OVERVIEW
As the Director of Retail Operating Model & Technology, you will be at the forefront of shaping how process, people, and technology work together seamlessly to enable retail growth. In this new role, you serve as the architect of our weekly and daily operational routines in stores, connecting the dots between staffing and scheduling, disparate and integrated tech platforms, and operational processes in stores to maximize efficiency, drive labor reductions, and ensure front-line team success by making store operations easy and wrong execution impossible through technology. This role operates at a global level with a focus on developing scalable solutions that serve as the baseline blueprint for international expansion that can be adapted to support localized nuances outside of the US. Success criteria for this role is measured through improvements to key metrics including inventory accuracy, shrink, replenishment rates, short ship rate, and labor spend.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Operating Routines
- Maintain efficient weekly and daily operational routines for retail stores, factoring in nuances driven by location, volume, architectural constraints, and staffing models.
- Partner closely with Workforce Management Team to ensure alignment between baseline operational routines, labor models, and scheduling tools.
- Adapt labor models to support peak execution challenges during key periods of the year.
- Partner with Regional Operation teams to assess feasibility to lift and shift baseline operating models to other countries and business models, completing gap assessments to determine adaptations needed to store operating model.
Process & Technology Improvement
- Oversee Retail technology and process improvement roadmap, driving alignment between leadership, operating teams, and cross-functional partners including Tech Ops, Retail Engineering, Digital functions, and regional teams.
- Capture and prioritize process and technology improvement opportunities through partnership with daily retail operations teams, store visits and process immersion, operational KPI review, and field feedback. Maintain value creation through close tracking of key growth drivers and efficiencies captured.
- Maintain cross-functional retail tech product enhancement requests across core platforms including RFID, Omni, Inventory Control, asset protection management systems, and POS.
- In partnership with international operations teams, identify and support new and alternative solutions for technology and process to support international expansion into new countries, business models, and store concepts.
- Develop business cases, write detailed business requirements, partner with Retail Tech and outside vendors to track project execution, and work with operating teams to support launches for new solutions and improvements.
- Develop new policy and procedures and support upkeep of existing documentation based on changes to process or tech solutions.
- Oversee continuous development and improvement of Operations Dashboards to ensure Retail Operation teams have specific actionable data points needed to diagnose business and adapt behaviors.
- Stay closely tuned in to evolving retail technology product innovation and solutions that could be implemented at Alo; support proof of concepting and pilots to bring innovative solutions to market.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Required minimum of 10+ years of experience in a headquarter-based Retail Operations function with a required focus on technology solution enablement.
- Bachelor’s degree in business, information management, operations, or other relevant field.
- Proven track record of developing, influencing, and rolling out retail tools with measured business outcomes.
- Significant experience in a retail and/or technology setting with key retail systems including inventory management systems, RFID, and omnichannel tech.
- Strong ability to influence and collaborate across different levels of the organization.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to craft compelling assets and presentations.
- Strong organizational abilities with the ability to multi-task and pivot frequently based on business changes.
- Expertise in Microsoft Office Suite and experience using retail communication or task management platforms.
- Ability to travel to stores based on business demand, up to 25% of the time.