Store Manager Bilbao

🔝 Reports to: Retail Area Manager Southern Europe

📑 Permanent contract

📍 Fashion Outlet Centre, Barakaldo (Bilbao), Spain

📆 Start date: at the earliest convenience

ABOUT THE POSITION

Are you a strong-willed, people-oriented leader with a passion for retail and the outdoors? Columbia Sportswear is looking for a Store Manager to take the lead of our Bilbao store – a promising retail location with a strong local team and exciting development potential.

You’ll be more than a manager: you'll be the business driver, a people developer, and a brand ambassador. You will lead a team of 7 direct reports and play a key role in creating a focused, motivated environment – balancing operational excellence with high team engagement. In Bilbao, more than elsewhere, your leadership and ability to set clear expectations will make the difference.

If you thrive in an autonomous role where structure, ownership, and people management go hand-in-hand, we’d love to hear from you!

HOW YOU’LL MAKE A DIFFERENCE

• Lead and inspire your team by setting a strong business-focused mindset and fostering accountability and autonomy.
• Maintain a high-performance culture, where customer experience, teamwork, and productivity are consistently top priorities.
• Act as the main point of contact for internal stakeholders and proactively collaborate across departments (Retail Ops, HR, Marketing...).
• Develop and execute local business opportunities and partnerships to grow external traffic (e.g. B2B programs like IKEA employee discounts).
• Manage store operations, staffing, and planning in line with local labour regulations and business needs.
• Monitor and control employment-related costs, ensuring productivity and efficiency without compromising team wellbeing.

WHAT MAKES YOU SUCCESSFUL?

• Minimum 3 years of leadership experience in retail – either as a Store Manager or Assistant Store Manager in a high-volume environment.
• Strong business acumen: you know how to balance people needs with operational goals and budget constraints.
• Proven people leadership: ability to set boundaries, manage demanding teams, and motivate individuals with fairness and clarity.
• Communication and stakeholder management: you are confident interacting across multiple functions and levels.
• Local knowledge of Bilbao or experience in highly regulated and unionized environments is a strong plus.
• Fluent Spanish and professional English are both required.

WHY JOINING US?

You will have the opportunity to work for a company that has a positive impact on the people we reach, the places we touch, and the products we make. Indeed, one of our core values is to do the right thing, not just for our company, but also for our consumers, customers, employees and their communities.

On top of that, you will have the chance to:

• Build new skills, develop your potential, and grow within our company.
• Join an inclusive employer where diversity and equity lead to creativity and empowerment.
• Be part of a company that focus on your wellbeing to ensure that you can be your best self.
• Travel around Europe for seminars or staff event and expend your professional network.
• Benefit from special staff discount on our all products.

PERKS & BENEFITS

🎁 Significant discounts on Columbia and Sorel products

📚 Unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning

👩‍🏫 Unlock your potential: access to in-house training courses (feedback, leadership, Insights®...)

🌈DEI initiatives to exchange and strengthen our involvement around these themes

ABOUT THE CULTURE

• At Columbia Sportswear, we value an inclusive and open culture that emphasizes the absence of barriers between team members. We are committed to fostering a sense of belonging by encouraging personal connections at all levels, which creates a cohesive and supportive work environment.
• Team members serve as ambassadors for our brand, finding motivation in being part of an organization dedicated to activities they are passionate about. This dedication reflects our commitment to building a team that takes pride in our products and values.
• We offer the opportunity to work for a US-based company within a multicultural environment, where your job has an impact across different countries.
• Our "Always Be Learning" culture of continuous learning enables our employees to identify and develop skills that will enable them to continue to grow within the company.
• "Unlock Your Potential" is the spirit that characterizes our vision of employees' development: to offer them opportunities to grow, in their job, in their team or even to change jobs completely. We grow our people