Store Opening / Change of Ownership Team Lead

 We're looking for a highly organised and operationally-minded leader to join our Retail Operations team as a Store Opening & Change of Ownership (COO) Team Lead.

In this role, you'll lead and coordinate the successful delivery of store openings, major refurbishments, and Change of Ownership transitions across our Foodstuffs North Island store network. Working closely with Operators, Store Leadership Teams, Retail Operations, Membership, Property and Programme teams, you'll play a critical role in ensuring stores are operationally ready from Day One and set up for long-term success.

No two days are the same. One week you could be supporting a new store opening, the next helping a store transition to new ownership or coordinating readiness activities across multiple projects. You'll be the operational glue that keeps everything moving smoothly while proactively identifying risks, solving problems, and ensuring a seamless transition into business as usual.

• →Lead and coordinate Store Opening & COO support activity across allocated projects.
• →Support end-to-end delivery of store openings, refurbishments and ownership transitions.
• →Ensure operational readiness standards, checklists and go-live processes are consistently applied.
• →Partner closely with Operators, incoming owners and Store Leadership teams to drive successful outcomes.
• →Act as a key escalation point for operational issues, risks and delivery challenges.
• →Coach and support Store Opening & COO team members.
• →Provide clear communication, updates and insights to stakeholders.
• →Contribute to continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to improve readiness, reduce rework and enhance store performance post-launch.

You're an experienced retail operations professional who thrives in fast-paced environments and enjoys bringing people together to deliver successful outcomes.

You'll bring:

• 3-5 years' experience in retail operations, store support, deployment or large-scale operational change environments.
• Hands-on experience supporting store openings, refurbishments or ownership transitions.
• Strong leadership capability with experience coordinating teams and coaching others.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills and the ability to build credibility with Operators, Store Managers and cross-functional teams.
• Confidence managing multiple priorities and tight timeframes.
• A practical, solutions-focused approach with strong operational judgement.
• Experience working with structured processes, playbooks and readiness frameworks.
• Exposure to project management methodologies would be an advantage.