Established in 1973, Roots is a proudly Canadian lifestyle brand that celebrates authenticity, quality, and community. Inspired by the great outdoors, we create timeless, sustainable apparel and leather goods designed for comfort and everyday adventure. At Roots, we believe in fostering a culture of inclusivity, creativity, and teamwork – where every team member plays a role in shaping our brand’s legacy. If you bring passion to everything you do, lead with integrity, and believe in the power of collaboration to drive growth, we’d love to have you on our journey!
Nature & Scope → Your Role at Roots
Roots is looking for a dynamic and experienced Director, Retail Operations to join our team and help advance our ambition of delivering the best possible customer experience in our stores. This is a high impact, senior leadership role at the intersection of strategy and execution, responsible for ensuring that every Roots store delivers a consistent, high quality experience while operating at peak efficiency.
This role serves as the operational backbone of our retail organization. You will own the systems, standards, tools, and processes that enable our store teams to perform—translating corporate strategy into clear, actionable retail execution. As Roots prepares for its next chapter of growth, you will be a key architect of the scalable infrastructure required to confidently expand our footprint.
Key Responsibilities → How You’ll Make an Impact
RETAIL OPERATIONS EXCELLENCE
- Own and continuously evolve the operational standards, processes, and communication frameworks that govern how Roots stores operate across all 110 locations.
- Lead the development and rollout of standardized tools, playbooks, and reporting systems that drive consistency, productivity, and scalability—built with international expansion in mind.
- Champion operational simplification by identifying inefficiencies, removing friction, and building smarter ways of working across the store network.
- Lead all aspects of New Store Opening (NSO) management, from cross functional planning through to on time, on brand execution.
- Drive omni channel operational consistency, including SLA adherence and seamless integration between digital and in store experiences.
- Spearhead store level infrastructure and technology improvements, partnering closely with IT to implement, train, and embed new systems.
BUSINESS & FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
- Partner with District Managers to strengthen sales performance, profitability, and KPI delivery across the retail network.
- Analyze business trends and operational data to identify opportunities and develop initiatives that improve commercial outcomes.
- Build and align programs that support Roots’ retail growth strategy, converting insight into measurable results.
- Develop the operational frameworks and financial guardrails required to support international market entry.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
- Define and champion the operational conditions that enable an exceptional, on brand customer experience in every store, every day.
- Lead the evolution of Roots’ selling and service model—designing the program, managing adaptations, and driving network wide implementation.
- Leverage customer satisfaction data, NPS, and field feedback to continuously improve the in store experience.
- Ensure brand experience standards are delivered consistently nationally and are built to scale globally.
STRATEGY EXECUTION & CHANGE LEADERSHIP
- Translate enterprise level retail strategy into clear, sequenced execution plans for the field.
- Lead the adoption of new tools, systems, and processes, developing change management approaches that bring store teams along.
- Act as a key strategic partner to cross functional leaders across Merchandising, HR, Loss Prevention, IT, and Finance.
- Surface field level insights that inform senior leadership decision making and shape the direction of the business.
CROSS FUNCTIONAL REPRESENTATION & RETAIL ADVOCACY
- Serve as the primary voice of retail stores in head office cross functional forums, ensuring that initiatives directed to the field are strategic, well scoped, and considerate of store team capacity.
- Act as both filter and champion—pressure testing initiatives before they reach stores, pushing back where needed, and shaping proposals so they land effectively.
- Build strong, trusted relationships across all head office functions so retail perspectives are embedded early in planning, not bolted on at the end.
- Translate store level realities and operational constraints into clear, credible input that influences how the broader business makes decisions.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- Own the end to end project management of key retail operations initiatives, from scoping and resourcing through execution, measurement, and post launch review.
- Maintain a clear view of the retail operations project portfolio, managing timelines, priorities, dependencies, and stakeholder communication with rigor.
- Develop and apply structured project management frameworks (charters, workback schedules, RACI, status reporting) that bring discipline and predictability to delivery.
- Ensure cross functional projects with a store facing component are managed with the field’s operational rhythm in mind—minimizing disruption and maximizing adoption.
PEOPLE LEADERSHIP
- Lead, coach, and develop a lean retail operations team (two coordinator level direct reports), modeling high standards and a growth mindset.
- Equip District Managers with the tools, resources, and capabilities required to lead their teams effectively.
- Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and collaboration across the operations function.
Qualifications & Experience → The Skills You Bring
- 10–15 years of progressive retail leadership experience, including significant time in multi unit or head office operations roles.
- Proven success building and scaling operational systems across a large retail network (100+ stores strongly preferred).
- Experience with or exposure to international retail expansion, with a clear understanding of the complexities involved in adapting operations for new markets.
- Exceptional systems thinking—you can see the whole picture and design processes that work at scale.
- Demonstrated project management expertise, with the ability to run multiple concurrent initiatives with structure, clarity, and accountability (PMP or equivalent experience is an asset).
- Comfort leading through ambiguity and change in a fast moving, growth oriented environment.
- Proficiency with retail operations technology, workforce management tools, and data and analytics platforms.
- Post secondary education in Business, Retail Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
At Roots we appreciate that skills and expertise are cultivated through a range of experiences. We are committed to reflecting Canada's diverse landscape in our products, team, and workplace culture. We value your unique perspective and encourage you to apply, even if you don't meet every listed requirement. Accommodations are available for applicants throughout the recruitment process.
Please note: Roots uses technology-assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to support parts of the recruitment process. These tools may be used to help review applications, assess qualifications, and support interview documentation. All hiring decisions are reviewed and made by our Talent team and key leaders involved in the recruitment process.
The posted salary range is intended to reflect the competitive market value of this role and is provided to support transparency in our hiring process. Final compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to internal equity, relevant skills, demonstrated knowledge, experience, and overall fit for the position.
