Director, Retail Experience & Communications

WHO WE ARE 

Indigo is a physical and digital place inspired by and filled with books, ideas, beautifully designed lifestyle products, and the creative people who help make it all happen. We believe in real books, living life fully and generously, being kind to each other and to the environment, and that stories — big and little — connect us. Indigo is our customer's happy place — for joyful moments of discovery and to connect with people who share their passion for reading, their belief in ideas, and their commitment to making the world a better and more beautiful place. 

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES 

Our Mission is to inspire reading and enrich the lives of booklovers. As such, we believe in the power of people and their stories. We aim to attract top talent, nurture the potential of our employees, and create space for everyone to thrive. Our Guiding Principles are the few key ideas that are meant to influence everything we do, every day.

• We Will Hire, Inspire, Promote and Retain the Best – A’s Hire A’s
• We Will be Totally Customer Centric
• We Will Be Data Driven – System Thinking – Entrepreneurial
• We are Committed to True and Shared Value Creation
• We Will be Human-Centered and AI Enabled

We are Committed to Caring About Each Other, Our Communities, Our Environment

The Director, Retail Experience and Communications is responsible for shaping and executing the strategy that defines how retail initiatives are communicated, understood, and experienced across the store network. This role ensures that all communications, tools, and programs enable store teams to operate effectively, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and drive profitable outcomes. As a key strategic partner to the business, the Director acts as a bridge between Home Office and stores, translating priorities into clear, actionable direction while elevating the voice of the field and the customer. This role also serves as a change agent, leveraging insights, research, and emerging best practices to continuously improve communication frameworks, customer experience programs, and executional effectiveness.

KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS

• Employee Engagement Score (field and team)
• Net Promoter and CSAT Score
• Balanced Scorecard targets
• Sales plan
• Conversion
• Indigo Help SLAs
• Project Implementation Surveys

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Strategic

• Define and evolve the retail communications and experience strategy, including frameworks, tools, and operating models that enable execution excellence across stores 
• Act as a strategic thought partner across the organization, bringing forward insights on customer behavior, communication effectiveness, and emerging retail practices 
• Support or lead key strategic initiatives tied to the store experience, including those within broader transformation programs  
• Anticipate and respond to evolving customer, employee, and business needs, adjusting priorities and direction accordingly 

Functional

• Own the end-to-end retail communications ecosystem, ensuring clarity, consistency, and effectiveness across all channels (e.g., Employee Hub, SharePoint, internal platforms) 
• Establish and enforce communication standards and best practices across business partners to reduce noise, improve clarity, and enable store focus  
• Ensure communications are audience-specific, outcome-driven, and structured to support both strategic understanding and tactical execution 
• Elevate the customer and employee experience by ensuring retail initiatives are clearly understood, well-executed, and aligned to the broader Customer Experience Roadmap  
• Drive store adoption of customer experience standards and programs through effective communication, planning, and tools 
• Own the Retail Voice of the Customer platform (Alida), ensuring insights are captured, synthesized, and translated into actionable recommendations  
• Co-own the retail workload and communications calendar (in partnership with Retail Operations) ensuring alignment across functions and disciplined management of store capacity 
• Translate enterprise initiatives into clear retail execution plans, ensuring alignment, timing, and operational feasibility
• Continuously refine processes and tools to improve execution consistency and reduce friction for store teams 
• Establish and maintain a strong, continuous feedback loop between stores and Home Office, ensuring field insights inform decision-making and that communication remains relevant, clear, and actionable 
• Lead the development and execution of large-scale internal events (e.g., strategy meetings, conferences, holiday summits), ensuring high-quality content, logistics, and engagement 
• Ensure all communications meet French language requirements, delivering efficient, high-quality translation services 

People

• Lead and engage team to deliver strategic objectives through effective coaching and mentoring, identifying, and developing emerging talent, and fostering an innovative, collaborative, and agile culture. 
• Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement focusing on customer and employee experience. 
• Accountable for the overall engagement, productivity, turnover and bench strength of the Retail Experience and Communications team 
• Collaborate with others to drive flexible and iterative solutions quickly and easily. 
• Share technical knowledge with others and actively seek to learn from those more knowledgeable than yourself. 
• Create and maintain channels for clear and transparent two-way communication including through communication, discussion boards and meetings.

Cultural

• Role model Indigo’s Guiding Principles and inspire a positive, customer-centric culture which reflects Indigo’s mission of creating joy and enriching lives while maintaining brand standards.
• Cultivate an environment of trust, joy and empowerment where the opinions, voices, and well-being of employees are valued, enabling people to bring their best selves to work and learn from one another.
• Embrace, champion and influence as a trusted and integrated agent of change for your team, the retail function, and the organization.
• Embrace and champion technology that provides employees with high tech and high touch solutions to more efficiently serve Indigo’s customers.
• Champion equitable access to information across all roles in the field (CER to GM), ensuring clarity, consistency, and relevance for both francophone and anglophone employees.  
• Celebrate diversity of thought and have an open mindset by taking an active role in fostering a culture of continual learning, taking risks without fearing making mistakes.

SCOPE

Reports To: VP, Retail Operations

Total Direct Reports: 4 (2 indirect)

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Internal

• Retail Leadership team
• Retail Operations
• Marketing, Loyalty, Events
• Human Resources
• Information Technology

External

• Vendor partners
• Legislative bodies

QUALIFICATIONS

Work Experience / Education / Certifications

• Demonstrated experience in retail communications with preference for also having exposure to retail operations in multi site and matrixed environments
• 10+ years’ people-management & leadership experience 
• Post-secondary education in Communications, Business or a related discipline  
• Intermediate proficiency with Microsoft Suite

Competencies / Skills / Attributes

• Exceptional leader with ability to attract, retain and inspire the best talent 
• Ability to work collaboratively in a high performance organization
• Curious, creative, and driven towards continuous improvement 
• Change leader who inspires their team to innovate and collaborate both within the team and cross functionally 
• Inspires and influences peers, business partners, and team towards new trends and new ways of working 
• Self-starter with an ability to work at the highest levels with little supervision  
• Demonstrated ability to develop effective and collaborative relationships across the organization in pursuit of corporate goals  
• Ability to create partnerships and influence outcomes, utilizing effective communication skills and change management practices  
• Customer obsessed and passionate about the retail employee experience

Other (travel, Bilingual, etc.)

• This role will require a minimum of 4 days per week at the Indigo Home Office (located at 620 King St W, Toronto, ON M6K 0C6, Canada)
• Ability to travel independently up to 10% of the time
• Bilingualism (English/French)  an asset

At Indigo, all applications submitted are reviewed in detail by our HR team. In certain aspects of the hiring process artificial intelligence (AI) tools may be used, specifically for screening and assessments. These tools support our team and are used to help bring relevant criteria to the foreground and do not replace human judgment. We are committed to using AI responsibly, fairly, and in compliance with applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws. We regularly review these tools to help prevent bias or discrimination.

At Indigo, 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. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and lived experiences, including but not limited to individuals who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and persons with disabilities. If you require an accommodation during the recruitment process, please contact Human Resources at [email protected]

This posting is for a current opportunity within Indigo.