About Us: Unrivaled Sports is a national youth sports platform dedicated to delivering the best, most memorable experiences for young athletes across the country — powered by 15 premier venues, 635,000+ athletes annually, and 1.7 million+ yearly visitors. With unmatched scale, premium facilities, and a commitment to elevating the athlete experience, Unrivaled is building a national youth sports brand, with the continued buildout of our $10M+ merchandising business a core part of our offering.

About the Role: The Director of Retail Experience will own how our brand comes to life across every retail touchpoint — at our owned venues, non-owned “mobile” venues, and online across our sports vertical business lines. This person will be the creative and operational hub between our Buying & Retail Ops team, Venue GMs and on-site retail leads, and the Marketing/Brand team. They will ensure that what shows up at our venues and in our stores reflects the best of our brand — consistently, trend-forward, and well executed.

This role is part project manager, part brand merchant, part field operator: someone who can translate insight into elevated product assortments, seamless visual execution, and improved operational discipline to minimize errors and maximize sales.
Key Responsibilities

• Retail Experience Ownership: Define and oversee the in-venue retail experience — product mix, presentation, signage, and flow — ensuring consistency and brand alignment across all venues and events.
• Merchandising Excellence: Partner with the Buying Team to influence assortments and packaging based on performance, trend, and guest feedback.
• Cross-Functional Connector: Serve as the central liaison among Buying/Retail Ops team, Venue GMs & property retail leads, and the Marketing/Brand team to ensure aligned execution from concept to customer.
• Trend & Brand: Stay ahead of youth sports, lifestyle, and fan-merch trends; work with the Buying Team to source vendors that result in better selection for the whole family.
• Process Improvement: Audit current retail operations, identifying opportunities to optimize ordering, pricing, signage, and checkout.
• Event & Seasonal Planning: Coordinate with venues & event operators to plan seasonal lines, lines for specific events (e.g., Ripken National Championships, Futures Games), and lines for specific customers (e.g., women’s line).
• KPIs & Reporting: Work with the Buying Team to gather post-event retail reporting and troubleshooting — per team revenue, margin trends, sell through levels — and lead reviews with venue operators to drive data-backed decisions.
• E-Commerce Buildout: Lead growth of digital retail channels, including our Shopify site, LeagueApps integrations, and digital marketing to drive traffic and conversion; coordinate with the Buying Team on inventory alignment and fulfillment logistics.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of retail or merchandising experience, ideally in sports, event, lifestyle, or experiential retail environments.
• Proven success managing cross-functional teams or acting as the connective tissue between Creative and Operations.
• Strong sense of visual merchandising, trend forecasting, and retail storytelling.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills — thrives in high-volume, deadline-driven environments.
• Comfort with data and analytics to inform assortment, pricing, and layout decisions.
• Experience working with POS, inventory, and retail planning systems with a strong understanding of omni-channel merchandising.
• Willingness to travel to venues and for tentpole events.

What We Offer

• Opportunity to lead and grow a retail business at a fast-growing and well-capitalized youth sports platform aiming to build the best youth sports brand in the world.
• Entrepreneurial culture with autonomy to shape strategy and execution.
• Competitive compensation package including base salary, performance bonus, and benefits.
• Access to a passionate, sports-driven community and the chance to impact the experience of athletes and families nationwide.

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