Division/Dept.
Zest In-house creative Agency (production studios) / Marketing & Loyalty
Location
Hybrid – Milton Keynes
Reporting to
Creative Manager of Photography
In a nutshell
Joining Zest Creative Agency as a permanent full-time food photographer, you will be responsible for producing outstanding food photography content tailored to social media, campaigns, and PR. This role will involve creating visually engaging and high-quality food imagery that supports marketing strategies across our brands Sainsburys, Argos and Nectar. Additionally, you’ll collaborate in the development of the creative direction for our food content, ensuring that all shots convey our brand's values of freshness, quality, and convenience.
Our team values pushing creative boundaries, encouraging innovative ideas, and delivering quality that exceeds expectations. We prioritize collaboration and maintaining high standards, with a focus on fostering a positive and supportive team culture. We also believe that work-life balance is essential for sustained creativity and well-being, so we offer the flexibility you need to succeed both at work and beyond.
Who you are
The ideal candidate must have a strong portfolio of food photography, showcasing a blend of creative and technical expertise in food lighting, composition and retouch. You’re a skilled and versatile Photographer who thrives on creativity, innovation, and delivering exceptional results. With experience in both e-commerce and campaign photography, within product and food, you have a strong eye for detail and excel at translating briefs into striking images. You enjoy working in a fast-paced setting, navigating complex shoot schedules, and meeting tight deadlines without compromising on quality. Your organizational skills are matched by a collaborative spirit, and your excellent communication enables you to build strong relationships across teams and with clients. At Zest, you’ll fit right in with a team that values creativity, teamwork, and constant growth.
What you need to do
* Produce food photography and retouch for all platforms and channels including: e-commerce, campaign, and PR visuals.
* Work both in the studio with studio flash, occasionally supplemented with location work, assessing and bringing creative briefs to life through impactful photography that adheres to brand guidelines and client visions.
* Organise workload to ensure KPIs are met and record your production output daily.
* Build strong relationships and embody the values of Zest, contributing to a positive, innovative studio environment where every project is a chance to set new benchmarks.
* Deliver results under pressure to a complex and fast turnaround shoot schedule, achieving and working to improve performance against the studio KPIs.
* Champion innovation, constantly thinking forward, and looking for new and imaginative ideas, while keeping abreast of new industry trends.
What you need to know and show
Food photography expertise & creative execution:
* Food photography content for social media, campaigns and PR, evidenced within portfolio.
* Evidence of maintaining consistent visual standards.
* Showcase of advanced knowledge of lighting, composition, and retouch.
* Evidence of aligning to brand guidelines, while bringing innovation and creativity to projects.
* Knowledge of both studio flash and natural light is essential - Proven experience of both evidenced within portfolio.
* Knowledge of studio equipment and photography software – Broncolor, Capture One, Adobe Photoshop.
* Be constantly on the pulse of creative, production and tech trends.
Behavioural Competencies:
* Confidence: Believing in one’s own expertise and capability to succeed and inspiring confidence in others with creative skillsets.
* Curiosity: Always asking questions to really understand production challenges, seeking out new and inventive ways of managing and improving creative output.
* Adaptability: In an environment marked by frequent changes, flexibility and adaptability to shifting project demands is essential.
* Energy and drive: Be able and willing to drive yourself forward with enthusiasm and positivity.
* Smart Decision Making: Sound judgment and confident ability to make quick and informed decisions - seeking out the right information fast.
* Resilience: Ability to always remain calm under pressure. Persistence and drive in ensuring excellent delivery.
Support we will provide/ Resources available to me:
* Fully suited production studios and extensive creative production teams (mix of internal and freelance).
* Operational & production leadership support – In form of Head of Studio and Studio Manager – GM & Food (MK).
* Sainsburys home hub, AskHR, MyHR, Health, Wellness, Finance support.
Directly or indirectly manages
N/A
Date of last job evaluation
28/01/25
Hay rating Grade
C4
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 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 pay day) as well 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. We’re one of the biggest supermarkets in the UK with one of the largest websites. So marketing here really happens at scale. We move a lot faster than you’d think too, across Brand Planning, Brand Comms and Creative, Digital Marketing, CRM and Loyalty, Nectar 360, Insights, and Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability. More people shopping with us each week means more interactions. And thanks to data insight, we understand customers in a way that almost nobody else does. We work alongside incredible brand partners and the best agencies around. So if you have a passion to learn, grow and experience new teams, come and explore it all with us.
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