Vice President Strategy, Store Operations

Serving the needs of all families with young children, Carter’s Inc. is the largest North American apparel retailer exclusively for babies and young children, encompassing Carter’s, OshKosh B’gosh, Skip*Hop and Little Planet brands. Meaningful work, constant learning, genuine people, and a community guided by core values that promote inclusion and innovation is in everything we do. There are many reasons to build your career at Carter's.

How you’ll make an impact:

The VP Strategy, Store Operations is a key business partner developing and executing retail strategic plans for US/Canada. Building highly productive and exceptional customer experience culture. Taking the lead facilitating communication between headquarters, retail locations, and analyzing valuable feedback from both customers and team members. Enhancing the shopping experience through streamlined processes, innovative approaches, and proactive technology utilization. Spearheading new initiatives, conducting financial modeling for operational optimization, and leveraging technology to anticipate and meet evolving consumer preferences.  The VP Store Operations drives sales growth equipping field teams with the necessary resources to achieve success.

This role reports to the Senior Vice President, Store Operations and is based in our Atlanta Corporate Office.

Retail Operational Strategy (40%):

• Partner closely with Finance to drive strategic and financial decisions/investments, including annual planning process.
• Build and lead high-performing team by mentoring and developing talent, setting clear expectations, instilling mutual accountability, and recognizing and rewarding results
• Proactively foster brand and business partner relationships to collaborate or gain buy-in on analyses and process recommendations; eCommerce, Merchandising, Planning, HR, Visual, and Marketing etc.
• Lead the adoption of performance metrics and pinpoint productivity enhancements and risks specific to each location. Develop analytical tools to enhance store reporting capabilities.
• Develop strategic roadmaps for field organization and impact upstream functions, including people, process and tools, based on deep understanding of today's operations, possible futures, and the ROI for potential initiatives
• Build annual budgets (forecasts) for Store Operations inclusive of Payroll, Facilities & Incentive Plans in partnership with Retail Finance & Compensation.
• Lead organization-wide, strategic initiatives that involve cross-functional steering committees comprised of senior leaders that drive consistent execution of operational strategies.
• Collaborate with store teams to optimize volume by location along with merchandise initiatives and strategies.
• Support store optimization & growth in coordination with key cross-functional partners; providing recommendations based on profitability, volume, and lease expiration.
• Lead new store pre/post-opening activities, including Real Estate team partnership, marketing, inventory allocation, grand opening readiness, events, efficiencies, overall support of the store teams, and new store inventory allocations.
• Lead, coach, and develop team by setting goals and objectives, implementing career paths to performance, and succession planning.

Communication and Store Processes (20%):

• Oversee communication strategy between the field and home office partners to drive process improvement.
• Monitor operational excellence in stores by creating consistent and efficient back-of-house standards across the store fleet.
• Drive cross-functional partnerships across marketing, merchandising, creative, digital product, IT, distribution, etc. to implement roadmap, achieve sales and customer objectives (e.g., acquisition, retention, loyalty, NPS).
• Partner with cross-functional teams in Retail leadership, Construction and Store Planning, Benefits, HR, and select vendors to drive in-store impact, productivity, and effective communication.
• Create and deliver monthly communication to store organization to align on initiatives, recognize performance, provide proactive guidance, and plan action items.
• Partner with field leaders to communicate seasonal plans, departmental strategies, and promotional calendars.
• Provide guidance and direction to develop best-in-class retail processes that drive strategies and innovation.
• Maintain consistent communication with store teams through store visits, and field meetings.
• Ensure an organized and balanced workload strategy with proper utilization of payroll resources.

Innovation / Customer Experience (20%):

• Champion a culture of organizational growth, one that values improvement of business processes, boosting execution, effectiveness, and ability to scale to meet consumer expectations.
• Drive store profitability, productivity, and customer improvement through creative problem-solving, analytics, and the implementation of technical solutions.
• Maintain brand standards through proactive and reactive maintenance projects based on evolving customer needs and business demands.
• Continue to evolve and elevate the omni channel in-store experience with enhanced technology and innovation (including BOSS, BOPIS, Curbside, Endless Aisle, RFID, DFS, Same Day).
• Maintain current data on market area, competitors, and retail strategies; participates in strategic planning and the analysis for building brand loyalty through an exceptional shopping experience.
• Utilize all reporting and analytics of Store Operations to drive decision making regarding store technology implementation, Store Associate support, and customer retention/acquisition.  
• Supervise the effective execution of new store pre/post-opening activities through Real Estate partnership, marketing, inventory allocation, grand opening readiness, events, efficiencies, and overall support of store teams.

Facilities / Safety and Security (20%):

• Provide strategic direction to Facilities team to ensure effective and timely responsiveness protecting employee safety and customer experience.
• Implement robust project management processes, with tools and templates, to create a strategic roadmap that will develop future capabilities for both remodels and refreshes.
• Oversee the creation and implementation of strategic programs to drive service, repair improvements, maintenance and storage programs for all stores.
• Maintain and develop relationships to reinforce a commitment to world-class customer service across the board: including co-workers, clients, subcontractors, vendors, and installers.
• Oversee the ongoing management of all safety-related processes, procedures, compliance, and data for stores.
• Responsible for remodel optimization in partnership with Real Estate; provide recommendations based on profit, volume, and lease expiration.
• Collaborate with Asset Protection team to support strategy to mitigate loss through facility maintenance and thoughtful store remodeling.
• Supervise the ongoing management of all safety/shrink related processes, procedures, compliance, and data.
• Support collaboration with key leaders to drive the concept of Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Emergency Response in retail stores and the maintenance of emergency action plans.  
• Lead collaboration with Benefits, HRBPs, DC leaders, Asset Protection, Legal, Facilities, and select vendors to deliver best-in-class safety and security.

We’d Love to hear from you if: (Requirements section)

Must haves:

• 10+ years’ experience working in retail operations and data analytics, strategy or technology dynamic, large-scale retail, or services organization with demonstrated progressive upward mobility.
• BA/BS Degree
• Strong critical thinking, planning and business curiosity with the ability to work in a complex cross functional environment.
• Strong business acumen and understanding of retail systems and technology (omni channel models).
• Experienced leader that can mentor and develop a dynamic team to successful business outcomes.
• Experience in leading operational and strategic initiatives end-to-end, managing stakeholders and running multiple projects or work-streams simultaneously.
• Ability to travel - primarily domestic with the possibility of international travel; however, this could change based on company’s impending business needs.
• Approximately 30% (subject to change based on business needs).

Preferred skills and experience:

• Self-motivated, focused, driven individual who thrives in an entrepreneurial environment.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and dynamic business landscape.
• Confirmed ability to influence optimally toward outcomes in a cross-functional manner, with a history of achieving goals.

Our Team Members:

• Lead Courageously: Have a strong sense of personal values that align with our Company values
• Collaborates Broadly: Build cooperation, trust, and thrive in a consensus driven environment.
• Customer Focus: Proactively seek opportunities to leverage data and fact-based insights to serve customers and/or internal clients.
• Drive Growth: Set aggressive goals and implement plans precisely.
• Cultivates Innovation:  Respectfully challenge the "we’ve always done it this way" mentality and explore new ways to achieve desired outcomes

Make a career at Carter’s:

• Career Development: Success starts from within, and we have several paths from which you can choose to enhance your career evolution. From Carter’s University to Toastmasters to mentorship programs and more, we encourage you to utilize these tools to elevate your professional prowess.

NOTE:  This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. The duties described may be changed or reassigned at the discretion of management, and the employee may be required to perform duties that are not listed in the job description.

Carters is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law.