Retail Department Manager - Essex
From a Bradford market stall to one of the UK's largest supermarkets, we are proud to be the Yorkshire food retailer serving customers across the UK over almost 500 stores and through a home delivery service.
At Morrisons, we’re proud to be The Market Street Grocer. We do things differently. We don't just stack shelves; we are passionate about food, proud of our British heritage, and dedicated to giving our customers a vibrant, bustling place to shop. From our market-style fresh counters to our beautifully stocked aisles, great food and friendly service is at the very heart of what we do. We love what we do, and we want you to love it too.
We are currently looking for talented, commercially minded Department Managers to lead various areas of our store operations across our Essex region. Depending on your background, expertise, and lifestyle preferences, we have leadership opportunities across two key business areas:
Trading Managers: The commercial driving force behind our daytime shop floor. You’ll take full ownership of trade execution, visual merchandising, and stock management across your designated aisles, keeping availability peak and standards immaculate.
Night Managers: The operational backbone of the store while the doors are closed. You will lead our twilight and overnight teams to safely manage large-scale replenishment, process deliveries, and ensure the store looks spectacular before the morning trade begins.
Reporting into the Store Manager, you’ll take full ownership of trade execution, commercial performance, and stock management across your designated areas. Your main objective is to ensure every aisle is beautifully presented and fully stocked, while coaching your team to deliver the friendly, helpful service that keeps our regulars coming back week after week.
What you'll be doing day-to-day:
Leading with Passion: Inspiring, coaching, and developing a team of team leaders and colleagues across the shop floor to be the best they can be.
Driving Commercial Excellence: Maximising sales through striking visual merchandising, seasonal trade planning, and impeccable stock availability.
Managing the Numbers: Taking full responsibility for your department’s sales targets, waste management, shrinkage, stock control, and labour budgets to run a highly profitable operation.
Keeping it Safe: Maintaining strict legal compliance, trading standards, and health and safety regulations across the floor to the highest degree.
Putting Customers First: Being a visible, welcoming leader on the shop floor, ensuring our customers always experience a clean, tidy, and efficient shopping environment.
More Perks
Competitive Salary: We don't advertise salary because we honestly have a degree of flexibility and would never want salary to be a reason why someone doesn't apply to Morrisons. Our recruitment team will always discuss this with you early in the process as we genuinely want to match your experience with the correct salary.
Two colleague discount cards: 15% staff discount for you plus a second card for a friend or family member.
A highly competitive pension scheme
33 days annual leave
Private healthcare
Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
Sir Ken Morrison Leadership School: Internal leadership school offering a University accredited development programme.
My Morri' Exclusive Discount Platform: Instant discounts on everyday purchases, dining and leisure plus online cashback and reloadable cards
About you
You don’t just love retail; you understand how to run a commercial, high-volume trading operation. You're a people person through and through, with a knack for bringing out the best in others and a sharp eye for commercial detail.We’re looking for someone who has:
Proven leadership experience: From a fast-paced retail, supermarket, or high-volume commercial environment (experience managing large teams is a massive plus, but your leadership style is what matters most).
A commercial mindset: You know how to read trade reports, spot opportunities to drive sales, manage stock rotation, and keep a tight grip on waste.
A hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves attitude: You love being on the shop floor and thrive on the energy of a busy trading peak.
Brilliant communication skills: With the ability to build strong, positive relationships with your team, store leadership, and our customers.
A genuine pride: For delivering excellent store standards and a consistently brilliant shopping experience.
We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.
About us
At Morrisons, we’ve always done things a bit differently. Our story started all the way back in 1899 as a humble egg and butter stall in Bradford market. 127 years later, we’re one of the UK’s leading supermarkets, but we’ve never lost that independent shopkeeper spirit.At just under 500 stores across the UK, our retail colleagues work as one team to feed the nation and provide a memorable shopping experience. We’re a team of over 90,000 down-to-earth, hard-working people. We care about fresh food, friendly service, and looking after each other.
What truly sets us apart is that we don’t just move boxes from trucks to shelves, we are food makers and shopkeepers. As the UK's second largest food manufacturer, we source directly from British farmers, process meat in our own abattoirs, and prepare fresh food right in front of our customers. From our vibrant store displays to the hot meals served in our Cafes, we take massive pride in feeding the nation honest, high-quality, fresh food.
As we own our own supply chain, including manufacturing sites, flower hubs, and logistics networks, the career paths here are varied. We are deeply committed to learning and development, ensuring that if you have the drive to progress, we will give you the tools, courses, and support to go as far as you want to.
We don't overcomplicate things. We work hard, we look out for each other, have a laugh along the way, and take immense pride in the food we sell and the communities we serve.
Reward & Benefits
We've highlighted below some of our standard Rewards & Benefits that our colleagues receive. Please note, some roles come with additional benefits such as bonus, company car allowance etc. you'll find further details where applicable in our adverts, or you can speak to someone in our resourcing team for more information.
Plan your journey
Essex, United Kingdom, SS8 0PT
Learning and development is at the heart of our business
As you can imagine, Morrisons is a busy place to be. There’s lots going on - processes, changes, new initiatives, different ways of working. And that’s just on a Monday morning.
It means there’s a lot to learn. But learning isn’t just about understanding what’s involved in day-to-day workloads. It’s also about growing and developing in your career, too. That’s why we’ve made sure that learning and development is at the heart of our business. We’re here to make sure everyone has everything they need to be their best - and to go as far as they want.
Our DE&I workstreams
We're proud to have a diverse group of colleagues working here. We want everyone to feel valued in an environment where we promote respect, where they feel a sense of belonging, and feel celebrated as individuals.
These are the moments that matter to them - and they matter to us, too.
Everyone is welcome to get involved in our Ethnic Diversity, Ability, LGBTQ+, Women, and Family & Carers workstreams, too. They’re designed to help us better reflect our customers, colleagues, and communities so we can become an even more inclusive business.
As a business, we love bringing people together. And we think it’s one of the biggest reasons to be part of our team.
Our Process
We've outlined below what our typical process looks like, this can vary slightly depending upon the role or team you've applied for. Our goal is to provide a positive and accessible experience for all applicants, ensuring everyone has the support they need to showcase their best selves.
Our resourcing team are on hand to help with any questions about your application and you can reach them by e-mailing resourcing@morrisonsplc.co.uk.
-
1
Find an opportunity that's right for you
Once you've found a role that's right for you, you can apply via this site. If it's your first time applying with us then we'll need all your essential information and we might ask you to upload your most recent CV. If you've applied for roles with us before then we should recognise you and you won't need to share these details again, unless something has changed that you need to update us on.
-
2
Online Assessment (Customer Assistant roles)
After your application, we might send you an e-mail and ask you to complete an online assessment. This is typically a situation judgement test where we'll ask you ten questions with mutliple choice answers and takes around 10-15 minutes to complete. The questions will give you a feel for the types of scenarios you might encounter working in our stores - think customer first.
-
3
Let's find out more
For some of our stores and site roles, if you've been successful with your application we might just e-mail and ask you to book a slot for your interview. For other roles our resourcing team will get in touch with you to find out a bit more about you and why you applied. They'll also answer any questions you might have about us and the role. After all, it's a two way process!
-
4
Interview
Our interviews are typically face to face but can sometimes be virtual. Don't worry, we'll advise either way. Your interview can differ depending on the role or team. Part of the interview may include some competency questions against our Ways of Working (listed below).
-
5
Final Stage
With some of our roles there might be a second interveiw. This tends to be for roles in our Head Office and some salaried positions across our stores and sites. As part of this second stage, we might ask you to complete a task, such as a SWOT analysis or something similar, and present it back during the interview. This helps us understand your approach and thinking about the role.
-
6
Decision
Our resourcing team or the store or site you've applied to will be in touch with you as soon as they can to let you know the outcome. If you've been successful we'll share the details of our offer with you and follow up with everything you need on e-mail.
Ways of Working
Our Ways of Working are like a set of values that define our core beliefs, guide decision-making, and shape our culture and how we operate.
Customer First - I care about our customers and do everything I can to meet their needs
Teamwork - I always play my part in the team, and I recognise we go further together
Working Freely in a Framework - I’m trusted to make my own decisions and encouraged to improve things for customers and for us
Care and Respect - We care more and try harder; for each other, for everyone around Morrisons
Listen and Respond - I take the time to talk with and listen to colleagues and customers, and always do the right thing for the them
Grow Sales, Low Cost - I understand my part in the end-to-end process and look for ways to drive improvement
Life at Morrisons offers more than you imagine.
We’re a Yorkshire based food manufacturer and retailer, and our story began with a simple market stall in Bradford all the way back in 1899. Today, we’re still just as committed to delivering on our promise of 'freshness from farm to fork' for every customer. It’s why we’ve grown to become one of the UK’s leading supermarkets. And, with 90,000 colleagues, nearly 500 stores, and 11 million customers every week, there are now more reasons to join us than you can imagine.
Meet the Recruiter
Favourite Morrisons product
Market Street cheese & onion rolls
Top Tip
Do your research - consider culture, value, reputation and how you're aligned.
Related Vacancies
