Operations Manager

Windance Boardshop; Hood River (OR); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Year-Round Stability

Profit-Sharing Upside

Off-Season PTO

Gear discounts

Job summary

Windance Board Shop in Hood River, OR is seeking a year-round Operations Manager who will run our high-performing retail engine on the floor, lead the team, and protect our legacy as the Gorge's premier wind sports shop.

This hands-on role requires you to work side-by-side with staff, manage inventory, train teammates, and coordinate sales, service, and logistics while staying true to our ego-free, high-grit culture.

Qualifications

• Extensive retail operations and team leadership experience in a fast-paced wind sports or action sports environment.
• Strong on-floor sales, inventory control, and customer service skills.
• Ability to train, coach, and build a collaborative culture in a high-volume shop.
• Willingness to work long peak-season hours and weekends.

Responsibilities

• Drive revenue through expert gear guidance and precise package builds.
• Oversee training and culture, coaching on the floor between customers.
• Manage receiving, merchandising, inventory data integrity, and weekly scheduling.
• Serve as operational backstop for staff coverage when shifts are short.

Job description

Windance Board Shop is looking for a year-round, execution-focused Operations Manager to lead our physical storefront, cultivate our team, and protect our legacy as the premier technical wind sports shop in the Gorge. Your primary mission is to run a high-performing retail and service engine, acting as a true right-hand partner to the owner. This ensures the shop operates flawlessly 7 days a week, allowing the owner to focus heavily on scaling our digital footprint, e-commerce growth, and media creation.

The Reality of the Role

Windance Board Shop is looking for a year-round, execution-focused Operations Manager to lead our physical storefront, cultivate our team, and protect our legacy as the premier technical wind sports shop in the Gorge. Your primary mission is to run a high-performing retail and service engine, acting as a true right-hand partner to the owner. This ensures the shop operates flawlessly 7 days a week, allowing the owner to focus heavily on scaling our digital footprint, e-commerce growth, and media creation.

The Reality of the Role

This is a hands-on, on-the-floor role. We are a fast-moving, high-volume specialty shop, not a corporate office. You will not have a private office, a personal desk, or time to sit back and delegate.

You will spend your shift on the sales floor standing at a computer terminal, answering ringing phones, unboxing heavy gear shipments, managing inventory, and working directly with technical customers. You will be "doing" the work right alongside the team. We have a flat, high-grit culture here: you must bring ego-free, roll-up-your-sleeves work ethic every single day.

You do not need to be a pro rider, but you must actively participate in our sports (wing foil, parawing, windsurf, kite, pump foil, e-foil, wake foil) and live the lifestyle to maintain our shop's reputation for deep technical credibility.

Core Responsibilities & Daily Grind1. On-the-Floor Sales & Customer Service (The Priority)

• Drive Revenue: Spend your day actively selling. Provide unmatched technical insights to customers, build precise gear packages to get riders stoked, and move inventory efficiently.
• Relentless Follow-Through: Take personal accountability for customer orders, service tracking, and communication. Coordinate relentlessly to ensure customer issues, technical gear questions, and order updates are resolved completely and professionally.
• Master the Counter: Run the point-of-sale system, manage rental/repair intakes, and keep the floor moving cleanly during chaotic rushes.

2. Shoulder-to-Shoulder Team Training & Culture

• Strategic Training Design: Actively assess the knowledge and skill levels of our seasonal (up to 20) and winter (5) staff. Design and execute targeted training sessions to level up their technical product knowledge and sales workflows.
• On-the-Fly Coaching: Because we are staffed thinly, you must train and coach employees in real-time on the floor between customer walk-ins.
• Empower Peer Experts: Recognize unique technical strengths within the existing team and actively have them run quick, informal huddles to train the crew. Build a collaborative culture where everyone drives the business.

3. Store Logistics, Data Integrity, & Admin

• Heavy Lifting & Merchandising: Physically receive shipments accurately, stock the shelves, maintain immaculate visual merchandising, and keep the shop clean.
• Inventory Control: Keep a sharp eye on data accuracy at the register so our physical stock perfectly mirrors our online records to protect our e-commerce workflows.
• Schedule Maintenance: Build and manage the weekly staff schedule (via Sling) by strict deadlines. Serve as the absolute operational backstop for staff call-outs—if a shift is empty, you ensure it is covered.

What We’re Looking For

• Technical Product Drive: Active windsurfer, wing foiler, or kiter who can confidently talk technical gear with experts or possesses the rapid aptitude to learn our lines inside out.
• High Operational Grit: A proactive problem-solver who catches the "punts." When a system breaks or a conflict arises, you diagnose it and fix it on the spot instead of passing daily retail headaches to the owner.
• Peak Season Hustle: Understand the reality of seasonal retail. Summer is our high-noon. This role requires consistent weekend availability and long hours during peak season. We have a strict zero-time-off policy during our peak summer months.
• No Corporate Mindset: If you are looking for a desk job or an environment where you just delegate tasks to others, do not apply. (Applicants with passive retail supervisor or passive clerk experience will not be considered).

The Perks

• Year-Round Stability: A predictable, reliable, year-round salary that stays steady through the winter drop.
• Profit-Sharing Upside: Direct financial incentives tied to increasing the shop's operational efficiency and net profit growth.
• Off-Season Freedom: Structured Paid Time Off (PTO) scheduled strictly during our late fall and winter shoulder seasons so you can travel or ride extensively when the shop’s volume drops.
• Gear: Deep gear discounts and access to the industry's latest equipment