Reporting to the Vice President, Customer Experience. As Senior Director, Retail, you will be responsible for leading the retail team, with full responsibility for the function’s strategy, direction and profit and loss. You will be responsible for evolving our retail business model through international expansion and omnichannel innovation, and stabilizing our organizational structure, processes and technology. The ideal person is strategic and results-oriented. She has experience managing and scaling decentralized teams and retail experiences.

Qualifications

Strategy and innovation – 30%

• Set the direction and long-term goals for SSENSE’s retail business taking into account the organization’s growth objectives
• Develop and execute the retail strategy, managing resources (capex/opex, resources, capabilities, technology) to achieve the long-term vision
• Mobilize resources and build capacity to achieve defined financial and operational objectives, working closely with partners in operations, real estate, technology, marketing, purchasing, human resources and finance
• Identify, align stakeholders, develop business cases and implement initiatives to improve customer experience, financial position and/or retail scalability, to ensure that performance of retail adapts to the overall growth of the company
• Stay abreast of industry trends and benchmarks, as well as partner solutions, and continuously identify and leverage customer value proposition opportunities

Operations – 30%

• Actively and continuously analyze, evaluate and manage financial performance, establishing and maintaining the overall framework(s) responsible for achieving performance objectives and key performance indicators, with responsibility for the retail comprehensive income statement
• Lead the retail industry’s customer acquisition and retention initiatives by establishing service standards and sales culture, while working with the sales and retention teams to ensure that initiatives sales and loyalty programs are relevant, executable and profitable
• Create, establish and ensure continuous optimization and deploy operational processes and guides with the aim of enabling each business unit in the retail sector to achieve sustainable evolution
• Prepare and obtain management approval of the annual and quarterly budgets and the operational readiness strategy
• Ensure staffing model, processes, space/real estate and technology keep pace with business growth

Leadership and professional skills — 40%

• Attract, develop and retain a high performing team, managing the complexity of a dispersed workforce
• Build a clear succession and workforce reinforcement plan
• Design, champion and implement the optimal organizational structure to ensure the team can adapt to business needs, especially international expansion
• Provide leadership, mentoring, training, development and performance management to direct reports
• Enable executives to take ownership of team engagement and alignment to ensure employee retention and satisfaction
• Enforce the mission and vision of the department by all teams, and establish objectives to achieve it

Further information

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field
• At least 12 years of expertise in retail operations, including designing and implementing omnichannel capabilities, allocation and replenishment strategy, network and fulfillment strategy, and managing performance
• At least 10 years of proven experience in the retail industry in multiple locations, including handling large volumes; international experience an asset