Head of Retail

Can you walk into a Walmart buyer meeting and walk out with more shelf space than you came in with?

Can you look at a sell-through report and immediately know why a SKU is bleeding and exactly what to do about it?

Have you actually built a retail business - not managed a book of logos, but built something - from early distribution to thousands of productive doors?

Freebird® is a 9-figure DTC brand serving over 2 million customers and redefining shaving for the modern consumer. We've built a loyal subscriber base, a portfolio of best-in-class grooming products, and one of the strongest direct-response engines in the space. Now retail is becoming a serious growth channel, and we're looking for the person who will own it.

We're looking for a Head of Retail to become Freebird's internal retail expert and owner - responsible for taking an emerging retail channel and turning it into a significant national growth engine. You'll own the strategy, relationships, assortment, economics, execution, and ultimately the team required to make that happen.

This is not an account management role. This is a builder role. If you've built this before and want to build it again - keep reading.

What You'll Own

Protect and Scale Walmart

Take full ownership of the commercial relationship - buyers, line reviews, assortment, pricing, programs, and commitments.

Ensure 2026 expansion, holiday program, and PDQ execute successfully.

Maintain real-time visibility into sell-through, in-stock, replenishment, inventory, and forecasts.

Own the Walmart P&L and all trade-spend decision making.

Build the roadmap for expanding men's, women's, refill, and secondary SKUs.

Develop the next line review and feature strategy.

Launch and Internalize Target

Take direct ownership of the Target buyer relationship.

Assess what stays with external partners versus moves in-house.

Own the launch plan, assortment, economics, and all internal workstreams.

Execute a successful national launch with Freebird holding the direct relationship - no dependency on a broker as the sole relationship holder.

Build the infrastructure to manage Target internally following launch.

Build the Path to 10,000+ Doors

Produce a prioritized 2-3 year U.S. retail expansion strategy within 90 days.

Segment retailers by fit, revenue opportunity, margin, brand value, and probability of success.

Identify the next 5-10 accounts to pursue - CVS, Walgreens, Ulta, Best Buy, Sam's Club, Costco, Kroger, H-E-B, Publix, and others.

Have multiple new retailer relationships actively progressing through buyer meetings, line reviews, or tests within 12 months.

Build Freebird's Retail Assortment Strategy

Build a retailer-specific assortment architecture across men's kits, women's kits, refill blades, consumables, premium tiers, club bundles, and retailer-exclusive configurations.

Determine which products belong in which retailers, at what MSRP, with what pack architecture.

Define when new SKUs deserve shelf space and where exclusives create competitive advantage.

Protect DTC and retail pricing simultaneously across channels.

Build the Refill and Consumables Business

Turn retail from a one-time hardware sale into a recurring ecosystem.

Develop the strategy for landing refill blades alongside devices at retail.

Use device velocity to justify additional refill doors and expanded placement.

Build retailer economics around repeat purchase and category value.

Identify opportunities in wet shave, care, and other consumable products.

Own Retail Economics

Build and manage retailer-level P&Ls: wholesale revenue, gross margin, trade spend, promotions, markdowns, retail media, freight, deductions, returns, and contribution margin.

Ensure retail growth is profitable growth - not simply door count expansion.

Make commercial decisions grounded in unit economics and long-term account health.

Build World-Class Retail Execution

Establish strong processes across forecasting, replenishment, in-stock, POs, EDI, OTIF, retailer portals, features, compliance, deductions, and sell-through reporting.

Know what excellent looks like in each area and build the capability underneath you.

Build the Internal Retail Organization

Initially operate as a hands-on, lean retail leader, directly owning and executing the business without an immediate internal team.

Assess current capabilities and define the organizational structure needed as the retail business scales.

Over time, build the right internal team to support a 10,000–20,000+ door business, with hiring driven by growth and business needs rather than upfront headcount.

Progressively reduce dependency on external brokers as capabilities come in-house.

Requirements

What We're Looking For

• Personally owned a meaningful Walmart business - buyers, line reviews, Retail Link, replenishment, features, and negotiations. Non-negotiable.
• Managed Target from the brand side with direct buyer relationships. Strongly preferred.
• Grown a consumer brand beyond Walmart and Target into drug, club, grocery, beauty, electronics, or specialty - knows how to open an account and make it productive, not just get on shelf.
• Worked inside a consumer brand and understands how retail interacts with product, finance, brand, growth, supply chain, and executive leadership. Broker or agency-only backgrounds won't work here.
• Personal care, grooming, beauty, consumer electronics, appliances, or health and wellness background - with experience managing durable products that have consumable or refill components. Relevant backgrounds: Harry's, Manscaped, Braun/P&G, Philips/Norelco, SharkNinja, Edgewell, Church & Dwight, Beiersdorf, Unilever, and similar.
• Can present a 3-year retail strategy in the morning and troubleshoot an out-of-stock at Walmart in the afternoon. Not too senior to get into the details, not too tactical to build the strategy.
• Can evaluate retailer margins, wholesale pricing, promotional economics, trade spend, inventory investment, and retail media ROI. Has owned a P&L and made commercial decisions based on it.
• Energized by ambiguity, building from scratch, and moving without a Fortune 500 support structure. Sees an early-stage retail organization as an opportunity, not a liability.
• Develops authentic, long-term buyer relationships - credible, commercially sharp, responsive, and trusted. Strong in negotiation without being adversarial.
• Works extremely well cross-functionally with Product, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Brand, Creative, Growth, and executive leadership. Retail cannot operate as an isolated sales department.
• Required Background
• 10+ years in consumer products and retail sales
• Senior Director, VP, Head of Retail, Head of Sales, or National Accounts experience
• Personal ownership of Walmart; Target ownership strongly preferred
• Experience managing a $25M+ retail business
• Demonstrated expansion from limited distribution into thousands of doors
• Retail P&L responsibility
• Experience building teams and retail infrastructure