Chief Executive Officer — Omnichannel Retail Network

The mandate

The enterprise has a recognisable store network, growing digital demand and a loyalty base that interacts across both. Its reporting, however, still evaluates channels as if they were separate businesses. A store may appear unproductive while supporting pickup, returns, discovery and later online purchase; a digital order may look attractive before fulfilment, returns, service and paid acquisition are included. Inventory is visible in systems but not always reliable enough to promise, causing cancellations, split shipments and colleague intervention. The board needs one economic and customer account of the network before committing the next cycle of capital.

The Chief Executive Officer will lead that reset. The role carries responsibility for enterprise strategy, profit and loss, cash, stores, digital commerce, merchandising, operations, technology priorities, people and reputation. The CEO must determine which locations merit investment, which need a different role or format, and which should close. They must also establish where digital capability creates profitable demand or improves the wider relationship, rather than protecting growth statistics whose cost sits elsewhere.

This is an urgent replacement, but the board is not seeking a rapid cosmetic turnaround. Property commitments, workforce consequences, customer habits and technology dependencies make sequencing important. The incoming leader must act decisively where evidence is clear while preserving options where a store's full network value or a digital proposition has not yet been tested properly.

Scope and operating context

The position is based in Seattle under a hybrid arrangement and covers approximately 700 employees and material partners across the United States and a wider international region. The CEO will lead an executive team spanning merchandising, stores, e-commerce, supply chain, technology, marketing, finance and people. Important capacity also sits with carriers, technology providers, landlords, concession partners and product suppliers.

Store roles vary by market. Some locations are destination environments with strong local demand; others are convenient service points or expensive showcases whose influence is difficult to measure. The network also contains overlapping catchments and leases with different flexibility. A credible portfolio plan must combine four-wall economics, digital interaction, customer travel, fulfilment capacity, brand presence and exit cost.

Digital performance is similarly mixed. Growth has been supported by marketing, broader assortment and faster fulfilment promises, yet returns, split orders and service contacts reduce contribution. Marketplace and cross-border demand introduce additional fees, duties and customer-experience dependencies. The CEO will insist that convenience promises are funded and operationally real.

First-year agenda

The first hundred days will establish a common enterprise baseline. The CEO will review store contribution, lease obligations, local customer behaviour, inventory accuracy, digital cohort value, acquisition cost, return patterns, fulfilment choices and service failure. Visits to stores, distribution operations and customer-support settings will test whether reported problems originate in strategy, process, capability or basic execution.

From that fact base, the executive will present a store-purpose and capital plan. Each location or cluster will have a defined role—transaction, service, fulfilment, discovery or a combination—and measures appropriate to it. Investment, resizing, relocation and closure choices will account for customer migration and digital consequences. The plan must show cash timing, property exposure and leadership capacity, not only a future sales density.

The CEO will also reset omnichannel trading. Merchandising and inventory teams should make assortment and depth choices from total demand, then allocate according to service and economics. Digital, store and supply leaders will share responsibility for promised availability, pickup readiness, return disposition and order routing. Incentives must stop encouraging teams to shift cost or sales credit across channels.

Loyalty will become the organising view of the customer, subject to consent and privacy. The board wants to understand whether members deepen their relationship, not simply whether more identities enter a database. Benefits, communications and service recovery should reflect sustainable value and avoid training behaviour through indiscriminate vouchers. Anonymous and privacy-conscious customers must still receive a fair and functional experience.

Within twelve months, the business should have taken the clearest store decisions, improved inventory confidence in priority categories, reduced avoidable fulfilment fragmentation and established digital contribution reporting used in weekly trade choices. A limited set of format or service tests should provide evidence for the next capital cycle. The CEO will be judged on the quality and speed of those choices, not the number of initiatives announced.

Leadership responsibilities

The CEO will create one operating cadence across channels. Weekly reviews will connect demand, availability, margin, service and cash; monthly forums will decide portfolio and capital issues that cannot be solved through trading action. Forecast changes must identify the underlying customer or operational assumption rather than become negotiated targets.

The executive will lead a consequential people transition. Store colleagues need clarity about purpose, standards and future capability, while central teams must spend more time with the operational realities their decisions create. The CEO will assess the executive team, strengthen succession and require leaders to own outcomes beyond their channel or function.

External responsibilities include lenders or investors, landlords, product partners, regulators and relevant communities. Store decisions must be communicated truthfully and managed lawfully, with consultation and employee support appropriate to each jurisdiction. The CEO must protect commercial confidentiality without allowing it to become an excuse for late or evasive treatment of affected people.

Measures of success

The board will review comparable demand and contribution, gross margin, inventory turn and ageing, cash conversion, store portfolio value, digital cohort contribution, fulfilment cost and returns. Customer outcomes will include availability, order completion, pickup reliability, service resolution, repeat and loyalty engagement. Channel sales alone will no longer be a primary indicator.

Network progress will be visible through capital moved to defined store roles, exits completed within approved economics, improved inventory accuracy and fewer split or cancelled orders. Organisational measures include executive-team effectiveness, store leadership stability, critical succession and colleague adoption of the new operating cadence. Short-term profit created by deferring maintenance or service obligations will be excluded from the turnaround case.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring at least 28 years of executive leadership in omnichannel retail, e-commerce, consumer services or another network business where physical and digital economics interact. They must have led a substantial profit-and-loss remit and made accountable decisions on stores, property, inventory, technology and customer investment. Experience across more than one country or market structure is required.

The board will seek evidence of evaluating stores beyond four-wall sales without protecting them through vague halo claims. Candidates should describe how they measured digital contribution after fulfilment and returns, improved inventory promise, and closed or repurposed locations while maintaining customer trust. They must have handled a real executive and workforce transition.

The successful leader will be analytically tough and visibly present. They must move comfortably between a board capital debate, a store walk and a detailed review of order failures. The role requires a clear point of view, willingness to revise it when evidence changes and respect for front-line knowledge.

Compensation and appointment terms

The expected base salary is USD 500,000–750,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation calibrated to enterprise value, cash and customer outcomes. Final positioning will reflect scale, turnaround relevance and current arrangements. Relocation assistance or responsible treatment of forfeited awards will be evaluated during final negotiations.

Confidentiality

The retailer is unnamed because the leadership change, store choices and capital plan are not public. Detailed financial, property and network information will be shared with shortlisted candidates following identity, conflict and confidentiality review. Applicants must anonymise location economics, customer records and unpublished restructuring plans from previous employers.