Sainsbury's
Head of Employment Tax (6M FTC)
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Location: London, Coventry or Manchester Store Support Centre & Home
This is a 6-month Fixed Term Contract (FTC) between 14th December – 9th July 2027. We are open to full-time and part-time applications working between 25.5 and 37 hours per week, over 3-5 days.
Why join us?
Joining Sainsbury's as the interim Head of Employment Tax means becoming an integral part of a dynamic and forward-thinking Tax team. You will have the opportunity to lead and shape expert employment tax advice and governance strategies across the business, ensuring compliance, managing key external relationships, and anticipating legislative changes. By embedding robust employment tax practices aligned with Sainsbury's long-term objectives, you will play a crucial role in minimizing risks, enabling informed decision-making, and supporting the delivery of the business strategy.
With a focus on continuous improvement, leadership, and technical excellence, this role offers a challenging, yet rewarding, environment where you can drive change, contribute to strategic initiatives, and make a significant impact within a leading retail organization.
What you'll do
You will be responsible for providing expert advice and governance on all employment tax matters across the business, ensuring compliance with UK domestic legislation. Your role will involve maintaining key external relationships, particularly with HMRC, and anticipating legislative changes to minimize risks and support the overall business strategy. You will play a crucial role in analyzing, submitting, and managing the annual PAYE settlement agreement, as well as educating and advising stakeholders on employment tax risks and best practices. Your leadership skills, commitment to continuous improvement, and technical excellence in tax will be essential in driving and supporting change within a fast-paced, evolving environment.
Who you are
You are a tax expert with a deep understanding of UK domestic employment tax legislation, including CIS, and a commitment to continuous improvement and tax technical excellence. You possess strong leadership skills, the ability to build partnerships, drive change, and navigate a fast-paced, evolving environment with energy, resilience, and a focus on delivering business objectives while ensuring compliance and minimizing risk. Your ability to communicate tax rules clearly to non-specialists, work across various stakeholders, and identify and address new legislative impacts make you a valuable asset in embedding robust employment tax practices aligned with the organization's long-term goals.
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Essential Criteria
- Professional tax qualification (e.g. CIOT, ATT or equivalent recognized tax qualification)
- Demonstrable knowledge and experience in UK employment tax legislation, including CIS, gained either in-house or with Big 4 professional services firms
- Proven ability to identify and implement process improvements, delivering greater efficiency, effectiveness, or compliance
- Evidence of leading or influencing stakeholders to deliver tax-related outcomes, including building effective working relationships across teams
- Experience operating effectively in a changing environment, including managing competing priorities and adapting to evolving business or regulatory requirements
- Demonstrable line management experience is desirable; this role has 1 direct report
RESPONSIBILITIES
We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not handling projects, we’re helping all corners of the wider group with what they’re trying to achieve. And around here, you can see the results of your work as soon as you walk into a store, which gives 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 sheer scale and complexity of our set-up means there’s always something else around the corner, and we’ll help and support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen here.
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QUALIFICATIONS
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 recognize 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 get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. 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 65% of salary, depending on how we perform (in cash and shares).
- Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional 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, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day), and access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers.
- You'll also receive a company car cash allowance unless you are going to travel 10,000 business miles in your role, then you'll be able to choose a car. And if you ever need it, there is also an employee assistance programme, and you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.
- 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).
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