Experiential Retail Director

Pop-Ups, Campus Tours, Activations & Store Development | Full-Time

Reports to:

Chief Executive Officer |

Location:

NYC HQ (Hybrid — 3 days in-office / 2 days remote) | Travel: 25–50%

Salary Range: $120,000 – $150,000 base, commensurate with experience, plus performance bonus

Roller Rabbit is seeking an Experiential Retail Director to own the end-to-end lifecycle of our pop-up shops, campus tours, pop-ins, and brand activations — the perennial experiences that bring our world to life beyond our permanent doors. This person will be the connective tissue between landlords, retail partners, campuses, hotels, and our internal creative, merchandising, and operations teams, ensuring every activation is sourced, negotiated, designed, built, and executed on brand, on time, and on budget.

This role also supports permanent store buildouts and renovations to existing locations as they arise, making it a strong fit for someone who enjoys moving fluidly between fast-turn temporary experiences and longer-horizon capital projects.

• Identify and cultivate relationships with landlords, retail partners, campuses, hotels, and event venues for short-term and seasonal activations.
• Lead negotiations on short-term leases, licenses, and pop-in agreements — terms, rent structure, build-out allowances, and exit provisions.
• Evaluate prospective locations against foot traffic, demographics, seasonality, and brand fit; build the business case for each opportunity.
• Maintain a pipeline and calendar of activations across markets, balancing lead time, capital, and staffing capacity.
• Partner with creative, marketing, and merchandising teams to concept each activation's look, feel, and product story, tailored to the venue and audience.
• Brief and manage third-party designers, fabricators, and vendors to bring concepts to life within budget and timeline.
• Ensure every activation reflects Roller Rabbit's brand aesthetic and visual merchandising standards.

• Own physical set-up, bump-in, and bump-out logistics for every activation, including staffing, freight, fixtures, signage, and technology (POS, Wi-Fi, security).
• Serve as the on-the-ground lead or manage a field team through installation and de-installation, troubleshooting issues in real time.
• Develop and refine repeatable operational playbooks so activations can scale efficiently across multiple simultaneous sites.
• Build and manage budgets for each activation, from site cost through build-out, staffing, and tear-down; track actuals against plan.
• Source, negotiate, and manage relationships with general contractors, fabricators, freight/logistics providers, and other third-party vendors.
• Report on activation performance (sales, cost-per-activation, ROI) and translate learnings into sharper future site selection and design.

• Support new permanent store buildouts, including landlord coordination, permitting, and contractor management, in partnership with the retail and construction teams.
• Assist with renovations of existing store locations as they arise, applying the same rigor around budget, timeline, and brand consistency.

This role sits at the intersection of retail, marketing, merchandising, finance, and legal, and will work closely with department leadership across Roller Rabbit and the broader Vivid Group portfolio to keep activations aligned with company priorities and brand standards.

• 8+ years of experience in experiential retail, pop-up/activation management, retail operations, or a related field, with a track record of owning projects end-to-end.
• Demonstrated success negotiating short-term leases, licenses, or venue agreements…