Behind the floor
National Manager
Runs retail across the country: every region, the operating model, and the numbers the board sees.
- Ladder position
- Rung 6
- Experience
- 7–10 years
- Annual band
- Not publishedAORE states no range
01Pay
What it is worth
Annual band
AORE has not published a salary range for this role, and none is estimated here. What the job board advertised
Highest advertised
No listing for this rung is currently on the AORE board.
02The work
What the job actually involves
- Own national sales, profitability and the retail operating plan
- Lead regional and zonal heads
- Set the national retail strategy and operating standards
- Drive network expansion, format decisions and portfolio rationalisation
- Own national budgets, manpower structure and capability building
- Report to the board and to the executive team
03The route
How to get there
Graduate, MBA preferred.
Seven to ten years in retail, including regional leadership.
Build a track record across more than one format or category.
Develop genuine financial fluency — at this level the conversation is capital allocation.
Be visibly good at building leaders; a national role is judged on the organisation you leave behind.
04Eligibility
What employers ask for
Graduate, MBA preferred. Typically 7–10 years including regional leadership.
05Skills
What matters, and why
- Strategic planning
- Your decisions are three-year commitments, not quarterly corrections.
- Financial leadership
- You are competing internally for capital against other functions.
- Organisational design
- The structure determines what the network can execute.
- Board communication
- The board acts on your framing of the number, not the number.
- Leadership development
- Nothing at this scale is delivered personally.
06Progression
Where this sits on the ladder
Retail promotes from within more reliably than most sectors. This is the route in and the route on.
You arrive from
You are here
Also arrives from
Zonal Head
And can lead to
Head of Retail · Vice President · Chief Operating Officer · Chief Executive Officer
07Training
Courses that get you here
08Hiring now