Lenskart - Assistant General Manager/General Manager - Central Operations - IIM/ISB/MDI/FMS

Assistant General Manager/General Manager - Central Operations (6-9 yrs)

Role Summary

The Central Store Operations role is the single owner of the backend operating system that keeps the pan-India store fleet running consistently, efficiently and at high standard. The role defines how stores operate (SOPs), how compliance is verified (audit), how technology is deployed to measure and improve store performance, and how change is rolled out across the network without disruption.
Working across Audit, Loss Prevention, Business Development, Training & Academy, Visual Merchandising and Tech, the role converts policy and standards into reliable execution on the shop floor. Success is measured by store readiness, audit compliance, shrinkage reduction, cost discipline on consumables, on-time refits and seamless new-store handovers.
Key Responsibilities:
Store Operations Technology and AI Implementation:
- Own the ideation and implementation of AI charter and rollout of operations technology across the store network, partnering with the Tech and Product teams.
- Lead deployment of CCTV-based footfall measurement, AI-based store cleanliness monitoring and AI-based staff grooming monitoring, and similar store-tech initiatives.
- Ensure data accuracy, store-level adoption, and that telemetry from these systems feeds back into operational decisions and reporting.
Backend Operations SOPs:
- Define, document and maintain the end-to-end SOPs governing all backend store operations across COCO, FOFO and HOB formats.
- Standardise operating procedures across the fleet, version-control changes, and ensure SOPs stay current with new processes, formats and launches.
- Establish a clear adoption and review cadence so that every store operates to a single, consistent standard.
Audit Mechanisms & Corrective Action:
- Design and own the audit framework and scoring mechanisms used to assess store compliance against SOPs.
- Partner closely with the Audit team to translate audit findings into time-bound corrective actions at the store, AOM and region level.
- Drive closure of audit gaps through structured tracking, escalation and follow-through with field leadership.
Change Management at Stores:
- Own change management across the network, including Visual Merchandising (VM) changes and new-launch readiness.
- Build and run a structured rollout playbook so that VM resets, product launches and process changes land on time and to standard at every store.
- Partner with Circle Heads to ensure smooth, on-ground implementation of changes across their respective circles.
- Coordinate with field teams to verify readiness before go-live and capture execution feedback for continuous improvement.
Store Inventory Monitoring:
- Provide feedback to Merchandising Team on available inventory at the store. Gather store staff feedback related to the merchandise, validate the same with data and provide actionable insight to the Merchandising Team.
- Partner with the Loss Prevention team to identify, monitor and reduce inventory shrinkage across stores by strengthening process controls and surfacing shrinkage hotspots.
- Manage the store consumables inventory end-to-end across the network and maintain the right balance between cost efficiency and customer experience, ensuring stores are never under-stocked on customer-facing essentials while controlling spend.
- Establish norms, replenishment logic and cost benchmarks for consumables at store level.
Store Refit and New Store Opening:
- Own the refit charter for the store network, including cost benefit analysis, planning, scheduling and tracking of all store refits ensuring on-time completion of refits to minimize the minimising store downtime and revenue impact.
- Partner with the Business Development team to enable smooth new-store openings ensuring sales operations take over the store at the right time, with all operational readiness criteria met for a clean handover.
- Define and run the operations handover checklist that bridges site readiness to live trading.
Training Compliance & Consequence Management:
- Partner with Academy team to ensure all store staff adhere to training calendar by tracking the completion percentage across network and nudge regional leaders for completion.
- Define, communicate and manage the consequence framework for non-adherence to training requirements.
FOFO Operations & Incentive Release:
- Manage day-to-day operations for the 300+ FOFO store network, ensuring consistent operating standards in line with the broader fleet.
- Own the incentive release process for FOFO stores, ensuring accurate, timely and policy-compliant payouts.
- Coordinate with finance and field teams to resolve operational and incentive-related queries for FOFO partners.
Key Cross-Functional Partnerships:
- Audit - compliance verification and corrective action.
- Loss Prevention - shrinkage control and process integrity.
- Business Development - new store openings and handover.
- Training & Academy - training calendar adherence and consequences.
- Visual Merchandising - VM changes and launch readiness.
- Circle Heads - on-ground implementation of changes across circles.
- Tech / Product - store operations technology deployment.
- Projects & Maintenance - store refits and consumables.
Success Measures:
- SOP coverage and adoption across the fleet.
- Store audit compliance scores and speed of gap closure.
- Adoption and data accuracy of store operations technology.
- On-time, to-standard execution of VM changes and launches.
- Reduction in inventory shrinkage.
- Consumables cost efficiency without customer-experience trade-off.
- Percentage of refits started and completed on schedule.
- On-time operational handover of new stores.
- Training calendar adherence across stores.
- Accuracy and timeliness of FOFO incentive release.
Qualifications & Experience:
- 6 - 9 years of experience in retail operations, central operations or operational excellence, ideally in a large multi-store / multi-format retail network.
- Proven experience defining SOPs, running audit or compliance mechanisms, and leading network-wide change management.
- Exposure to retail technology deployment (e.g. CCTV analytics, AI-based monitoring, store systems) is strongly preferred.
- Strong cross-functional stakeholder management across audit, loss prevention, tech, training and field teams.
- Graduate degree required; MBA from Tier 1 Institute / comparable work experience.
Skills & Competencies:
- Structured, process-first thinking with a strong execution and follow-through orientation.
- Comfort with data and reporting to monitor compliance, cost and readiness at scale.
- Ability to influence and drive accountability across field leadership without direct authority.
- Balanced judgement on cost versus customer experience.
- Bias for standardisation, consistency and operational discipline across a large fleet.
- Knows when to escalate to drive business priorities. Internal Note: Please look for folks from organisations like Zomato / Blinkit, Swiggy (GM and above), Amazon (L5 and above), Cars24, PayTM, Airtel, Central Ops of Retail Giants