Technology Manager - Data Ecosystem

Salary:
Competitive Plus Benefits

Location:

London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA

Contract type:
Permanent
Business area:
Sainsbury's Tech
Closing date: 09 June 2026

Requisition :

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Think about the scale it takes to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety involved. Then you’ll realise this is a modern software engineering environment, because it has to be. We’ve made significant investment in the standards and principles that shape how we work.

We iterate, learn, experiment and champion ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to exciting opportunities across everything from AI to reusable tech.

Technology Manager - Data Ecosystem

The Technology Manager is central to business‑critical transformation of technology delivery and achieving Sainsbury's business strategy, working at the heart of a complex matrix operating model spanning internal teams, offshore partners, and strategic technology organisations. Responsible for assuring technology service and delivery provision for Data Engineering, managing the performance of external partners providing engineering and BAU services, and driving financial accountability for the data domain.

This role business partners at senior level, ensures fit‑for‑purpose, secure, efficient data products and applications, and drives continuous improvement in technical processes to deliver value early and often while maximising value for money across contracts and services.

What I am accountable for:

• Contribute to data strategies for respective products and functional areas, working closely with Data Architecture, Engineering Teams, and Product Management to ensure alignment with business objectives and data technology principles.
• Partner with Product Managers and Data Science teams to ensure delivery of data engineering services that meet analytical, reporting, and ML requirements, balancing business needs with technical feasibility and operational constraints.
• Ensure data pipelines are delivered in accordance with Sainsbury's Tech guidelines, data governance standards, and technology principles, evolving these based on requirements and learnings from delivery.
• Input into overall data roadmaps, ensuring data solutions fit with business strategy and agenda and that all initiatives have clear and appropriate action plans covering data ingestion, transformation, quality, and access.

Leadership

• Drive a culture of personal accountability and ownership across direct contributions and external offshore Data Engineering teams, ensuring high performance, data quality standards, and delivery excellence.
• Coach offshore data engineering teams to understand the rationale for technical approaches in data architecture and pipeline design, surfacing and dealing with ambiguity and conflicting demands, escalating appropriately to resolve prioritization conflicts.
• Build collaborative relationships with Data Scientists, Data Analysts, Business Intelligence teams, service providers, suppliers, and wider Sainsbury's Tech colleagues to ensure data services meet required standards and expectations.
• Engage and influence at all levels, partnering with data teams and business stakeholders to maintain and evolve a strong service mindset focused on data quality, accessibility, and business value.
• Influence brilliantly through timely communication of relevant information up to Director level, translating complex data engineering and technical issues to meet the demands of diverse audiences.
• Make decisions with ambiguous or incomplete information, exercising judgment in the absence of clear guidelines and frameworks while managing data‑related risks appropriately.
• Manage small budget, ensuring financial discipline across both change and run activities for data platforms, tracking spend against forecasts and business cases.
• Support Procurement and Supplier Management on supplier selection processes for data engineering partners, establishing and managing ongoing relationships with selected suppliers and ensuring offshore Data Engineering teams deliver…