Repair-and-Returns Network Recovery Leader — Luxury Goods

The mandate

Direct-commerce growth and new resale services pushed returns, authentication and repairs through processes designed for boutique exceptions. Valuable articles now lack dependable custody status, artisan capacity is allocated by escalation and refund promises vary by market. The after-sales director was dismissed after a client-loss review found that dashboards measured tickets rather than physical articles, value exposure or restoration feasibility.

The interim starts within three weeks for ten months, stabilising item custody before redesigning service segmentation, capacity and market handoffs. The first ninety days clear aged unknown-status cases and establish a single high-value escalation room. Permanent recruitment begins after month four; six weeks of paired operating and a deliberate missing-item exercise precede handover, with extension limited to an approved market rollout.

Handover requires traceable custody from client receipt to return, repair, resale or destruction; condition and authenticity decision standards; service promises by article class; artisan-capacity rules; exception economics; and reconciled financial ownership. Completion is proved when the successor contains an unannounced high-value custody break, communicates accurately and closes restitution without undocumented stock movement or executive escalation.

The leader may quarantine items, reallocate repair and authentication capacity, suspend unsafe courier or centre routes, approve restitution within €75,000 per case, replace recovery leads and set temporary acceptance limits. Changes to consumer terms, permanent vendor awards, boutique closures, public brand statements and aggregate exposure above delegation require executive approval. Brand protection, Legal and Finance retain specialist decisions.

Product design, primary merchandising, counterfeit law enforcement, long-term resale strategy, warehouse-system replacement and boutique sales incentives are excluded. The interim cannot destroy disputed articles, improvise authentication, disguise aged stock through accounting transfers or prioritise influential clients outside published recovery classes. Commercial urgency never overrides custody evidence or local consumer obligations.

Why this seat is open

The previous director left when a missing-item review exposed material gaps between service tickets, warehouse records and client communications. Temporary operating authority is needed to restore custody and trust while the group recruits a permanent leader capable of scaling a deliberately scarce artisan network.

What you will own

• Reconcile every aged high-value article across physical custody, system status, client promise, value exposure and accountable owner.
• Define article classes and decide authentication, repair, return, resale, restitution or escalation paths for each.
• Reallocate scarce artisan and authentication capacity using value, feasibility, client harm and promised-date evidence.
• Establish controlled handoffs among boutiques, couriers, service centres, artisans, fulfilment sites and client-care teams.
• Set service clocks and communication triggers that remain truthful when article condition or authenticity is uncertain.
• Command four missing-item simulations spanning courier loss, centre mismatch, counterfeit suspicion and failed repair.
• Hand the network to the successor after independent containment and reconciliation of an unannounced custody break.

Candidate qualifications

• Led high-value reverse logistics, repair or after-sales operations in luxury, jewellery or premium durable goods internationally.
• Recovered item-level custody where service, warehouse and financial records materially disagreed across multiple locations.
• Allocated scarce craft or technical-repair capacity without eroding quality, authenticity or demonstrable client fairness.
• Understood consumer remedies, fraud boundaries, inventory accounting and brand communication interfaces across diverse markets.
• Managed specialist vendors and internal boutiques through measurable acceptance, custody and restitution controls successfully.
• Transferred a recovered service network through a live exception rather than presentation-based management sign-off.

Non-negotiables

• Available within three weeks for Milan residence, eight centre residencies and four simulations.
• Direct high-value physical-custody recovery is required; general customer-service leadership is insufficient.
• Will disclose luxury brands, resale platforms, authenticators, couriers, repair houses and insurers.
• Will not destroy disputed goods, improvise authenticity, alter consumer terms or conceal stock variance.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a custody break where digital status and the physical high-value item materially disagreed.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you allocate scarce repair capacity without allowing escalation power to determine priority?
3. 49 words maximum. State your Milan availability and the largest restitution authority you personally held.