Job Description

Company Description

Founded in 2003, SSENSE is pacing the vanguard of directional retail with its mix of luxury, streetwear, and avant-garde labels.

Currently serving 150 countries, generating an average of 88 million monthly page views, and achieving high double digit annual growth since inception, its field of focus has grown beyond that of a typical e-commerce entity as it explores the nexus of content, commerce, and culture. More than just a retailer, SSENSE is becoming a cultural protagonist in its own right.



Reporting to the VP, Customer Experience, the Senior Director, Retail is responsible for leading the Retail team, with full responsibility for the strategy, direction, and P&L of the function. They are responsible for scaling our retail business model through international expansion and omnichannel innovation and stabilizing our organizational structure, processes, and technology. The ideal candidate is a results-driven, strategic operator with experience managing and scaling distributed teams and retail experiences. They will partner closely with executives and key leaders in Operations, Technology, Marketing, Sales, Buying, Real Estate and HR to ensure SSENSE Retail delivers a world-class customer experience to its clients and, by extension, long term value for the business.

Responsibilities

Strategy & Innovation - 30%

Establish long-term direction, and objectives for the Retail business at SSENSE considering the organization's growth objectives

Develop and implement the Retail strategy, managing resources (capex/opex, resources, capabilities, technology) to realize the long-term vision

Mobilize resources and build capabilities to achieve defined financial and operational goals, collaborating closely with partners in Operations, Real Estate, Technology, Marketing, Buying, Human Resources, and Finance

Continuously identify, create stakeholder alignment on, build business cases for, and implement initiatives to elevate our retail customer experience, financial position, and/or scalability, to ensure Retail performance scales with the overall growth of the business

Keep abreast of industry trends and benchmarks, and partner solutions and continuously identify and execute upon opportunities in the customer value proposition

Operations - 30%

Continuously analyze, evaluate and actively manage financial performance, establishing and keeping General Manager(s) accountable for achieving performance targets and KPIs, with accountability for the aggregate Retail P&L

Drive Retail client acquisition and retention initiatives through establishing standards of service and selling culture, while also collaborating with the Sales & Retention teams to ensure sales and loyalty initiatives are relevant, executable, and accretive

Create, establish and ensure continuous optimization and deploy processes and operational playbooks with the goal of every business unit in Retail achieving sustainable scalability

Prepare and gain executive approval on annual / quarterly budgets and operational readiness strategy

Ensure staffing model, processes, space / real estate, and technology is consistently keeping pace with growth of the business

People Leadership & Organizational Capability - 40%

Attract, develop and retain a high-performing team, managing the complexity of a distributed workforce

Build a clear pipeline of succession and bench strength

Design, champion, and implement the optimal organizational structure to ensure the team can scale with the needs of the business, in particular, international expansion

Provide leadership, mentoring, training, development and performance management to direct reports

Empower leaders to take ownership of team engagement and alignment to ensure on-going retention and employee satisfaction

Enforce the department's mission and vision throughout the teams, and establish objectives to achieve it

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in a related field

Minimum 12 years expertise in retail operations, including omni-channel capability design and implementation, allocation and replenishment strategy, network and fulfillment strategy and performance management

Minimum 10 years proven industry experience in multi-location retail leadership, including management of high volume, global experience is an asset

Previous P&L ownership / accountability and demonstrated impact on profitability

Ability to work full-time including variable hours: early mornings, evenings, weekends and/or holidays

This role is primarily remote, with travel to store locations, fulfillment centers, and corporate HQ required approximately 25% of the time (% of time may vary in store development and opening periods)

Experience in a high growth organization is an asset

Marketing experience including CRM, lifecycle marketing & customer retention strategy, an asset

Strong interest and knowledge of the luxury fashion industry (brands, designers, customers)

Additional Information

SKILLS

Entrepreneurial attitude and willingness to build and improve existing processes

Strong ability to synthesize key insights from a multitude of data sources and tell a story

Proven ability to influence and collaborate with different levels of stakeholders (e.g., peers, subordinates, executives, etc) to deliver timely results

Team player with solid leadership and interpersonal skills

Proven ability to work in a dynamic, continuous improvement environment