The Role at a Glance
The Operations Lead makes the magic possible. Behind every seamless guest moment is an operation that runs with precision, purpose, and pace. You own the product journey end to end, working closely with the front-of-house team and upholding the boutique's standards for both FAO Schwarz and Nordstrom. This role is for someone who is equally at home in the back-of-house and on the floor and who thrives when no two days look the same.
Creating the Magic
Lead the Product
- Own the product journey end to end, from receiving and processing to delivering the right product to the boutique floor with speed and accuracy.
- Make commercial decisions on what to process first. Bestsellers, high-margin lines, and key categories always take priority.
- Design and maintain a back-of-house that mirrors the boutique floor, so key products are always easy to find, easy to reach, and ready for quick replenishment, whether you know the space inside and out or it’s your first day.
- Execute visual merchandising on the floor with precision by placing product according to the planogram, maintaining presentation standards, and ensuring the boutique always looks intentional and guest-ready in line with FAO Schwarz and Nordstrom expectations.
- Drive replenishment with pace and a guest-first mindset. An empty shelf is a missed sale, and you build a team that treats it that way.
- Lead ship-from-store operations from start to finish, managing the fulfillment of guest purchases for home delivery with accuracy and speed.
Lead the Team
- Coach and develop the Operations team, tailoring your style to bring out the best in each person.
- Show up for new team members during onboarding to help them ramp up quickly and feel confident in the role from day one, including the dual-brand context they operate in.
- Hold the team to the same guest engagement standard as any team member on the boutique floor. When your team is replenishing, they are FAO Schwarz, stopping to help, answer questions, and create moments of connection, just as any floor team member would.
- Step into floor leadership as Manager on Duty when needed, setting the tone across the boutique, managing coverage, and ensuring every guest receives the same exceptional experience, regardless of who is leading the shift.
- Provide regular coaching and feedback, using on-the-floor observations to support both individual and team performance.
- Recognize strong performance and hold the team accountable when expectations aren’t met, escalating concerns as necessary.
- Own the daily operations zone chart and team deployment, ensuring coverage is clear, balanced, and responsive to activity back-of-house and on the sales floor.
Run the Operation
- Lead opening and closing routines as needed, ensuring the boutique is operationally ready before guests arrive and properly secured at the end of the day.
- Step into the Leader on Duty role as needed to cover gaps, taking ownership of the boutique floor, managing the team across all areas, resolving guest concerns, and maintaining the standard of the guest experience for the duration of the shift.
- Drive shipment processing with urgency and precision, prioritizing the boutique floor’s most pressing needs and validating each delivery to minimize shrinkage.
- Keep the back-of-house clean, safe, and operationally ready at all times, maintaining a clear organizational system that keeps the team moving at pace.
- Lead the team’s daily operational rhythm, ensuring everyone knows their priorities, coverage is in place, and the boutique is ready before guests arrive.
- Identify maintenance and repair needs and promptly escalate them to the appropriate partners at FAO Schwarz and Nordstrom, keeping the environment safe for the team and guests.
Drive Business Performance
- Prioritize business impact in every processing and replenishment decision, putting high-margin, high-velocity products on the floor first and using sales trends and inventory data to keep availability sharp and never miss opportunities.
- Own the send sales as a revenue channel, driving the process end to end with accuracy and pace, and ensuring the team understands their contribution to the boutique’s overall performance.
- Treat product placement as a sales decision, ensuring the product is always positioned to drive engagement and that the floor never misses a commercial opportunity.
- Own inventory accuracy and shrink mitigation, holding the team to consistent processes and escalating concerns before they become issues.
- Build the team’s understanding of how the operation drives sales — what gets processed, how products are placed, and how quickly shelves are replenished — so every decision is made with the boutique’s performance in mind.
Partner Across the Store
- Work in close partnership with the front-of-house team by understanding their needs, responding with urgency, and consistently delivering on your commitments so the team operates cohesively.
- Navigate the complexities of operating as a concession within a host store, understand where FAO Schwarz standards and Nordstrom requirements apply, and ensure both are consistently upheld so that every operational decision reflects well on both brands.
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with Nordstrom’s operational, facilities, and loss-prevention teams, treating them as essential partners and ensuring the boutique is always a trusted, professional presence in the store.
- Conduct daily floor walks to stay connected to what’s happening on the boutique floor, identify replenishment priorities, anticipate needs, and strengthen relationships with the teams who rely on you.
- Cascade key communications across your team so they are aware of FAO Schwarz events and goals, Nordstrom store priorities, and expectations.
What Success looks like
You’re doing well in this role when:
- Guests move through the boutique seamlessly — the floor is full, inviting, and always kept to standard, and nothing on the operations side ever breaks the magic.
- FAO Schwarz and Nordstrom operational standards are both met without compromise. There are no gaps or gray areas, and both businesses trust you to run a clean, compliant operation.
- Your team engages guests on the floor with the same warmth and energy as any boutique associate.
- Business priorities are reflected in how the back-of-house is organized and in which product hits the floor first.
- Shipments are processed accurately and on time, and the team treats shrink prevention as non-negotiable.
- Team members clearly understand expectations, receive regular feedback, and are building confidence and expertise.
- When called upon as LOD or to open and close, the boutique operates to standard —the team is set up for success, the floor is covered, and guests experience the same quality regardless of who is leading the shift.
This role aligns with Level M3 in our Career Framework and reflects first-line leadership responsibility, subject-mater expertise in store operations, and growing ownership of team performance and delivery. It provides a strong foundation for progression into Assistant Manager roles (Level M4).
What you’ll bring
You don’t need to be perfect, but you do need to thrive in a fast-paced environment where operational precision and people leadership go hand in hand.
- 2+ years in an operations supervisory role in a fast-paced premium retail or experience based environment; experience in a concession or shop-in-shop setting is a strong plus.
- A confident people leader with experience coaching and developing a team on the floor, comfortable stepping into an opening, closing, or Manager on Duty role when needed.
- A strong operational and commercial foundation — solid knowledge of inventory management, visual merchandising, planogram execution, shrink mitigation, and shipment processing, with an understanding of how each drives sales.
- Sharp, decisive, and calm under pressure, able to quickly assess a situation and make the right call in a high-volume environment.
- Ability to lift up to 50 pounds and stand, bend, and twist for extended periods.
- Flexibility to work days, evenings, weekends, and peak retail periods.
This job description should not be construed to contain every function/responsibility that may be required to be performed by this role. Employees are required to perform other related functions as assigned.
