Associate Director- Retail HR

# Associate Director: People & Culture – Retail ## Company Overview The company is building India's first global sports company by integrating world-class product innovation, manufacturing excellence, iconic brands, and a comprehensive retail ecosystem. It focuses on creating category-defining products and experiences for athletes and consumers, with a vision to build businesses with global ambition. Its integrated sportswear ecosystem includes: - **Manufacturing:** One of India's largest sports footwear manufacturers, producing for global brands. - **Consumer Brands:** Building and expanding international and homegrown sports brands across multiple markets. - **Multi-brand Retail:** Developing premium multi-brand sports retail concepts, offering Indian consumers a curated selection and world-class retail experiences. ## Job Summary The Associate Director: People & Culture – Retail will lead the Retail People & Culture agenda across an expanding portfolio of retail concepts and brands. The role is responsible for building a high-performing retail organization with the right talent, strong customer orientation, consistent training, and robust people governance nationwide. The position requires a strategic leader who can drive people productivity, engagement, retention, and performance while fostering a customer-first culture. ## Responsibilities - Own and execute the Retail People & Culture strategy across all retail concepts and stores. - Lead end-to-end hiring for store teams, including Store Managers, Assistant Managers, and frontline retail staff. - Build strong retail talent pipelines to support rapid store expansion across India. - Design and implement retail training and capability programs covering customer experience, selling skills, product knowledge, leadership, and brand experience. - Foster a strong customer-first culture throughout the retail organization. - Partner with Retail Business Heads to enhance people productivity, engagement, retention, and performance. - Establish consistent people processes, policies, compliance, and governance across the retail network. - Drive effective onboarding and induction programs for frontline teams across multiple brands and formats. - Develop career paths, succession plans, and internal mobility opportunities for retail talent. - Track and improve key retail people metrics, including attrition, hiring turnaround time (TAT), productivity, training effectiveness, and employee engagement. - Conduct regular store visits and people audits to identify on-ground challenges and ensure consistent execution. - Collaborate with business leaders to identify people-related issues and opportunities across markets and implement timely interventions. - Build and scale a strong Retail People & Culture team as the business grows. ## Qualifications - 10 to 14 years of experience in Retail HR or People & Culture, preferably with large retail networks. - Proven experience managing frontline, store, and regional retail populations across multiple cities. - Strong expertise in retail hiring, training, employee engagement, and people governance. - Deep understanding of customer-centric retail environments and frontline capability building. - Experience working with multiple brands, formats, or retail concepts is preferred. - Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. - Ability to manage a high-travel, high-ownership role with a hands-on approach. - A Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field. Advanced degrees or HR certifications are advantageous. ## Preferred Skills - Experience in multi-brand retail environments. - Strong analytical skills to track and improve people metrics. - Ability to build and lead diverse teams in a fast-paced, expanding retail network. - Proficiency in designing and delivering training programs tailored to retail operations. ## Experience - 10 to 14 years of relevant experience in Retail HR or People & Culture roles. - Experience managing large-scale retail operations and diverse teams across multiple locations. ## Environment - **Location:** Bangalore. - Requires extensive travel to retail locations across India. - Involves working in a dynamic, fast-growing retail environment with multiple brands and store formats. - High ownership and on-ground presence are essential to building teams and culture consistently.