Director Retail Creative Strategy

Staples is seeking a Director, Retail Experience Strategy & Transformation to define and lead the future evolution of the in-store customer experience across the Staples retail fleet. This role is responsible for developing the long-term vision, strategy, roadmap, and implementation framework that will shape how customers engage with Staples across physical environments, services, merchandising touchpoints, and emerging retail capabilities.

Serving as the primary architect of the future retail experience, this leader will identify opportunities to improve customer engagement, simplify the shopping journey, strengthen brand perception, and drive business performance. The role requires a unique combination of customer experience strategy, retail transformation, innovation leadership, business acumen, organizational influence, and implementation planning.

Lead Retail Experience Strategy & Transformation

• Own the long-term vision and multi-year roadmap for the future Staples retail experience.
• Identify opportunities to evolve store formats, customer journeys, service experiences, and engagement models.
• Develop future-state retail concepts that improve customer outcomes and support business growth.
• Evaluate emerging retail trends, technologies, and customer behaviors to identify innovation opportunities.
• Own the prioritization and governance of retail experience transformation initiatives.
• Partner with senior leadership to align transformation priorities with business objectives.

Develop Business Cases & Investment Recommendations

• Develop business cases supporting retail experience investments and transformation opportunities.
• Evaluate multiple investment scenarios and recommend approaches based on customer impact, operational feasibility, and business value.
• Create executive-level recommendations that support strategic decision making.
• Present investment opportunities, implementation approaches, and expected outcomes to senior leadership.

Architect the Customer Experience

• Define customer journey frameworks across key shopping, service, and solution experiences.
• Apply customer research, behavioral insights, and performance data to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Develop experience principles that guide future retail investments and decision making.
• Ensure customer experience considerations are embedded into major retail initiatives from inception.

Lead Innovation, Pilots & Enterprise Deployment

• Develop and lead pilot programs that test new retail concepts, customer experiences, technologies, and operating models.
• Establish measurement frameworks to evaluate customer impact, operational effectiveness, and business performance.
• Use test-and-learn methodologies to refine solutions prior to broader deployment.
• Create enterprise deployment roadmaps that support successful scaling across the retail fleet.

Drive Cross-Functional Leadership

• Influence and align senior stakeholders across Retail, Merchandising, Operations, Marketing, Store Planning, Digital, Brand, and Creative.
• Lead complex initiatives without direct authority through strong strategic influence and organizational leadership.
• Serve as the enterprise subject matter expert on retail experience strategy and transformation.
• Build alignment around customer-centered solutions that balance business objectives, operational realities, and financial considerations.

Build Organizational Capability

• Build and lead a specialized team focused on retail experience strategy, innovation, and transformation.
• Establish methodologies, governance processes, and best practices.
• Foster a culture of experimentation, customer obsession, continuous improvement, and measurable business impact.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in retail strategy, customer experience, retail transformation, store innovation, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise retail transformation initiatives.
• Experience developing future-state retail concepts and multi-year implementation roadmaps.
• Strong expertise in customer journey architecture, customer experience strategy, and behavioral insight methodologies.
• Experience building executive-level recommendations and business cases supporting strategic investments.
• Experience leading pilot programs, innovation initiatives, and large-scale deployment efforts.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and leading complex cross-functional initiatives without direct authority.
• Strong strategic thinking, organizational leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience operating at the intersection of customer experience, operations, merchandising, and business strategy.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience within large national or global retail organizations.
• Experience leading retail innovation, customer experience, or store transformation programs.
• Experience integrating physical and digital customer experiences.
• Background in environmental design, experiential design, architecture, or related disciplines.
• Experience working directly with executive leadership teams on enterprise transformation initiatives.