5 Reasons Why You’ll Enjoy Being a Staff Engineer at Sainsbury’s

There’s a reason why Sainsbury’s has stayed ahead of the curve as a retailer for over 150 years. But what’s their secret to success and why do so many engineers enjoy working there?

It boils down to one word: innovation. Their tech teams create systems and technologies that build better customer experiences in-store and online, and their products are used by 70% of the nation – every year*.

The team at Sainsbury’s is looking for more curious engineers to join and you could help them in one of the industry's most exciting roles yet: the Staff Engineer. Forget outdated technologies or legacy systems, you’ll have datasets comprising billions of transactions* to play with and a work environment that enables you to be the best and lead the best. Interested in hearing more? Buckle up as we get into 5 reasons why you’ll enjoy being a Staff Engineer at Sainsbury’s.

1. You’ll join a trailblazer in tech – and you’ll have a team to match

Without directly managing a team, Staff Engineers at Sainsbury’s are able to get stuck into a blend of hands-on coding, mentoring, leadership and business influence. As a Staff Engineer, you’ll experiment, test and continue to develop your technical skills, all whilst contributing to Sainsbury’s 3 tech pillars: Custom & Data, Colleague & Operations and Platform Engineering & Service. You can find out more about these pillars here.

2. You’ll be changing the face of retail – for good

Sainsbury’s aims to find better ways to serve its customers daily, and the role of the Staff Engineer is key to this. You’ll have the time and freedom to push the limits of what’s possible and touch the lives of many through the array of projects you’ll work on and the teams you’ll lead.

As a step in the SmartShop journey, the team at Sainsbury’s recently released a solution that helps their customers to ‘Just Walk Out’. If you enjoy working on projects that make use of Artificial Intelligence then this is a taste of what you could get up to at your time in the tech team. Using Machine Learning Image Classification, the engineers were able to track shopping behaviour, anonymise customers and trace confidence levels on the items picked. Take a look at the real-life version of this incredible project below.

Whether you’ve got ideas or you love fleshing out team concepts, this is just an example of the type of project you could work on as a Staff Engineer.

3. Your well-being, work-life balance and development are their priority

You might have heard the phrase 'bringing your whole self to work' but what does that actually mean at Sainsbury’s in particular?  It's simple: when you’re supported in every facet of your life, whether through flexible working, development opportunities or celebrating what’s important to you, then you’ll thrive. Phil Jordan, Sainsbury's Group CIO says:

"Our company purpose includes the commitment that we help and serve every customer and therefore it's vital that our team reflects back the diversity of the communities we serve."

While you’ll be a Staff Engineer, that won’t be all you are as at Sainsbury’s, diversity and inclusion go hand in hand. Out of over 1,400 colleagues, 26% are ethnically diverse* and connected to a great colleague network, ‘I AM ME’ which is driving change*. And what’s more, there are inclusion networks for many communities such as LGBTQIA+, those with disabilities, and more like Proud @ Sainsbury’s, EnAble, We Care and Inspire which allow everyone to be exactly who they are through meaningful conversations that inspire action.

4. You’ll work with the latest tech

If you’re wondering what tech stack you’ll be working with, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s whatever enables you to complete a project to an excellent standard. You’ll already be familiar with some of their tech stack including C#, Springboot, Java and Docker and you’ll use it in projects like SmartShop.

As the world shifts more and more into contactless forms of payment, SmartShop was created to serve customers in the increasingly new ways they wanted to shop. The tech team recognised the potential to create a frictionless payment method that made use of modern technologies to serve their customers. Now customers can leave the store without having to pay at a till as all payment is handled automatically in the app.

5. You can look forward to generous perks and excellent benefits

As you’ll be helping to drive some really ambitious plans and strategy for Sainsbury’s, including helping to shape the future of the business, it’s only right that you have access to exceptional perks and benefits including unrivalled colleague discounts across brands such as Sainsbury’s, Argos, and Habitat and a generous bonus scheme.

You’ll enjoy an ample holiday allowance, you’ll also receive special offers on gym memberships, restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers and more. As you’re a trusted colleague, you won’t have to worry about rigid ways of working as Sainsbury’s supports and offers truly flexible working, health cover and a dedicated pension plan.

Conclusion

There’s so much more that you’ll love about being a Staff Engineer at Sainsbury’s. If you haven’t already, make sure to create a profile on the hackajob platform, where Sainsbury’s is currently hiring for this role or log in to your profile here. We can’t wait to hear from you.

*Sources

All original stats and figures mentioned in this post can be found in Sainsbury’s Tech Brochure here