Director, Retail Development

Thuma • San Francisco, CA

3d • $170,000 - $185,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Retail Development owns the Thuma store build from site evaluation to opening day, and holds every store to that standard through the term of the lease. This includes due diligence, design, permitting, construction, and handover. Following the opening, the role is responsible for maintenance, store standards, and refreshes. The role builds the infrastructure to support 8+ active projects and an expanding fleet, turning a series of projects into a program that scales without losing the craft, selecting the best partners and materials, and completing builds on time and on budget. This role reports to the Senior Director of Retail Expansion and partners internally with Real Estate, Legal, Retail Operations, Brand, Creative, VM, Merchandising, IT, and Finance. Externally, the role leads designers, architects, general contractors, and vendors who build and maintain our stores. Thuma’s Headquarters is based in the historic Presidio neighborhood of San Francisco, and candidates should be able to come into our office. In recognition of the personal and professional benefits that team members gain from time spent together in person, we organize a range of events throughout each year designed to bring our entire team together!

Requirements

• 10+ years in retail construction, store development, or store planning, including 5+ years leading a team or a function.
• Track record delivering multiple retail buildouts per year on time and on budget, running a full portfolio at once against a capital budget you owned.
• Experience leading diligence that shaped deal language and decisions.
• Executive presence: you put risk in front of leadership early with a recommended path, and you make technical tradeoffs legible to a non-technical room.
• Comfort building the process rather than inheriting one, and the judgment to hold the line on craft while still hitting a date.
• Willingness to travel 25% to 50%, weighted toward diligence, GC bidding & kickoff, and opening windows.

Nice To Haves

• F&B and premium, luxury, or design-led brand experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own the development program end to end: set the master schedule for every project, run the process, and keep every partner moving against it.
• Be the single source of truth on status. Set the KPIs for cost, schedule, quality, and fleet condition, give leadership a program-level view against them, and bring problems forward early with a recommended path.
• Lead and develop the retail development team.
• Build the playbooks, trackers, and a bench of vendors that the next set of stores will run on.
• Own physical and technical diligence on every prospective location, turning a real estate opportunity into a buildable, budgeted, schedulable project.
• Lead test fits to confirm a space can hold the assortment, the hospitality components, the adjacencies, and the back-of-house space the store needs.
• Assess base building conditions, MEP and plumbing capacity, structural constraints, ADA and code exposure, and storefront conditions.
• Build the construction cost and schedule estimates that feed the deal model, and surface anything that moves the economics before we sign.
• Review landlord work letters, delivery conditions, and TI allowances with Real Estate and Legal, and price what we have to build around.
• Lead designers, architects, and our Interior Design and VM partners from concept through permit set and construction documents, translating design intent into code-compliant, cost-aware drawings without giving up the schedule.
• Lead value engineering that finds savings without touching the guest experience.
• Build and maintain the prototype kit of parts: standard details, material and finish specifications, fixture packages, and hospitality and cafe equipment standards.
• Own permitting strategy across jurisdictions, including expeditors, consultants, utility coordination, and health department approvals.
• Own construction delivery on all new stores from bid through closeout: select, negotiate with, and manage general contractors, millworkers, fabricators, and consultants, and hold them to scope, schedule, budget, and finish quality.
• Own the retail development capital budget, including forecasting, cost tracking, change order discipline, contingency management, and the documentation and collection of tenant improvement allowances.
• Own handover, delivering a complete, tested, and ready-to-merchandise store to Retail Operations, and drive the punch list closed.
• Lead the facilities program, including preventive maintenance, the vendor network, response time expectations, and escalation paths.
• Define the Thuma store standard, audit against it, and close the gaps.
• Find the root cause of recurring issues and fix them at the specification or vendor level rather than one store at a time, and feed those findings back to the designers so the next store is built with the improvements.
• Support refreshes, remodels, and expansions across the existing fleet, from prioritization through execution.

Benefits

• Participation in our 401(k) program with company matching up to 6% of your contributions.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with generous employer contributions.
• 100% paid parental leave.
• Company-sponsored One Medical and WellHub memberships.
• Participation in employee stock option plan.
• Flexible hours.
• Flexible PTO.
• Hybrid approach.
• 13 company holidays each year.
• 40% off almost all Thuma products.
• $100 per month to support work-related phone use.
• Up to $150 per month for commuting to our office.
• A complimentary product credit upon joining, valued at up to $3,000.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed