Back of House Lead at FAO Schwarz

The Back of House Lead is the force behind a world-class guest experience. You own the product journey from the moment a shipment arrives to the moment it lands in a guest’s hands, making smart commercial decisions about what gets processed first, how the stockroom is organized, and where the team focuses. When this role is done brilliantly, the magic is frictionless.

This role carries equal weight on the floor. When your team is replenishing, they are the guest experience, and you hold them to that standard. You also serve a wider internal customer: the floor teams, Visual, VIP, and store leadership all depend on Operations to deliver. Building trust, earning credibility, and actively championing your team across the business is as important as what happens in the stockroom.

FAO Schwarz Flagship at 30 Rock: 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111

Creating the Magic

Lead the Product

• Own the product journey end-to-end, from receiving and processing to getting the right product on the floor with speed and accuracy.
• Make commercial decisions on what to process first. Bestsellers, high-margin lines, and key departments always take priority.
• Design and maintain a stockroom that mirrors the sales floor, so key products are always easy to find, easy to reach, and ready to replenish quickly, whether you know the stockroom inside and out or it’s your first day.
• Drive replenishment with pace and a guest-first mindset. An empty shelf is a missed sale, and you build a team that treats it that way.
• Lead ship from store operations from start to finish, managing the process of fulfilling guest purchases for home delivery with accuracy and pace.
• Act as a keyholder, responsible for the safe opening and closing of stockrooms, the breakroom, and back office areas.

Lead the Team

• Coach and develop the Back of House team, adapting your style to bring out the best in each person.
• Show up for new team members during onboarding to help them ramp up quickly and feel confident in the role from day one.
• Hold the team to the same guest engagement standard as anyone on the floor. When your team is replenishing, they are FAO Schwarz, stopping to help, answer questions, and create moments of connection, just as any floor team member would.
• Provide regular coaching and feedback, using on-the-floor observations to support individual and team performance.
• Recognize strong performance and hold the team accountable when expectations aren’t met, escalating concerns as needed.

Run the Operation

• Drive shipment processing with urgency and accuracy, prioritizing the floor’s most pressing needs and validating every delivery to minimize shrinkage.
• Keep the stockroom clean, safe, and operationally ready at all times, maintain the organizational system, and address anything that could slow the team down.
• Lead the team’s daily operational rhythm, ensuring everyone knows their priorities, coverage is clear, and the floor is set before guests arrive.
• Identify maintenance and repair needs across the store and promptly escalate them to the appropriate partners, keeping the environment safe for the team and guests.

Drive Business Performance

• Make commercial decisions that drive sales, prioritizing high-margin and high-velocity products in every processing and replenishment decision, knowing that how you run the operation directly impacts what the floor sells.
• Read the data and act on it, using sales trends and inventory reports to keep replenishment sharp and availability strong.
• Own inventory accuracy and shrink mitigation, holding the team to consistent processes and escalating concerns before they become issues.
• Share how the operation is performing with the team, helping them understand how their decisions and pace connect directly to the store’s results.

Partner Across the Store

• Treat every team you serve as an internal customer by understanding their needs, responding with urgency, and consistently delivering on your commitments.
• Conduct daily floor walks to stay connected to what’s happening on the shop floor, identify replenishment priorities, anticipate needs, and strengthen relationships with the teams who depend on you.
• Actively promote and advocate for the Back of House team across the business, building its reputation as a high-performing team that enables everything else.
• Partner with the VIP and Experience teams ahead of events and activations to ensure product availability and operational readiness, so nothing disrupts the guest experience.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with vendors and external partners to keep operations running smoothly and resolve issues before they escalate.
• Cascade key communications across your team so they are aware of events, business goals, and expectations for their respective areas.

What Success looks like

You’re doing well in this role when:

• Shelves are full, the product is always where it should be, and nothing on the operations side ever interrupts the guest experience.
• Your team engages guests on the floor with the same warmth and energy as any associate in the store does.
• Commercial priorities are reflected in how the stockroom is organized and which product hits the floor first.
• Shipments are processed accurately and on time, and the team treats shrink prevention as non-negotiable.
• Team members clearly understand expectations, receive regular feedback, and are gaining confidence and capability.
• Internal customers trust Back of House to deliver. The team’s contribution is visible across the business, and you’ve built a reputation people rely on.
• The stockroom mirrors the sales floor, organized, intuitive, and always ready to replenish at pace.
• You can speak confidently about how operations are performing commercially and where improvements can be made.

This role aligns with Level M3 in our Career Framework and reflects first-line leadership responsibility, subject-matter expertise in store operations, and growing ownership of team performance and delivery. It provides a strong foundation for progression into Assistant Manager roles (Level M4).

Requirements

You don’t need to be perfect, but you do need to thrive in a fast-paced environment where operational precision and people leadership go hand in hand.

• 2+ years of experience in a Back of House supervisory role within a fast-paced premium retail or experience-based environment.
• Experience coaching and developing team members through feedback and hands-on daily leadership.
• A commercial mindset. You understand how operational decisions drive sales and make choices accordingly.
• Strong presence on the floor and confidence in making real-time decisions in a high-volume environment.
• Solid knowledge of inventory management, shrink mitigation, and shipment processing best practices.
• Familiarity with POS and inventory management systems is a plus.
• The ability to build trust and strong working relationships with internal teams and external partners.
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds and stand, bend, and twist for extended periods.
• Flexibility to work days, evenings, weekends, and peak retail periods

Benefits

• $23.00 - $25.00/hr + Store Incentive Bonus
• Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision coverage
• Employee discounts
• Pre-Tax Commuter Benefits
• Retirement Plan (401k + Match)
• Paid Vacation + paid company holidays
• Paid + Unpaid sick time

This job description should not be construed to contain every function/responsibility that may be required to be performed by this role. Employees are required to perform other related functions as assigned.

FAO Schwarz is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, military or veteran status, arrest or conviction record, predisposing genetic characteristics, status as a victim of domestic violence, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.