Retail Experience & Visual Merchandising Manager

Job description

**Who We Are:** At Brooks, we believe movement is the key to feeling more alive. That’s why we’re driven to create gear and experiences that take people to the place that makes them feel more alive — whether it’s a headspace, a feeling, or a finish line. Everyone who works at Brooks is propelled by a company culture that sparks excitement, fuels collaboration, inspires creativity, and ignites innovation. Our brand values help bond us together and drive our success: - ***Runner First*** - *We act in the best interest of the runner* - ***Word is Bond*** - *We do what we say we’ll do* - ***Champion Heart*** - *We give our all in everything we do* - ***There is no “I” in Run*** - *We stay generous with our humanity* - ***Keep Moving*** - *We find ways to move every day, because joy is kinetic!* We welcome everyone from every walk of life looking to inspire others through the power of movement - because we’re *all* moving towards something. Let’s run there. ### Your Job: As the Retail Experience & Visual Merchandising Manager at Brooks, you will lead the conceptualization and execution of our physical retail spaces and end-to-end visual merchandising design for Brooks owned retail fleet – shaping how the brand comes to life in physical space and creating experiences that drive commercial performance. You will sit at the intersection of brand storytelling, product strategy, and retail performance, translating our brand identity and seasonal narratives into scalable, high-impact in-store experiences that improve conversion, average unit retail (AUR), and sell-through. You will define how customers experience our brand in physical retail by creating an immersive shopping experience that blends interior design, consumer psychology, and marketing initiatives. You will work directly with retail leadership to build the visual merchandising playbook for a rapidly expanding retail fleet. In this role, you will be establishing operating models, tools, and standards that enable consistent execution across markets while elevating the customer experience. ### Your Responsibilities: **Retail Space & Visual Merchandising Operating Model** - Lead the conceptualization and execution of the physical retail space vision and roadmap for Brooks owned retail from full store design to visual merchandising in alignment with the overall retail strategy, brand positioning, and commercial priorities. - Develop a foundational standard for physical layout, fixtures, and structural flow that will elevate brand voice, optimize product visibility, and maximize space usage that focuses on the customer journey. - Partner with retail leadership and local retail teams to adapt foundational standards for individual stores that incorporates local relevance in store structure and marketing designs. - Curate the finer details from lighting design to music choices that will set the store ambience. - Design and implement a scalable visual merchandising operating model to support growth from a small fleet to national expansion, creating a repeatable blueprint for future store openings. - Develop standardized playbooks, tools, floor sets, and execution frameworks that enable consistency without sacrificing local relevance. - Own the translation of seasonal and product priorities into compelling in-store storytelling frameworks that drive demand and clarity. - Lead the creation of store zoning, adjacencies, and product flow strategies grounded in consumer behavior and performance data. - Partner with Store Development and Design to ensure physical space and merchandising strategy are fully integrated. - Ensure each new store opens at a flagship level of execution, setting the standard for the fleet. - Establish clear KPIs (i.e., conversion, units per transactions (UPT), AUR, sell-through, engagement) and utilize data to analyze store-level performance to identify measurable business outcomes. **Cross-Functional Partnership & Alignment** - Partner with Product, Brand Marketing, Creative, Retail Marketing, and Store Operations team to define space planning and merchandising standards and playbook. - Partner closely with Lead Buyer and Retail Marketing Manager on product campaigns and in-store seasonal product launches. - Partner with the Experiential Design Lead, Retail to create transformative design experiences at new and existing retail locations. - Partner with Global Brand Marketing on the conceptualization of the retail store design. - Prepare recommendations on design layouts, space guidelines, assortments, key stories, campaign priorities, and more for retail leadership that ensure retail execution is set up for success and ahead of the curve. - Oversee use of visual merchandising playbook across owned retail, wholesale, and events to reinforce brand consistency. - Build and foster relationships with team members across Brooks to gain and maintain a current and deep understanding of what drives the brand, business, and products. **Continuous Improvement & Evolution** - Design, maintain, and develop a feedback ecosystem and store audit process (e.g., tools, cadence, scoring, accountability) to gain field insights that will inform future space planning strategies. - Identify opportunities and suggest modifications to improve product placement, storytelling clarity, and in-store navigation. - Stay up to date with retail consumer behaviors and utilize insights to test new methods to elevate customer engagement, product discovery, and brand storytelling. - Demonstrate deep understanding of the competitive landscape to bring forward innovative concepts, tools, and technologies that differentiate Brooks in physical retail. - Balance creativity with operational reality – ideas must scale. **Team Mentorship & Collaboration** - Share your expertise to mentor and support team members to help develop their skillsets and provide guidance on day-to-day and project work. - Train Visual Merchandiser, store leaders, and field teams on visual merchandising principles, storytelling, and execution excellence. - Partner with Senior Manager, Retail to create and maintain alignment across the team. ### Qualifications: - Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or related field; equivalent combination of education and years of experience can be considered in lieu of degree(s) - 7+ years of experience in visual merchandising, retail experience design, or brand merchandising; preferably in premium or performance brands - Proven track record leading merchandising strategy at scale (multi-store, multi-market environments) - Demonstrated ability driving measurable business results through visual merchandising - Experience developing operating models, tools, and standards for growing retail organizations - Deep understanding of consumer behavior in physical retail environments - Experience partnering with store design, product merchandising, and marketing teams - Highly analytical; comfortable using data to inform decisions and challenge assumptions - Excellent verbal and written communication skills, demonstrating effective listening through concise, clear verbal and written communication - Excellent interpersonal skills that inspire and build trust resulting in effective working relationships across the company - Keen attention to detail in planning, organization, and execution of tasks, while still seeing the big picture and understanding how all the pieces fit together and affect one another - Ability to anticipate how a decision made can affect our customers, our partners, our products, or other departments’ operations and/or morale; “connecting the dots” - Demonstration of innovation and initiative – always looking at improving our products and processes while also displaying a willingness to dive into the details and help wherever necessary - Passionate participation in Brooks’ sports activities a plus, overridden by the ability to understand and empathize with the runner to develop loyal, engaging relationships with our customers and the Brooks community - Travel 20-50% (domestically) - Embraces and lives the Brooks values!