Who we are

You enjoy creating and innovating. You never stop striving for better. You take responsibility and you get results. You love being part of a team. Above all, you want your work to matter: Welcome to our world! At Sonova we create sense by bringing sound to life. Our innovative hearing care solutions help millions of people enjoy life’s unforgettable moments.

We offer exceptional career opportunities through market-leading brands from consumer to medical, products and services that keep pushing hearing care forward, and a culture where you can quickly belong and perform at your best.

If you want the freedom to explore, opportunities to grow, and make positive change on people lives through your work, this is the place for you.

Retail Excellence Director

This role is a foundational capability for our retail business and a critical enabler of long-term, sustainable growth. It establishes the commercial “operating system” that ensures our strategy is translated into consistent execution across stores—improving conversion, productivity, and service quality while strengthening customer satisfaction and loyalty. By building standard ways of working, performance management, and frontline capability (including audiological and retail training), the role reduces performance variability, lifts operational efficiency, and creates a repeatable model for scaling the business.

You will base in Shanghai, directly report to the Managing Director of Sonova Audiological Care.

You will lead teams of business planning, in-store excellence, training, demand planning & inventory management.

More about the role:

Commercial Intelligence, Insight & Planning

·         Own the end-to-end planning and performance management system: KPI framework, target setting, forecasting, and the operating cadence across stores/regions/channels.

·         Establish the commercial intelligence agenda and “single source of truth” reporting (definitions, dashboards, governance), turning data into actionable insights and clear priorities.

·         Lead structured performance diagnostics and scenario planning to identify growth and margin opportunities and to direct resources and initiatives.

·         Partner with Finance to build business cases, define value hypotheses, and govern benefits realisation through disciplined tracking and post-implementation reviews.

·         In partner with China Supply Chain, own demand & inventory planning and set inventory strategy and governance: service-level targets, replenishment policies, allocation rules, and lifecycle/obsolescence management.

Revenue & Customer Funnel Excellence

·         Improve end-to-end funnel performance (enquiry → appointment → assessment → fitting → aftercare/retention).

·         Standardise playbooks and ways of working across stores and contact centre(s) (lead handling, follow-up, pipeline hygiene/CRM discipline).

·         Partner with RSMs to strengthen coaching capability and execution consistency.

Store Excellence, Productivity & Capacity Management

·         Lead appointment and scheduling projects (capacity planning, appointment mix, utilisation, and leakage reduction).

·         Define “what good looks like” for store execution and drive adoption through routines, tools, and field enablement.

·         Lead productivity programs that balance customer outcomes, quality, and profitability (time-in-clinic, throughput, rework reduction, and service-level adherence).

·         Scale best practices using disciplined process design (SOPs), change management, and performance assurance.

·         Design and govern sales incentive schemes (in partnership with HR/Finance) aligned to productivity, conversion, customer outcomes, and quality/ethics; model scenarios, set targets/thresholds, and monitor unintended consequences.

Capability Building (Store/Audiological Training)

·         Own the end-to-end learning strategy for store and audiological capability: onboarding, certification pathways, refreshers, and rollout training for new initiatives.

·         Build a measurement system for training effectiveness (knowledge/skill assessment, behavioural adoption, impact on KPIs, and quality outcomes).

Cross-Functional Leadership & Change

·         Lead cross-functional strategic delivery (Operations, Marketing, Clinical, Finance, Supply Chain, Digital/IT), driving governance, decision forums, and change adoption.

·         Provide commercial input to Marketing-led pricing/product decisions; define success metrics and track post-launch performance and field execution.

·         Act as the commercial integrator across functions—ensuring priorities, data, and execution plans align and that initiatives land in frontline routines.

More about you:  

·         Min. 15 years of experience in retail store management with a minimum of 3 years in a leadership role and demonstrated track record of implementation success in retail environment.

·         Master’s Degree in Engineering, Business or Equivalent.

·         Fluent written and spoken English.

·         Personal Competencies:

-         Commercial acumen with a customer-first mindset and respect for clinical quality/ethics.

-         Advanced stakeholder management and influencing ability; comfortable operating at executive and field levels.

-         Strong performance management discipline (KPIs, operating rhythm, coaching).

-         Change leadership: ability to design practical tools and drive adoption in the field.

-         Clear communication and executive-level presentation skills.

·         Social Competencies

-         People skills – excellent ability to communicate to all levels of the organization in a global team.

-         Influencing skills - Skilled influencer that can impact across all levels and motivate others.

-         Change management – experience in cultural and process transformations

·         Professional Competencies

-         Project Management – Able to manage multiple projects/activities

-         Organized. Good writing and administrative skills

·         Leadership Competencies

-         Teamwork - Build, lead and influence cross-functional teams to deliver results without direct reporting structure.

-         Leadership – Comfortable to lead upwards and manages without formal authority

More about what we offer:

As one of the world’s leading hearing care providers headquartered in Switzerland, we’re committed to building an inclusive culture. We want to create an environment where you can balance a successful career with your commitments and interests outside of work, through our flexible hybrid working model. We offer a wide range of training opportunities for both your professional and personal development, and there are exceptional growth opportunities with individual development plans.

Sonova is an equal opportunity employer.

We team up. We grow talent. We collaborate with people of diverse backgrounds to win with the best team in the marketplace. We guarantee every person equal treatment in regard to employment and opportunity for employment, regardless of a candidate's ethnic or national origin, religion, sexual orientation or marital status, gender, genetic identity, age, disability or any other legally protected status.