Retail Store Expansion Senior Manager

Responsibilities

Build phase

• Design the store operating model
• Format, layout, staffing template, and customer sales motion (including the store-clerk intervention that differentiates stores from D2C and kiosks).
• Establish a per-store unit economics and a productivity minimum floor in target applications/originations per month, driving maximum store viability.
• Create a store-opening playbook, ensuring 100% consistency in each site. This also includes building the resourcing pipeline from recruitment stage, to training and incentive structures for these resources

Scale phase

• Own delivery of the store rollout plan, managing the opening cadence against target.
• Build and lead the store management team (area managers, and regional layer as needed), keeping spans of control healthy.
• Own store-channel performance: originations volume and quality, conversion rate, and store productivity - with direct accountability for underperformers.
• Partner with Business Development on the joint review of structurally underperforming stores (bad location vs. bad execution)

Ongoing

• Work to a clear SLA with Business Development on store activation handoffs (access, space, partner sign-off delivered by Business Development; staffing, training, and productivity delivered by Stores).
• Coordinate with the Kiosk Manager to avoid channel cannibalization and align on shared partner relationships.
• Feed distribution and productivity insight up to Business Development and the Country Manager.
 

Key Metrics 

• Stores opened vs. plan
• Applications/originations per store
• Store conversion rate within the realities of Risk/Fraud measures in place
• Time-to-productivity for new stores
• Cost per origination channel.
• Retail Operations background (multi-site store management)
• Proven record at scaling a store network
• Proven strength  in staffing/training pipelines and store-level performance management

Requirements

• Minimum 10 years' experience in retail operations or a related multi-site field.
• A business management qualification (or equivalent).
• Lending, Fintech and/or telco background is beneficial.
• Proven track record of scaling a physical store network of 50+ locations (not just running an established one).
• Strong retail operations background with hands-on multi-site store management experience.
• Entrepreneurial mindset - can do attitude
• Analytical
• Proven strength in building staffing and training pipelines and in store-level performance management, including holding underperformers to account.
• A bias for speed and action. This is a scale mandate, not a caretaker role. We need someone who moves fast, tests in-market, and treats fast failure as cheap learning, willing to make the call, be wrong quickly, adjust, and keep the rollout moving rather than over-engineering for certainty. Playing it safe is the bigger risk here.
• Comfortable operating in a build-then-scale environment: able to design an operating model from first principles and execute it at pace.
• Willing to travel extensively across the store network, with a reliable vehicle and a valid driver's licence.