Director of Stores

About the role

Dandelion Chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate company based in San Francisco’s Mission District. We make chocolate from only two ingredients, cocoa beans and cane sugar, and travel to origins as often as we can to build good, trusting relationships with the producers who grow and ferment our beans. Our business is built upon trust and partnership, and now we’re looking for a Director of Stores to lead our growing café and store operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead Store Operations -- Lead and expand upon our store operations including hiring, building out scalable training and leveling programs, visual merchandising, inventory management, and instilling world-class hospitality standards.
• Guest Happiness -- Develop systems and training protocols designed to reinforce and improve our hospitality and retail service standards. Ensure that guests feel welcome and part of the story of craft chocolate and Dandelion’s place in the industry, constantly striving to raise the bar for guest service.
• Financial Monitoring -- Track and hit revenue goals, labor costs, and contribution targets, while maintaining positive reviews and a happy team with appropriate retention rates.
• Standardize Operations and Procedures -- Create systems and processes to ensure that each café is operating at its best, even when management is not present. Whether a guest walks into our Las Vegas café or our Ferry Building shop, your behind-the-scenes work ensures that they will receive the same level of warm hospitality and the same perfectly made hot chocolate.
• Develop Training and Leveling Programs -- Use feedback and company input to develop and roll out effective and comprehensive training programs for all new team members.
• Team Management and Health -- Retention, being available for first-line managers, fostering a sense of high EQ belonging within cafes. Have clear advancement paths and plans for store staff.
• Mercandising Optimization -- Create playbooks and guidelines for merchandising that can be adapted for each location’s specific needs.
• Inventory Management & Forecasting -- Help build revenue targets and scenarios, labor forecasts, and capex/opex plans.
• Visit locations -- This is a hands-on role: regularly visit and check in on assigned locations in order to identify issues early, coach in real time, and foster a strong, consistent store culture.
• Optimize existing business & day-to-day operations -- Continually improve and standardize systems to build a strong foundation for continued future expansion.
• Internal Communication -- Your weekly reports to the leadership team keep everyone updated on current trends, forecasts, and any potential bumps in the road. You meet regularly with each store manager to stay informed about the inner workings of their teams.
• Other tasks as necessary

Requirements

• People Management -- You have managed teams before and know how to coach, motivate, and strengthen Managers, Leads, and Associates as store operators and business owners.
• Schedule and Availability -- Our stores are open 7 days per week and most holidays, so some nonstandard working hours will be required such as evenings, weekends and holidays.
• Café and/or Retail Know-how -- You have an excellent understanding of how premium stores and/or cafes operate with 3+ years of experience in a management role. Whether it’s a new way to merchandise a product or a more holistic approach to training, you are always looking for ways to raise the bar.
• Tech Skills -- You have no problem learning new systems, can easily understand sales data in Square, and can create a revenue forecast spreadsheet. You’re very familiar with Google Suite and can use VLOOKUP/INDEX/MATCH in your sleep.
• Financial Acumen -- While you don’t have to have a degree in Accounting, you understand the basics and can work seamlessly with our finance team to create revenue forecasts and labor plans that adjust to the seasonal nature of our business.
• Soft Skills -- Our culture is a positive, can-do, servant-oriented culture that takes active listening to an entirely new level. You can eloquently distill and communicate complex topics broadly to the exec team, individual team members, and everyone in-between.

Benefits

• Medical, vision, and dental benefits
• Option to enroll in our 401k program
• Paid sick time
• Untracked PTO
• Commuter benefits
• FSA
• Chocolate tasting opportunities
• Opportunities to grow and develop within the company

How to Apply

If you are interested in applying, please email your resume and a cover letter to [email protected]. In your cover letter, please include a couple of sentences about the best team you’ve worked with and why it worked so well.