Retail Staffing Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

OVERVIEW

The Manager, Labor Planning owns the retail labor budget, the monthly labor walk, our retail staffing model, and the reporting that connects them. This role is the bridge between labor demand and how stores are actually built and staffed, ensuring every store is structured to support its revenue tier, that leadership models stay aligned as volumes evolve, and that the field has clear guidance through peak periods including holiday and key promos.

This position partners closely with Workforce Management, Retail Operations, Finance, and HR to ensure labor investment and staffing decisions are understood, optimized, and aligned with business priorities. The ideal candidate is highly analytical, detail-oriented, and skilled at turning complex workforce data into compelling, executive-ready narratives.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Labor budget & planning

• Own the retail labor budget. Build, defend, and land it; partner with Finance and Workforce Management to ensure labor planning aligns with budget assumptions, forecasts, and business or operational plans.
• Develop and deliver the monthly labor walk that connects budget to actuals, clearly explaining where labor is being spent, why variances exist, and what actions are recommended.
• Build and maintain a weekly retail labor report, providing visibility into staffing levels, labor spend, productivity, and key drivers of variance.
• Assess and monitor Legion Scheduling forecast accuracy, identifying gaps between forecasted and actual demand and recommending improvements to labor and forecasting models.
• Own labor driver forecasts, ensuring the correct workload hours are loaded to each store to support selling and non-selling operations, including custom event labor hour forecasts. 

Staffing model & leadership alignment

• Own the retail staffing model. Define staffing structures, position mix, and headcount needs by store and revenue tier in partnership with field and retail operations leadership. 
• Own the leadership model. Maintain alignment between revenue tiers and leadership shape across the fleet; re-tier stores and rebalance teams as volumes evolve so every store has the right structure for its business.
• Maintain the retail staffing census, ensuring accurate and timely tracking of headcount, vacancies, and hiring progress against the staffing model.
• Report on staffing-to-census; surface gaps and partner with HR and Talent Acquisition on hiring priorities driven by the model.

Field-facing scheduling guidance

• Provide store and field-facing scheduling guidance through peak periods, including holiday, key promos, and major drop weeks. 
• Partner with regional WFM leads and store leadership on peak readiness, pre-peak hiring cadence, and post-event read-outs.

Reporting & insights

• Own all reporting related to labor and scheduling, including retention and turnover reporting, AHR reporting, labor and scheduling report. Identify trends, risks, and opportunities across regions, stores, and roles.
• Produce clear, concise reporting and insights for leadership, translating labor and staffing data into stories that support operational and financial decision-making.

Cross-functional partnership

• Collaborate cross-functionally with Retail Operations, HR, Finance, Payroll, and Technology to ensure data accuracy and consistency across systems.
• Support continuous improvement of labor planning, staffing model, and reporting processes as the retail fleet scales.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Analytics, Operations, Finance, or a related field.
• 5-7 years of experience in workforce management, labor analytics, retail operations analytics, or a related field, with demonstrated progression into ownership of a recurring labor planning cycle.
• Demonstrated ownership of a labor budget at scale. You've built it, defended it, and been accountable for how it lands.
• Experience designing, maintaining, or evolving staffing models and leadership structures across a multi-store retail fleet.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret large datasets and identify meaningful trends and insights.
• Experience building recurring operational and financial reports, including variance analysis and executive-level summaries.
• Working knowledge of workforce management concepts such as forecasting, scheduling, productivity, and labor modeling.
• Experience with workforce management systems; Legion experience strongly preferred.
• Advanced Excel skills including Excel Power Query.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain labor drivers to non-technical audiences.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable working in a fast-paced retail environment.

The base salary range for this position is $125,000-$135,000 per year which represents the current range for the base salary for this exempt position. Please note that actual salaries will vary based on factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. As such, on occasion and when applicable, there is the possibility that the final, agreed-upon base salary may be outside of the upper end of the range. Please also note the range listed is just one component of the company's total rewards package for exempt employees. Other rewards may include performance bonuses, long term incentives, a PTO policy, and many other progressive benefits.