Director of Retail Sales

AKIRA Director of Retail Sales

Founded in 2002 in Chicago, AKIRA has grown to 35+ boutiques nationwide and a thriving ecommerce business (). As we build our next-chapter growth, our culture stands apart: we deliver fanatical, obsessive attention to the consumer's needs and desires. Every team member is empowered to "Act and Think Like an Owner." We are seeking a dynamic industry-leading retail sales executive to elevate our store performance, build a high-impact field leadership team, and drive exceptional growth and customer loyalty.

Job Title: Director of Retail Sales

Location: Chicago HQ | Travel: ~50-75% across ~40 stores and new openings

You will own the strategy, leadership and performance of the store sales organization. Your mission is to build and coach a best-in-class field leadership bench (District Managers, Store Managers, Stylists), drive sales productivity and customer-centric performance, and build long-term loyalty among our clientele. You will partner with the Director of Retail Operations to ensure the store network is not only operating with excellence, but truly selling at scale.

• Leadership & Talent Development — Build and lead the store-sales leadership ecosystem: recruit, develop, mentor and retain District Managers and Store Managers; create a succession pipeline across field roles.
• Design and deploy a leadership development program (e.g., "Store Leadership Academy") for Store Managers and Stylists — including field-ride trainings, 30-60-90 onboarding plans, ongoing coaching cadences and performance forums.
• Define clear performance goals for every store leadership role: comp sales, conversion rate, average transaction value (ATV), repeat client ratio, client book penetration.
• Conduct field visits (~50-75% travel) to lead store-strategy check-ins, coach in-store teams, celebrate top performers, and diagnose under-performance for rapid turn-around.
• Foster an inclusive and high-performing culture: build a sense of ownership, accountability, team collaboration, client-obsession and continuous improvement.
• Set recognition and incentive programs that celebrate high-performing stores and individual leaders; partner with HR to manage under-performance proactively.

• Sales Strategy & Performance Management — Develop and drive the annual sales growth plan for the store network: comp targets, store-level stretch goals, promotional cadence, clienteling strategy (via Endear or equivalent).
• Set and monitor key performance indicators: traffic, conversion %, ATV, UPT (units per transaction), repeat client rate, client book growth, retention metrics.
• Deploy and utilize sales-tech platforms (Endear for client outreach; Store Force for store metrics) to ensure real-time visibility into performance; ensure store leadership uses those tools as a habit.
• Lead monthly business reviews with District/Store Managers and Finance: analyze variance vs. plan, root-cause store-by-store results, build action plans, and track recovery/ramp-up progress.
• Partner with Marketing/CRM to execute loyalty initiatives, store events, stylists' client book growth, VIP activations and store-driven traffic campaigns.
• Own profitability levers: margin impact of promotional cadence, clienteling program ROI, average ticket growth, conversion improvement — partner with Finance for insights.

• Customer Experience & Brand Elevation — Define the in-store customer journey aligned to brand promise: stylists as brand ambassadors, clienteling excellence, personalisation, fast-fashion trend leadership.
• Embed best-in-class service standards and measuring mechanisms (NPS, OSAT, repeat customer metrics). Lead field training to embed those standards.
• Partner with Merchandising and Visual teams to ensure the store experience (layout, presentation, client traffic flow) supports selling excellence and repeat behaviour.
• Leverage field voice: capture insights from stylists & store leadership on product, trends, client feedback; feed into Merchandising/Marketing to refine assortments and campaigns.

• Market & Competitive Insight — Track customer behaviour, regional/market trends, competitor activity, client loyalty metrics – convert…