Food Retail Manager

Food Retail Manager IKEA - Tempe

IKEA's vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. We are committed to making a positive impact on people, society, and the planet through our work. Our team is passionate about home furnishing, enhancing life at home, and sharing responsibly sourced food. We foster a positive work environment guided by our culture and values, promoting equality, diversity, inclusion, health, and wellbeing, while nurturing individual development and career opportunities.

About this Role

This is a Permanent Full-time position, working 76 hours per fortnight. The internal job title is Unit Food Commercial Manager. This role is based on-site at IKEA Tempe store. As our store operates 7 days per week, availability for a rotating roster including day and evening shifts, and alternating weekends (Saturday and Sunday) is required. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to complete a video interview as part of the recruitment process.

Responsibilities

As Food Retail Manager, you will lead the commercial business for IKEA Food, aiming to improve performance across all food areas and deliver an inspiring customer experience. Your duties will include:

• Leading and driving food commercial operations, ensuring strong execution of the commercial strategy, calendar, and sales initiatives.
• Implementing IKEA commercial frameworks, standards, and cross-merchandising strategies in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.
• Delivering a high-quality, seamless, and memorable customer experience across all food areas, including the Swedish Restaurant and Swedish Food Market.
• Securing operational excellence, ensuring food safety, compliance, and high standards are consistently met.
• Coaching and developing leaders and co-workers, ensuring the team possesses the necessary competence and capability to achieve results.
• Utilising customer insights and feedback for continuous improvement of the Food business and customer journey.
• Contributing to and executing the unit business plan and IKEA Food business plan, aligning Food operations with the overall store commercial agenda.
• Driving commercial performance and profitability, ensuring strong top-line sales and healthy gross margins.
• Collaborating cross-functionally to ensure Food is integrated into the total store experience.

Who You Are

You are a strong, values-driven leader capable of balancing strategic thinking with operational excellence. You possess:

• A passion for food, people, and commercial results, with the ability to translate strategy into action.
• Proven leadership experience, with a minimum of 3 years leading teams or leaders in a high-volume, customer-facing environment, ideally within food retail or hospitality.
• Strong commercial acumen, with experience managing budgets, analysing P&Ls, and optimising sales and margins.
• Excellent planning, organisational, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• The ability to influence, collaborate, and build strong cross-functional relationships.
• A customer-first mindset with an understanding of customer behaviour in a retail or food environment.
• A proactive, solution-oriented mindset with confidence in decision-making and problem-solving.
• The ability to lead through change, inspire teams, and deliver results through people.
• Strong alignment with IKEA values, with a passion for diversity, inclusion, and creating a positive workplace culture.

Benefits and Rewards

Working at IKEA offers:

• 5 weeks' Paid Annual Leave, Paid Parental Leave, Family & Community Leave, and more.
• 24/7 access to our Employee Assistance Program for health and wellbeing support.
• 15% Co-worker discount.
• Low-cost nutritious meals, including complimentary drinks in our Co-worker restaurant.
• Co-worker uniform provided.
• Free Co-worker parking.
• Bonus programme (where eligible).
• Benefits Membership (savings and discounts on everyday expenses, entertainment, retail, and well-being offers across hundreds of retailers and service providers).
• Co-worker Loyalty programme (extra contribution to your superannuation fund where eligible).