How to hire a store director

How to hire a store director, step by step

Here's a step-by-step store director hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a store director job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new store director
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a store director do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the store director you need to hire. Certain store director roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A store director's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, store directors from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of store directors.

   Type of Store Director	Description	Hourly rate
   Store Director	Top executives devise strategies and policies to ensure that an organization meets its goals. They plan, direct, and coordinate operational activities of companies and organizations.	$20-36
   District Manager & Store Manager	A district manager must make sure that good customer service is delivered to clients, evaluate service quality, and implement corrective action plans when necessary. They manage office operations, carry out appropriate purchases for upgrades while reducing costs, enhance customer service, and work to increase work productivity... Show more	$13-23
   Director Of Operations And Finance	A director of operations and finance is in charge of overseeing and spearheading business and financial operations, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. Their responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis to identify the best practices to optimize operations, coordinating with different departments to gather data, conducting research and analysis to identify new business and investment opportunities, and monitoring the progress of various projects and programs... Show more	$37-87

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Payroll
   • Store Sales
   • Food Safety
   • Customer Service
   • Sales Growth
   • Cleanliness
   • Inventory Management
   • Loss Prevention
   • Team Work
   • Product Knowledge
   • Retail Store
   • GRASS
   • Direct Reports
   • Sales Floor

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Maintain, control, and achieve all KPI set weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.
   • Develop and implement strategic merchandising plans to achieve revenue objectives and reduce expenditures while ensuring payroll remains within budget goals.
   • Ensure safety and cleanliness of work / customer environment, arranging necessary repairs and upkeep of internal and external property.
   • Maintain excellent store conditions through dynamic product presentation, organization and store cleanliness.
   • Participate in the development and implementation of a company wide labor scheduler payroll budgeting system base on actual work content.
   • Develop innovative marketing materials and create free weekly seminars in basic pet discipline development skills to increase training program enrollment.

   More store director duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the store director job description is a good way to get more applicants. A store director salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a store director in Montana may be lower than in Delaware, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level store director. Additionally, a store director with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average store director salary

   $56,596yearly

   $27.21 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level store director salary

   $42,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 19, 2026

   Average store director salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New York	$67,530	$32
   2	Virginia	$66,143	$32
   3	New Jersey	$65,015	$31
   4	Connecticut	$64,769	$31
   5	California	$64,209	$31
   6	Colorado	$61,801	$30
   7	Florida	$60,291	$29
   8	Washington	$57,835	$28
   9	New Mexico	$57,049	$27
   10	Pennsylvania	$53,945	$26
   11	Texas	$51,910	$25
   12	Nevada	$50,827	$24
   13	Tennessee	$48,653	$23
   14	Louisiana	$48,007	$23
   15	Georgia	$45,445	$22
   16	Utah	$43,406	$21
   17	Idaho	$42,831	$21
   18	Hawaii	$42,446	$20
   19	Wyoming	$40,698	$20
   20	Oklahoma	$40,125	$19

   Average store director salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Tory Burch	$59,140	$28.43	23
   2	Louis Vuitton	$57,631	$27.71	6
   3	Grocery Outlet	$56,406	$27.12	45
   4	Glossier	$56,354	$27.09	6
   5	Kering Americas Inc	$56,231	$27.03	25
   6	Curaleaf	$56,231	$27.03	49
   7	US Foods	$56,194	$27.02	30
   8	Kallidus, Inc.	$56,182	$27.01
   9	LEAP Legal Software	$56,117	$26.98	26
   10	Oculus	$55,900	$26.88
   11	Tiffany & Co.	$55,476	$26.67	11
   12	Kilwins	$55,038	$26.46
   13	The Home Store	$54,877	$26.38	32
   14	Bridgeway	$54,353	$26.13	1
   15	Frontline Source Group	$53,782	$25.86	9
   16	Bashas'	$52,696	$25.33	15
   17	Reiss Manufacturing	$52,315	$25.15	2
   18	Vallarta Supermarkets	$52,116	$25.06
   19	Millennium Physician Group	$51,986	$24.99
   20	Kroger	$51,884	$24.94	212

4. Writing a store director job description

   A store director job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a store director job description:

   Store director job description example

   Grocery Outlet is seeking experienced retail leaders to join our paid operator training program. Qualified candidates work alongside an experienced, independent store operators to learn the Grocery Outlet system.
   
   At the end of the 6-12 month paid training program, employees are eligible to apply to independently operate their own store and share in their store’s profits or continue at a Grocery Outlet location as a manager.
   Requirements Strong decision making to do what is right for your store (ordering, merchandising, staffing, etc.)
   Responsibility for total store operations including complete management of the P&L
   Creating staffing models, hire, train and retain employees
   Utilizing an existing distribution channel to customize your product offering for your community
   Local organization partnerships to make a difference in your community
   Strong drive and motivation
   Being an ambassador for Grocery Outlet
   Open to relocation
   
   
   Benefits Qualifications:
   4 years of retail management experience
   Experience overseeing a large team including hiring and training
   Detail orientated, analytical, ability to think quickly and extremely results orientated
   Creative problem-solver
   Experience with merchandising displays
   Interest in autonomy and being able to make your own decisions for your retail store
   
   
   Company DescriptionGrocery Outlet Bargain Market is one of the largest extreme-value grocery retailers in the United States. We are a Family oriented, rapidly growing company with over 400 stores open and operating. We’ve been helping customers save big since 1946. That’s when our founder, Jim Read, opened his very first store and today, the third generation of the Read family is leading the way. We currently have over 400 stores across the West Coast and Mid-Atlantic and trade publicly on Nasdaq.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find store directors for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any store directors they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level store directors with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your store director job on Zippia to find and recruit store director candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting store directors requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new store director

   Once you have selected a candidate for the store director position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new store director. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a store director?