The Senior Retail Director is a senior market leadership role responsible for the end-to-end strategy, growth, and performance of a highly strategic retail portfolio encompassing Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Taiwan, Guangdong and Shenzhen.
This role reports to the VP, Retail China and partners closely with cross-functional leaders across Retail, Brand, Community, People & Culture, Real Estate, Finance, Product, and E-commerce to accelerate sustainable growth, deepen market penetration, and deliver an exceptional omni-channel guest experience across multiple consumer, regulatory, and cultural environments.
Leading a large, geographically dispersed organization, the Senior Retail Director is accountable for business performance, market expansion, talent development, operational excellence, and brand growth across a diverse and complex region.
This leader serves as a key member of the China Retail Leadership Team, bringing market insights, strategic vision, and enterprise leadership to support Greater China business objectives.
Market Strategy & Growth Leadership:
- Co-create and own retail market strategy for China in partnership with VP Retail and cross-functional leaders
- Define and execute multi-year growth plans including:
- Territory penetration (new cities, lower-tier expansion)
- Store format evolution & store differentiation
- Real estate strategy and existing network
- Translate China-specific consumer, competitor, and ecosystem insights into actionable growth strategies
- Act as a thought partner to NA and APAC teams, contributing China insights to broader retail strategy
Full P&L Ownership & Business Performance:
- Hold end-to-end accountability for area P&L, including revenue, margin, labor, productivity, and capital investment
- Drive high-volume performance management across a large and diverse store fleet
- Establish robust forecasting, KPI cadence, and data-driven decision-making processes
- Identify growth opportunities and risks through advanced analytics, local insights, and trend interpretation
Territory Expansion & Portfolio Optimization:
- Lead aggressive new store expansion strategy and execution:
- City prioritization (Tier 1/2/3 and beyond)
- Strategic flagship placements and premium locations
- Optimize store portfolio productivity:
- Store clustering and regional density strategy
- Relocations, upsizing, and format evolution
- Partner with real estate, finance, and brand teams to ensure ROI-driven investment decisions
Omni-Channel & China Ecosystem Leadership:
- Champion fully integrated omni-channel retail strategy, bridging:
- Physical stores
- WeChat ecosystem & private traffic
- Ensure stores are embedded in China's digitally connected consumer journey
- Partner with Tech, EC, and Brand teams to:
- Pilot innovative retail experiences
- Elevate data utilization, CRM, and client-telling capabilities
- Drive localized execution of global initiatives within the China ecosystem
- Lead the development of store social commerce channels, driving new revenue generation and long-term growth over a five-year period
Operational Excellence at Scale:
- Build and evolve scalable operating models and SOPs to support rapid growth
- Ensure consistent, high-quality execution across all stores
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives across:
- Labor productivity
- Inventory and sell-through
- Store processes and workflows
- Balance standardization vs localization across regions
Guest Experience, Brand & Community Leadership:
- Ensure delivery of a globally consistent, locally relevant premium guest experience
- Drive brand heat and community engagement in key cities
- Partner with Brand/Community teams to:
- Build strong local ecosystems and partnerships
- Enhance guest acquisition and retention
- Elevate visual merchandising and storytelling execution across the fleet
Area Leadership Team (ALT) & Integrated Leadership:
- Lead the Area Leadership Team (ALT) to drive integrated business performance across retail and cross-functional partners
- Translate national strategy into locally relevant execution, ensuring alignment across functions (e.g., P&C, Product, Community, RBE, Operations)
- Operate as the single point of accountability for area performance, balancing priorities across people, product, operations, and brand
Talent Strategy & Leadership Development:
- Build and lead a high-performing, scalable leadership pipeline
- Directly lead and develop Regional Managers
- Drive:
- Succession planning for rapid expansion
- Leadership capability building at all levels
- Navigate intense talent competition in China retail market
- Foster an inclusive, high-performance culture aligned with lululemon values
- 15+ years' retail experience with significant multi-unit / market leadership experience
- Passionate about the lululemon athletica retail floor, guest experience and product placement and sell through;
- Proven success in high-growth, complex retail environments (China strongly preferred)
- Demonstrated ability to:
- Lead large-scale expansion and transformation
- Operate in omni-channel and digitally advanced ecosystems
- Drive strategic planning and execution simultaneously
- Strong financial acumen and P&L leadership
- Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills
- Strong sense of personal style and athletically minded;
- Extraordinary and proven leadership capabilities;
- Entrepreneurship - an ability to make decisions and take calculated risks;
- Ability to inspire a team - Leaders create a future that wouldn't have existed otherwise;
- Take full responsibility and accountability for their lives and results - Live a life they love;
- Integrity - Do what they say they will do, by when they say they will do it;
- Open to giving & receiving feedback - they feel there is always more to learn and have a willingness to admit failures;
- Excellent team player - always in the game right along with their people;
- Ability to manage projects and delegate by putting people on the right seat of the bus;
- Excellent decision making and problem resolution skills;
- Extraordinary guest experience, organizational and time management skills
- Acknowledges the presence of choice in every moment and takes personal responsibility for their life.
- Possesses an entrepreneurial spirit and continuously innovates to achieve great results.
- Communicates with honesty and kindness, and creates the space for others to do the same.
- Leads with courage, knowing the possibility of greatness is bigger than the fear of failure.
- Fosters connection by putting people first and building trusting relationships.
- Integrates fun and joy as a way of being and working, aka doesn't take themselves too seriously.
additional notes
Authorization to work in Hong Kong SAR is required for this role.
beyond the paycheck (benefits & perks)
In-person collaboration and/or office-based work is necessary or important for the role. Work is mainly performed onsite, 4-5 days per week depending on role requirements.