As an Area Manager, you will hold full leadership responsibility for the commercial results, customer experience, and overall profitability of the stores within Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece You ensure the effective implementation of global and regional strategies, delivering elevated collection presentation and operational excellence that position COS as a market leader within your region.
In this role, you oversee the strategic planning and execution of all sales‑driving and operational activities, ensuring each store delivers a consistent, inspiring brand experience aligned with company standards. You work closely with Store Managers to analyse performance, identify opportunities, and drive continuous improvement across your portfolio.
A central part of your mission is to cultivate a people‑first culture You build strong, high‑performing teams by providing coaching, development, and clear leadership to ensure your stores are equipped to deliver exceptional service and achieve sustainable, profitable growth.
What you will do:
Sales and Financial Performance: Accountable for the commercial success of the area, analysing performance data to identify opportunities and risks and ensure the delivery of strong. financial performance. Lead the execution of sales strategies and implement cost control measures to drive profitability and growth.
Customer Experience: Champion a customer-first mindset, ensuring exceptional service across all stores. Monitor service performance and competitor benchmarks to maintain COS’s leadership in customer experience
Operational Management: Oversee daily operations across multiple stores, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and compliance with COS standards. Collaborate cross-functionally to implement staffing structures, optimise store layouts, and uphold audit criteria.
Team Leadership and Development: Lead and develop Store Managers, fostering a high-performing and inclusive culture. Guide the team through the full employee lifecycle, ensuring alignment with COS’s values, leadership principles, and business goals.
Compliance and Safety: Ensure all stores comply with health, safety, and legal regulations. Lead efforts to minimize stock loss and operational risk through audits and adherence to COS guidelines.
Alignment to our company values is the most important characteristic we look for in all new joiners. Our values are the behaviours that we appreciate above and beyond anything else. We are open‑minded and curious, we dare to be different, we believe in constant improvement, and we empower and trust you to take ownership. Our values are part of who we are, what we stand for, and how we act.
What you need to succeed:
Business Acumen: Understands the retail landscape and makes resourceful, data-informed decisions. Balances priorities with a focus on sustainable results and long-term value creation
Dedication to Excellence: Fosters a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging a mindset focused on value creation and continuous evolution to surpass customer expectations with outstanding services.
Customer Centricity: Keeps a pulse on customer and user needs, industry trends and best practices to ensure COS can deliver exceptional experiences and drive business outcomes through their external partnerships.
Operational Excellence: Demonstrates the ability to oversee and continuously improve operations. Applies strategic planning, process optimization, and resource management to drive efficiency and consistency.
Communication: Communicates clearly and effectively, adapting to different audiences and contexts. Listens actively, gives and receives feedback constructively, and represents the brand confidently when engaging with franchise partners.
Additional Requirements: Fluent in English, with strong verbal and written communication skills. Willingness and ability to travel extensively (up to 80% of the time).
This is a full time permanent position based in Milan, Italy.
Benefits
We offer all our employees attractive benefits with extensive development opportunities around the globe. All our employees receive a 25% staff discount usable on all our H&M Group brands in stores and online. In addition to our staff discount, all our employees are included in our H&M Incentive Program – HIP. You can read more about our H&M Incentive Program here
In addition to this Italy based colleagues also receive
Inclusion & Diversity
At H&M Group, we're determined to create and maintain inclusive, diverse and equitable workplaces throughout our organisation. Our teams should consist of a variety of people who share and combine their knowledge, experience and ideas. Having a diverse workforce leads to a positive impact on how we address challenges, what we perceive as possible and how we choose to relate to our colleagues and customers all over the world, therefore all diversity dimensions are taken into consideration in our recruitment process.
Ready to apply? Click on the I'M INTERESTED link where you can upload your CV securely. Once we have received your application, we will keep you updated regularly about the status of your application so please look out for our email.
Founded in 1947, H&M Group is a global design company with ~4,702 stores in 76 markets and 56 online markets. At H&M Group, we believe in making great design available to everyone. It’s essential in everything we do. Our family of brands and business ventures offer customers around the world a wealth of fashion, beauty, accessories and homeware, as well as modern menus with fresh and local produce at some of the brands’ in-store eateries.
But design is so much more than just products; it’s about clever design processes, efficient product flows, creating experiences that enrich, and smart solutions that benefit all our customers.
Sustainability is always at the core of our business. Not only because we like to do what’s right — but it’s also beneficial for our business. We will continue to push for change and lead the way towards a more inclusive and sustainable fashion future.
Do you want to join us? We will trust you with great responsibility right from the start, reward a passionate mindset and encourage an entrepreneurial spirit. When you start a career with H&M Group, there’s no limit to where it can take you.
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