The On mission: to ignite the human spirit through movement. Inspired by athletes and driven by Swiss engineering, we create performance footwear and apparel that is loved by millions of people in over 60 countries. Our Retail experience is a critical embodiment of our Brand. It’s where our community can physically touch, feel and experience the innovation and design that drives us.

We are looking for a Global Retail Operations Excellence Sr. Lead, to join our team in Zurich.

This is a unique opportunity for a Leader who brings end-to-end Retail Operations Excellence — combining operational discipline, deep understanding of Premium retail flows and seamless execution from Back of House efficiency to Front of House productivity, with the scope of elevating our customer experience.You will be the Global engine transforming operational complexity into efficiency and innovation, shaping the foundation of our Premium, scalable and future ready Retail ecosystem.

As the Retail Operations Excellence Senior Lead, you will be the architect of scalable Retail Operations Excellence processes at a Global level, building the operational foundation that powers a Premium in-store experience, minimizing staff complexity to maximize excellence in customer experience.

This role merges Global mindset to Local execution, acting as an essential bridge between our Regions and Central team, translating our brand vision into high-performance retail processes that empower our teams and delight our customers.

You will design and harmonize Global retail excellence scalable operational standards and procedures that enable best practices for store operations, BOH organization, FOH implementation and cross-functional collaboration to enhance efficiency and service excellence.

A key part of the role is to act as voice of Retail Business with Central Tech and Digital teams during the Programs design, acting as essential business counterpart for Tech and adept to coordinate cross Regions excellent adoption of high-impact initiatives within our Global Retail Ecosystem.

Your Responsibilities

Build the Global Retail Process Framework & Continuous Improvement

• Deploy a unified global operating model, harmonizing and designing retail processes and procedures across Regions and store formats taking into account Local specificities.
• Drive the Retail Operations Excellence roadmap — identifying opportunities to optimize workflows and prioritize processes.
• Foster a culture of Pilot–learn–refine, embedding continuous improvement principles in every layer of retail execution.
• Partner with Retail Technology, Digital and Logistics teams to introduce smart tools and data-driven solutions that streamline operations and unlock team potential.
• Translate customer journey insights into operational excellence guidelines that directly improve the in-store experience.

Enhance the Back-of-House and Elevate the Front-of-House

• Reimagine Global BOH operations as a performance enabler: optimize space management at a store cluster level, stockroom processes, team scheduling and task management systems monitoring the regional execution and maintenance.
• Define Service Level Agreements and Policies to provide seamless Operational discipline.
• Ensure operational improvements translate into FOH initiatives to maximize zone - performances.

Coordinate Global Excellence for a Regional Execution

• Act as the strategic bridge between Global Retail Excellence and Regional Operations Leadership Teams, ensuring alignment in priorities, in-store adoption and performance metrics.
• Coordinate the adoption of cross-regional initiatives, facilitating the exchange of best practices and learnings to accelerate performance improvement.
• Monitor adherence to global retail standards while supporting regional adaptation.

Drive Change / Innovation Improvements

• Champion the evolution of retail excellence by initiating and scaling transformative process innovations, turning complexity into simplicity through data-driven insights, automation and staff-centered design to future proof our Global Customer First Retail ecosystem.

Lead Change Through Adoption

• Act as a thought leader and trusted advisor to regional and global retail stakeholders.
• Inspire a global community of Retail Excellence ambassadors through transparent communication, strong engagement, and recognition of success.
• Partner with HR and Training to embed operational excellence principles into training, onboarding, and leadership development programs.

Drive Measurable Impact

• Measure and optimize: Define success metrics, track results and adapt strategies to maximize business impact and customer satisfaction in collaboration with our business analytics function.
• Support on defining success metrics and KPIs to measure efficiency, monitoring staff productivity and service execution consistency.

• 7+ years of experience in Retail Operations in Global Premium Retail Companies.
• Proven track record of leading complex, cross-functional projects in a fast-evolving retail environment, keeping a superb premium customer experience in mind.
• Deep understanding of the Retail operational activities, with a Tech solutions-driven efficiency tools proposal and ability to set adoption standards.
• Exposure to multiple Regions, with an understanding of cultural and operational specificities.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, including senior leadership.
• Outcome-driven mindset with experience in defining priorities.
• Bachelor’s degree in Innovation, Business, Economics or related field (preferred).

Preferred Skills:

• Experience in store.
• Customer first attitude.
• Familiarity with retail analytics, CRM, digital tools.
• Strong communication, storytelling and presentation skills.
• Passion for innovation, customer experience and continuous improvement.
• Discipline on delivering excellence in every aspect of execution.
• Ability to translate insights into strategic opportunities.