Head of Store Operations

We’ve been proudly serving Australian communities since 1914 and have grown to become a top 30-listed company on the ASX with a portfolio of iconic homegrown brands. At the heart of our continued success is over 115,000 team members working across the country, all contributing to bringing our customers smiles. You’ll not only get to see your work make a difference, you’ll be part of a team working together to help Australians eat and live better every day.

About the team

Central Operations keeps our business moving. Our team supports, coaches, and empowers our retail teams across the country. We help them be at their best, so they can deliver the best experiences for our team members and customers every day.

At Coles Group, our stores sit at the heart of how millions of Australians experience our business every week. We’re looking for an exceptional senior leader to take on one of our most significant operational leadership roles: bringing together commercial performance, customer experience, transformation and leadership at scale. 

This is more than an operations role. We’re looking for leaders who have built their careers across multiple dimensions of a business. You may have deep operational foundations, but you’ll also bring broader experience across areas such as commercial, transformation, customer, ecommerce, digital, central operations or another enterprise function. You’ll know how to deliver today while helping shape what comes next. 

**The opportunity: Head of Store Operations VIC

**

As Head of Store Operations, you’ll lead a significant portfolio within the Coles store network in Victoria, with accountability for approximately 10,000 team members and a leadership team of Regional Managers. Operating at enterprise scale, you’ll translate strategy into execution and create the conditions for teams to deliver outstanding customer and commercial outcomes. 

Your remit will include:

• Owning commercial and operational performance across a significant store portfolio, including sales, cost and P&L outcomes.
• Leading, coaching and developing a high-performing team of senior operational leaders.
• Creating a strong performance and accountability culture while maintaining an unwavering focus on our customers and team.
• Leading through significant change and helping translate enterprise transformation into sustainable outcomes across our stores.
• Connecting stores with the broader Coles business, bringing together commercial, customer, digital and operational priorities.
• Using data, customer insight and commercial judgement to identify opportunities and make informed decisions.
• Building leadership capability and strengthening the succession pipeline for future senior roles.
• Contributing beyond your immediate portfolio as a senior leader across Coles. 

About you 

There isn’t one career path that will lead to success in this role. You might have started your career in stores or frontline operations before moving into commercial, transformation, ecommerce, customer or a central leadership role. Alternatively, you may have developed your career in another large-scale retail or customer-facing organisation. What matters is the breadth of perspective you can bring.

We’re particularly interested in seasoned leaders who can demonstrate: 

• Significant leadership experience within a large, complex and geographically dispersed organisation.
• Strong commercial acumen, including meaningful P&L, sales and performance accountability.
• Experience leading through other senior leaders and influencing at an enterprise level.
• Career breadth beyond operational delivery, gained through commercial, transformation, customer, digital/ecommerce, strategy or central functions.
• A track record of delivering significant change while maintaining strong business performance.
• A deep understanding of customers and how operational decisions translate into customer and commercial outcomes.
• The ability to move comfortably between strategic thinking and execution without becoming anchored in operational detail.
• Strong people and culture leadership, with a record of building capability and developing future leaders.
• The ambition and potential to grow into broader executive leadership opportunities over time. 

Experience within supermarkets is not essential. We’re also interested in speaking with leaders from large-scale retail and other complex customer-facing businesses who can bring a different perspective to Coles. 

Why Coles? 

The scale and complexity of Coles creates a unique leadership opportunity. You’ll influence the experience of thousands of team members and millions of customers while contributing to the future direction of one of Australia’s largest businesses. 

For the right leader, this role provides the opportunity to combine operational scale with commercial leadership, enterprise transformation and significant people impact – while building the breadth required for future senior leadership opportunities across Coles Group. 

We know great leaders come from different industries, functions and career paths. If you bring leadership at scale, strong commercial judgement and a track record of creating meaningful change, we’d like to hear from you. 

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What’s in it for you?

• Flexible working options: We know that work is only one part of your life, so we actively encourage a positive work-life balance and provide hybrid working options to help you achieve it.
• Office perks: Take advantage of our gym facility and fitness classes, free parking, BBQ area, mini-Coles supermarket, fooderie hub where you can sample new products before they hit the shelves, school holiday program and so much more when you come in.
• Discounts: Eligible team members receive 5% discount all year round on your Supermarket and Liquor online and in-store purchases. We also offer additional periods of double discount (10%) at various times throughout the year. As well as hotdeals exclusive to team members that translate into additional savings.
• Reward through recognition: Give and receive recognition, linked to our Coles values, through our digital recognition platform ‘mythanks’. You can accumulate points to redeem in the online shop for exciting gifts and electronic gift cards from an extensive range of retailers.
• Opportunities for learning and development: No matter where you start within our diverse business, you’ll have experiences, exposure, and education to satisfy you. Discover and explore a variety of career development programs and job-specific training.
• Paid parental leave: We understand how important your life outside work is and offer permanent team members paid parental leave to support you in balancing work and family.
• Investment in your future: Our annual team member share plan offer allows eligible team members to make regular pre-tax salary sacrifice deductions to purchase Coles Group shares.

About the recruitment process

We’re continuing to build a gender equitable team, and a culture that is just as diverse, inclusive and welcoming as the communities we serve. We are committed to creating a workplace that is safe and respectful for our team. We encourage applications from people of all ages, cultures (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples), abilities, sexual orientation and gender identities.

We’re happy to adjust our recruitment process to support candidates with disability. For further information and additional contact details visit the ‘Our Recruitment Process’ section of our careers site or email inclusionrecruitment@coles.com.au

Job ID: 199473

Employment Type: Full time