Hi there, we’re Article. 👋 Since 2013, we have been redefining the furniture industry one sofa at a time, it’s not easy — it requires solving challenging, meaningful problems. This is where you come in, as a Manager, New Store Opening, you'll lead the delivery of our newest retail locations from project kickoff through Day-1 opening.
You'll bring together teams across the business to ensure our stores open on time, on budget, and fully ready to welcome our customers.
Why We Need You:
We’re growing our retail footprint and opening more stores across North America. This role ensures every new store launches smoothly by coordinating the many teams involved in getting a location ready for opening day.
This is a new role created to expand our store opening capability and build repeatable processes that allow us to grow confidently.
Within your first few months, you’ll take ownership of the opening timeline for upcoming store launches and establish strong working relationships with teams across Construction, Retail Operations, IT, and Supply Chain.
In a year, you’ll be proud to say you helped open multiple stores successfully while building the playbooks and processes that make future openings faster and more predictable.
Why Article?
As a Particle (people of Article), you will have a high level of autonomy to solve challenging, meaningful problems the best way you can. That means you’re trusted to explore solutions you believe will work best. You’ll do all this while growing your skills within a company redefining the furniture industry.
We take our work seriously, but not ourselves.
About the Retail Operations team
Our Retail Operations team brings the Article brand to life in brick-and-mortar spaces. From store design and construction to operations and customer experience, this team ensures our retail locations deliver the same remarkable experience customers expect from our online store.
We work closely with teams across the business including Construction, Supply Chain, Finance, Legal, IT, People & Culture and Merchandising.
We are a hybrid team, with this role working from the Vancouver HQ office at least three days per week.
** Please note: Frequent travel will be required to support new store openings and site visits across North America.
Interview Process Timeline:
We want to help you plan ahead - here’s what the interview process will look like for this role if you are selected to move forward:
Video Interviews You’ll hear from us the week of March 23 to schedule a video interview for the week of March 30.
In-Person Interviews In-person interviews will take place the week of April 13.
Please note there may be a short gap between stages of the process for this role. If you don’t hear from us right away, don’t worry. We’ll be in touch as soon as the next step is scheduled.
Location Interviews for this role will be held on-site at our Vancouver HQ (1010 Raymur Ave).
What You'll Do:
New Store Opening Program Ownership
Own the end-to-end delivery of new store openings from project kickoff through Day-1 launch and handoff to Retail Operations
Build and manage the integrated opening timeline across construction, technology, merchandising, staffing, and operational readiness
Establish readiness checkpoints and lead go/no-go opening reviews
Ensure each store is operationally ready across permits, systems, inventory, merchandising, staffing, training, safety, and compliance
Timeline & Delivery Governance
Own the master new store opening schedule and maintain the source-of-truth plan
Lead weekly cross-functional opening meetings and track risks, issues, and decisions
Identify schedule risks early and propose solutions to protect the opening date
Provide concise status updates to leadership on progress and blockers
Budget & Capex Governance
Own store opening capital budget tracking including forecasting, variance reporting, and approval routing
Manage change control processes and ensure scope changes follow proper governance
Partner with Finance to ensure accurate project tracking and reporting
Lead value-engineering conversations when needed while protecting brand standards and customer experience Cross Functional Collaboration
Serve as the single point of coordination across Construction, Real Estate, Design, Legal, People & Culture, Finance, IT, Supply Chain, and Retail Operations
Ensure all teams have clear deliverables and timelines for opening readiness
Support store technology readiness and system handoffs to operational teams
Ensure documentation and operational handoff packages are complete
Store Opening Playbooks & Continuous Improvement
Build and maintain standardized store opening playbooks, templates, and processes
Run post-opening reviews and translate learnings into improved processes
Develop repeatable ways of working that allow the business to scale store openings over time
Vendor & Procurement Governance
Coordinate vendor procurement and contract workflows related to new store openings
Support vendor selection processes and ensure scope clarity and comparability across bids
Track vendor performance and address issues when they arise
Retail Operations Partnership
Work closely with Retail Operations to ensure stores open fully operationally ready
Coordinate opening readiness activities including fixtures, systems, staffing readiness, and operational materials
Lead the formal transition of new stores to Retail Operations after launch
People Leadership
Manage and develop the Construction Manager (New Stores)
Set priorities, provide coaching, and ensure high standards of execution
Who You Are:
You have 6+ years leading retail store openings, store development programs, construction projects, or similarly complex cross-functional initiatives
You understand the full lifecycle of a retail store opening, from early planning through construction and operational readiness
You are comfortable managing complex timelines, budgets, and multiple stakeholders simultaneously
You know how to align teams across construction, technology, operations, and merchandising to deliver a successful opening
You bring strong financial discipline and experience managing project budgets, forecasts, and change control
You are highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to identify risks early while keeping projects moving forward
You communicate clearly and build strong working relationships with internal teams, vendors, and external partners
Nice to Have
PMP certification
Experience delivering multi-site retail rollouts
Experience opening stores across Canada and the United States
Additional Requirements
Ability to travel frequently across Canada and the United States to support new store openings and site visits
