Senior Manager, Retail

Senior Manager, Retail Expansion

Branch is shaking up the $46B office furniture industry to create work experiences for the 21st century: easy, flexible and smart so you can sit down (or stand) and get to work. We're based in NYC and backed by the investors behind the likes of Peloton, Eight Sleep, Caraway and Venmo. We're an ambitious group of problem solvers innovating across design, software, health and logistics, and we're looking for entrepreneurial teammates who like a challenge.

We're expanding our online reach to the physical realm. In 2025 we launched our first retail store in San Francisco, and are currently launching our second store in Chicago. These storefronts are supplemented by a network of partner spaces and appointment-only showrooms in major markets across North America (New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto) that serve both consumers and Branch's business clients.

Over the next five years, we'll expand this network of stores, partner spaces, and showrooms to create a coast-to-coast network of Branch locations, eschewing typical capital-intensive expansion plans in favour of disciplined and lightweight solutions. The Sr. Manager of Retail Expansion will lead that effort from the ground up.

We're looking for a Senior Manager, Retail Expansion to own the growth and daily operations of Branch's brick-and-mortar program. You'll oversee our current stores and partner sites day-to-day, and lead the planning and rollout of the ones that come next. The job covers the full life of retail, showroom, and partner locations, starting with new market analysis, through the first broker conversation, to opening, and ultimately managing performance thereafter.

On each opening you'll own the real estate, work with both internal and external construction, design and visual merchandising partners. Once a store is open, you'll team up with our Growth and Partnerships teams on local events and activations that keep traffic and conversions coming. The ideal candidate has managed multi-unit retail operations and opened new stores from the ground up, keeping buildouts on schedule and on budget.

Once each location has launched, you'll get into the weeds on store and customer data deeply enough to explain why metrics moved last week, and what you plan to do about them. You'll lead our Sr. Retail Experience Manager, our Store Managers, and their teams, which means hiring and training staff for each new opening and holding everyone to a high bar for service and operations. You'll also be the main link between headquarters and the stores, so when we launch a product or run a promotion, every location is ready on time. Over time you'll keep improving the retail program itself, refining our processes and the in-store experience as we learn what works.

This role reports to Branch's VP of Growth. In your first ninety days, you'll spend time in our current stores with their teams and audit performance against our traffic and conversion targets. You'll tighten the operating rhythm around inventory and merchandising updates. By day ninety, you'll have a retail expansion plan that names our next markets and lays out how we'll open them. If you want to build a retail program for a design-led brand while it's still taking shape, we'd love to meet you.

Day to Day:

• Set the retail strategy across stores, showrooms and partner locations, including which format fits each market and when to scale it up
• Lead the assessment, planning, and execution of new store openings, ensuring that each location reflects Branch's premium brand experience.
• Manage external relationships with real estate brokers, merchandising consultants, and other strategic partners.
• Hire, train and manage store teams, including employee experience and performance.
• Own the financial performance of the retail division, including budgeting, P&L management, forecasting, and reporting. Implement strategies to drive profitability.
• Analyze store performance and customer data to continuously improve traffic, conversion, and engagement KPIs.
• Oversee daily retail operations, ensuring consistency with operational policies, customer service standards, and industry best practices.
• Support revenue growth for each store through local marketing, activations, and partnership strategies, in conjunction with cross functional teams.
• Own store cadences, such as visual merchandising updates, inventory audits and replenishments, and promotions, in partnership with the Retail Experience lead.
• Continue developing the retail program and in-store customer experience through process improvements.

What We're Looking For:

• 6-8+ years of retail operations experience, including time leading multiple locations at a premium or digitally native brand.
• New store opening experience: you've taken several stores from site search to opening day, and you know how to keep design and construction partners on schedule and on budget.
• P&L ownership: you've built and managed a retail budget, forecast, and reporting, and you know the levers behind four-wall profitability, from labor scheduling to sales per square foot.
• Analytical rigor: you watch traffic and conversion by store, and you act on what the numbers tell you every week.
• People leadership: you've hired and developed store managers, and your teams stick around.
• Hands-on operator: you care how a store feels the moment someone walks in, and you're happy to work a Saturday shift or help with an inventory count when a store needs it.
• Omnichannel perspective: you understand how stores fit into an ecommerce-first business, including how to measure their halo effect on online sales in the surrounding market.
• Cross-functional leadership: you build trust with Growth, Partnerships, Customer Success, and Operations, and you keep headquarters and the stores in sync on launches and timelines.
• Self-awareness and learning: you know your gaps and ask for feedback early, and you improve quickly.
• Strong project management skills: you can manage multiple location openings across different geographies and formats.
• Ownership mindset and bias toward action: you're excited to roll up your sleeves in a lean, fast-paced environment to get things done.

Nice to Have:

• Retail real estate fluency: you've worked with brokers and landlords on site selection and lease terms, and you can use data to make the case for one market or block over another.
• Based near New York, Austin, Chicago, or Toronto
• A willingness to operate creatively, outside the traditional norms of retail expansion
• A love for design, wellness, and the built environment

The salary range for this role is $135,000 - $155,000 USD per year

Branch is an equal opportunity employer. Need accommodation? Reach out to View email address on click.appcast.io.