General Manager (Contract 18 Months)

Indigo Books & Music • London, ON

1d • CA$42,000 - CA$52,500 • Onsite

About The Position

The General Manager translates Indigo’s strategic priorities into entrepreneurial, locally relevant execution that strengthens community connection and brand affinity while delivering a customer-centric experience that drives sales, engagement, loyalty, and profitability. Using strong systems thinking, this role ensures store processes and routines are both efficient and effective across customer experience, visual merchandising, product flow, scheduling, loss prevention, and talent development. The General Manager is a key driver of retail results, fostering a high-performance, customer-focused environment where employees build their capabilities, contribute to team success, and bring the Indigo brand to life through meaningful business outcomes.

Requirements

• 6+ years of progressive leadership experience in a specialty retail and/or multi-unit environment, including experience leading leaders and managing high-performing teams
• Demonstrated ability to lead a customer-first culture, delivering exceptional employee and customer experiences that drive engagement, loyalty, and business performance
• Adaptable and resilient leader who can lead calmly through change, model a growth mindset, and foster a collaborative, inclusive, and accountable team culture
• Strong business acumen with ability to translate enterprise priorities and sales results into focused store-level plans, routines, and measurable actions that drive customer, employee, and business outcomes
• Data-driven and technology-enabled, with the ability to interpret reports, simplify insights into clear priorities, embed available tools into store routines, and use data to influence action and improve outcomes
• Strong systems-thinking capability, with the ability to connect customer experience, product flow, visual merchandising, scheduling, loss prevention, and talent routines to deliver consistent store performance
• Effective communication and problem-solving skills, with the ability to navigate complex situations, including escalated customer and employee matters
• Demonstrated operational discipline, with the ability to execute consistently, manage competing priorities, and deliver results in a fast-paced environment
• Sound judgment and employee relations maturity, with the ability to address performance, conduct, and engagement issues in a fair, respectful, values-aligned, and solutions-oriented manner
• Full alignment with Indigo’s values as reflected in the Guiding Principles
• A passion for Indigo’s mission and delivering a meaningful customer and team experience
• Ability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings, weekends, and holidays
• Ability to be mobile on the sales floor for extended periods and safely lift medium to large items (up to 40 lbs) using appropriate equipment and techniques
• Bilingualism (French/English) required for roles based in Quebec

Nice To Haves

• College degree preferred or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience

Responsibilities

• Leads the translation of Indigo’s strategic priorities into focused, store-level execution, leveraging the My Performance Scorecard process to align objectives, drive disciplined action, and deliver measurable results.
• Anticipates and mitigates risks to execution, identifying systemic barriers and influencing cross-functional partners to enable consistent delivery of the intended customer and operational experience.
• Ensures the Indigo Experience and R.E.A.D. customer service model are consistently brought to life through strong Sales Generation Leadership (SGL) practices, including active, in-the-moment coaching to reinforce behaviours, elevate execution, and drive customer engagement and results.
• Champions meaningful connection to the local community through book localization, curated events and experiences, and an authentic social media presence that builds engagement, relevance, and brand affinity.
• Ensures consistent delivery of Indigo’s brand standards through disciplined visual merchandising execution, leveraging the VMA process to reinforce presentation, drive consistency, and enhance the customer experience.
• Drives effective and efficient store operations through regular review of Key Process Scorecard performance, using insights to coach the team, reinforce accountability, and continuously improve execution and results.
• Owns the scheduling process, ensuring effective deployment of labour to deliver a consistent customer experience while optimizing productivity and operational efficiency.
• Delivers profitability through disciplined resource management and leadership of targeted shortage and shrink action plans, mitigating inventory risk while protecting sales and operational performance.
• Applies strong business acumen to identify opportunities, assess performance, and take action to improve store results.
• Ensures clarity of roles, responsibilities, and accountability across the store team, reinforcing expectations aligned to the store structure and RASI model.
• Recruits, develops, and retains a high-performing store leadership and CER team through structured onboarding, coaching, and ongoing development.
• Leads talent review, calibration, and succession planning within the store, identifying high-potential employees and creating targeted development opportunities.
• Identifies and addresses performance, conduct, and engagement risks, taking appropriate action to maintain a strong, values-aligned team.
• Drives employee engagement through strong employee relations, meaningful action planning, and the creation of a collaborative, inclusive team environment.
• Ensures the health and safety of employees and customers, maintaining full compliance with all provincial policies, procedures, and standards.
• Models and embeds Indigo’s guiding principles and values, fostering a positive, accountable, and high-performance team culture.

Benefits

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility are core to our values. We integrate these principles into our training, policies, and hiring practices and continuously evolve to reflect the needs of the communities we serve.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: Associate degree