns, evaluating successes and learnings and sharing these with the CA division and wider business as appropriate.
• Participate in an out-of-hours duty service for journalists on a rota basis, along with other external communications colleagues.

Who you are

• A proven communications professional, with experience of corporate and purpose-led communications (essential).
• Demonstrable experience in media relations / issues and crisis management (essential).
• Strong and demonstrable understanding of the media landscape, how this is changing/shifting and what this means for communications professionals and campaigns (essential).
• Presents a clear understanding of the retail environment, current affairs, and their impact on business and sustainability trends (essential).
• Proven ability to distil complex information and create interesting, relevant messages to a range of audiences (e.g., ability to communicate across media, Government, customers/consumers, etc.) (essential).
• Experience at a FTSE company or communications agency working with household names/FTSE clients.
• Excellent judgement and strong attention to detail.
• Excellent, clear, and concise verbal and written communications, with a passion for current affairs and the media.
• Able to handle large amounts of information in a time-sensitive environment, to prioritise and work under pressure to tight deadlines.
• Effective collaborator and networker – able to build relationships internally and externally.

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 in-store 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 payday) as well as 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).

Responsibilities

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. This is where you’ll enjoy a broad range of projects, no matter what your level, because our Corporate Affairs team is non-hierarchical and truly plugged in to the rest of the business. Whether it’s internal, external, or government relations, you’ll have the chance to collaborate with everyone from food waste to health, or general merchandising to Nectar, in order to support some amazing campaigns. You’ll help build trust around Sainsbury’s with customers, senior stakeholders, media, and more. And if non-linear progression is what you’re after, you’ll find opportunities are all around.