Head of Retail Operations & Excellence

Head of Retail Operations and Excellence

Reporting to: Country General Manager
Territory Responsibility: Malta
Direct Reports: Country Retail Operations Managers, Customer Care Manager

Key Stakeholders: Commercial, Supply Chain, HR, Finance, Brand Teams
Department: Retail Operations
Job Band: MGMT

Hudson Group is an international retailer and distributor primarily involved in the sport and fashion wear sectors. The Group’s head office is in Malta but is also present through offices in Italy, Cyprus, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya and Algeria.

Though Hudson Holdings was founded in 2006, the Group’s roots reach as far back as 1987 when the first pair of NIKE was sold in Malta.

Purpose of the Job

The Head of Retail Operations and Excellence is responsible for defining, standardising, and elevating retail operating standards across all markets to drive consistent execution, productivity, customer experience, and profitability.

The role ensures operational alignment across banners, builds scalable retail frameworks, and leads continuous improvement initiatives covering store operations, retail processes, service standards, training, and performance management.

Working closely with the Country General Manager and Commercial leadership, the role translates strategy into operational execution and ensures stores operate efficiently, consistently, and in line with brand expectations.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Define and lead the Group retail operations strategy aligned with commercial and growth objectives.
• Establish and standardise retail operating frameworks, policies, SOPs, and best practices across all markets.
• Drive operational excellence across store processes including opening/closing routines, stock handling, VM execution, customer service, and in-store productivity.
• Lead retail performance management frameworks including KPIs, reporting cadence, store grading, and operational scorecards.
• Partner with Commercial and Planning teams to ensure strong execution of trading priorities, launches, promotions, and in-season actions.
• Drive labour productivity strategy including scheduling principles, staffing models, and store payroll optimisation.
• Lead retail capability development frameworks including onboarding, store leadership development, service training, and operational training.
• Own store audit framework covering compliance, operational standards, brand execution, and risk management.
• Identify operational improvement opportunities and lead cross-functional projects to simplify processes, improve efficiency, and scale best practices.
• Drive consistency of customer experience and service standards across banners and markets.
• Partner with Supply Chain and Logistics to improve store stock flow, availability, and operational efficiency.
• Support new store openings, refurbishments, and market entries from an operational readiness perspective.
• Lead, develop, and performance manage Retail Operations teams, fostering a culture of accountability, discipline, and continuous improvement.

How you will be measured:

Retail Performance

• Store productivity metrics (sales per sqm, conversion, ATV, UPT).
• Operational KPI performance across markets.
• Execution consistency across banners and countries.

Operational Excellence

• Audit results and compliance scores.
• Process adoption and standardisation progress.
• Efficiency improvements (time, cost, productivity).

Customer Experience

• Service metrics and customer satisfaction indicators.
• Consistency of brand and service standards.
• Store experience execution.

Team Performance & Development

• Capability development of retail leadership.
• Succession pipeline strength.
• Delivery of training and operational programmes.

Execution & Delivery

• New store operational readiness.
• GTM execution accuracy in stores.
• Speed and quality of operational project delivery.

Core competencies, Knowledge and Experience:

• Strong retail operations leadership experience (10+ years).
• Proven experience building retail frameworks, SOPs, and operational excellence programmes.
• Strong understanding of store economics, productivity, labour planning, and retail KPIs.
• Experience leading large retail field structure.
• Ability to translate strategy into practical store execution.
• Strong cross-functional leadership and stakeholder alignment capability.
• Process improvement mindset with experience driving change at scale.
• Analytical and data-driven decision-making.
• Strong communication and influencing skills.
• Fluency in English; additional languages an advantage.