Assistant Store Manager

Reports to: General Manager, Stores
Employment Type: Full-time, salaried
Work Location: 114-116 Nassau Street and 36 University Place, Princeton, NJ 08540

About Princeton University Store

Princeton University Store is an independent omnichannel retailer serving the Princeton University community through two stores, E-commerce, campus events, and pop-up retail.

Why This Role Matters

The Assistant Store Manager is a multi-store leadership role with broad responsibility for people, business performance, customer experience, and execution. Working directly with the General Manager, this leader helps set priorities, translates strategy into action, and ensures store leaders deliver results. The role requires judgment, discretion, and ownership to lead the store organization independently when needed.

What Success Looks Like

• Store leaders are developed, empowered, and prepared to lead their teams with confidence and accountability.
• Both locations achieve sales, payroll, customer experience, and operating goals through clear ownership and disciplined execution.
• The General Manager has a trusted second-in-command who anticipates needs, resolves issues, and moves priorities forward.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the General Manager to set direction, staffing plans, labor priorities, and business actions across both stores providing top-level customer service and support.
• Lead, coach, and hold managers and supervisors accountable while building succession plans and a strong leadership bench.
• Analyze sales, payroll, productivity, inventory, and customer results and translate findings into focused action plans.
• Drive consistent execution across customer service, merchandising, staffing, scheduling, inventory, safety, and omnichannel operations.
• Lead the store organization in the General Manager’s absence and represent store leadership with internal and external partners.
• Own key cross-store initiatives, remove operating barriers, and ensure commitments are completed with urgency and follow-through.

Requirements

• Seven or more years of progressive retail leadership experience, including high-volume or multi-location responsibility.
• Experience as a Store Manager, Assistant Store Manager, or comparable senior retail leader responsible for managers and associates.
• A proven record of developing leaders and improving sales, profitability, customer experience, and operational performance.
• Strong business acumen across labor planning, performance management, inventory, merchandising, and omnichannel operations.
• Executive presence, sound judgment, discretion, direct communication, conflict-management skills, and exceptional follow-through.
• Comfort using POS, scheduling, payroll, inventory, task-management, and business-reporting systems.

Benefits

Eligible employees may participate in the company’s benefit programs, including health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and other benefits made available to eligible employees.

Why You Will Enjoy This Role

• Serve as the General Manager’s trusted leadership partner with meaningful influence over people, strategy, and execution.
• Build the leadership bench and shape the future growth of two highly visible university retail locations.
• Make a visible impact in a hands-on organization where strong leadership and practical ideas move the business forward.