Sporting Fashion & Goods
Director, Retail Excellence
Senior Level
Portland, United States
hybrid
Full time
Job description
About the Role
The Director, Retail Excellence leads supply chain management (SCM) Retail Excellence for North America, serving as the strategic supply chain partner to the Retail business. The role sets the vision and roadmap for how SCM enables store performance, availability, speed, profitability and growth, and leads and develops a capable team. It translates supply chain complexity into commercial outcomes and influences cross-functional partners to modernise reporting, simplify processes, automate work, strengthen store enablement and deliver outstanding operational results.
Key Responsibilities
- Set the Retail SCM vision by defining and communicating a multi-year strategy and operating model for Retail Excellence, translating business priorities into a clear roadmap, capabilities and measurable outcomes.
- Serve as the strategic retail partner, acting as the supply chain face of Retail for North America and building trusted partnerships with Retail leadership, Store Operations, Merchandising, Finance, Inventory, Digital, Technology and Operations.
- Translate SCM into commercial value by connecting availability, inventory flow, speed, service and cost decisions to store sales, profitability, consumer experience and business growth, and articulating trade-offs and recommendations in business language.
- Drive retail supply chain performance by owning the performance agenda for product availability, inventory flow, replenishment, delivery reliability, speed and other critical retail supply chain outcomes, and establishing priorities, governance and interventions that improve performance sustainably.
- Modernise reporting and insights by advancing self-service reporting, actionable insights and exception-based management so leaders and teams can identify risks, make faster decisions and focus resources where they create the most value.
- Lead transformation and automation by identifying and delivering opportunities to simplify processes, automate manual work, apply AI and digital capabilities, improve data quality and redirect capacity toward higher-value activities.
- Enable stores by partnering with Store Operations to understand frontline needs and improve the processes, tools, visibility and service models that help stores serve consumers and execute effectively.
- Build cross-functional alignment, influencing outcomes across teams without relying on direct authority, establishing decision forums, aligning competing priorities, clarifying ownership and constructively challenging partners.
- Lead continuous improvement by creating a disciplined improvement pipeline, prioritising opportunities based on business value and ensuring changes are adopted, measured and sustained across the Retail ecosystem.
- Manage risk and escalations by anticipating material supply chain risks, leading cross-functional mitigation and providing clear executive communication on impact, options, decisions and recovery plans.
- Lead executive business reviews, shaping and presenting concise, forward-looking updates that connect performance and initiatives to commercial outcomes, surface decisions and build confidence in the direction of Retail SCM.
- Lead, empower and develop the team by providing strategic direction, clear priorities, organisational stability and respectful accountability, developing talent, delegating meaningful ownership, recognising contributions and creating an inclusive culture.
Required Experience & Qualifications
- College or university degree with a focus in supply chain management, business, retail, operations or a related discipline; an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience will be considered.
- Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in supply chain, retail operations, inventory management, logistics, commercial operations or a related field.
- Minimum of 5 years of people leadership experience, including demonstrated success developing leaders and high-performing teams.
- Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-level transformation and influencing senior commercial and operational stakeholders across a matrixed organisation.
- Strong commercial mindset with demonstrated ability to connect supply chain decisions to retail sales, profitability, consumer experience and business growth.
- Proven ability to set strategic direction, build multi-year roadmaps, define operating models and convert vision into prioritised execution.
- Advanced understanding of retail supply chain, store operations, inventory flow, replenishment, availability, logistics, distribution and service performance.
- Executive presence and strong storytelling skills, with the ability to simplify complexity, frame decisions and create confidence with senior commercial and operational stakeholders.
- Demonstrated success leading through influence across Retail, Store Operations, Distribution, Inventory, Finance, Technology and other partners with competing priorities.
- Builder mentality with experience creating new capabilities, governance, structures and ways of working in an evolving organisation.
- Track record of leading transformation, process redesign, reporting modernisation, automation, technology adoption and change management.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capability, with the judgement to move beyond metrics, identify root causes, prioritise opportunities and turn insights into decisions and action.
- Ability to challenge constructively, balancing commercial urgency with supply chain realities to develop practical, mutually beneficial solutions.
- Healthy confidence, humility and curiosity, with comfort acknowledging uncertainty while establishing a clear path to answers and decisions.
- Proven people leader who builds engagement, creates clarity, empowers teams, develops talent and holds people accountable respectfully.
Preferred Skills
- Postgraduate degree.
- Experience in athletic footwear, apparel, consumer products or another complex omnichannel retail environment.
- Experience within footwear, apparel, consumer products or omnichannel retail.
Workplace
- Hybrid work policy requiring attendance in the office Monday through Thursday, with the flexibility to work remotely on Friday each week.
- For work requiring a high degree of collaboration or an in-person presentation, in-office attendance is required even on Friday.
Benefits & Perks
- Robust and progressive medical cover, including HSA (Health Savings Account) with employer funding or FSA (Flexible Spending Account) options.
- Dental, vision and prescription drug coverage.
- Adoption support, including surrogate and fertility support.
- Short and long-term disability, and basic life and AD&D insurance.
- Enrolment in the 401k plan and Stock Purchase Plan with employer match.
- Education assistance for full-time employees.
- Generous leave policies, including 14 weeks of paid parental leave.
- Eligibility to earn an annual bonus based on company performance.
- Prorated flexible time off accrued at 0.4388 hours per day, increasing with years of service.
- Twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year and Service Time Off during milestone years.
About the Company
The company believes that embedding diversity, equity and inclusion into its culture and talent processes gives employees a sense of belonging and the brand a real competitive advantage.
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