Department: Business Development & Recent Store Openings

Reporting To: Head Business Development & NSO / Senior Management

Location: Corporate Office with Travel to Project Sites and Airports as Required

SUMMARY

The Manager - New Store Openings (NSO) is responsible for end-to-end planning, coordination, governance, tracking, and successful delivery of all new store, lounge, kitchen, and commercial outlet projects across the organization. The role acts as the central Project Governance Office (PMO) ensuring all projects are delivered, handed over, and operationalized within committed timelines while maintaining complete visibility, accountability, and cross-functional alignment. The incumbent will proactively identify risks, drive stakeholder coordination, monitor project milestones, maintain project governance frameworks, and ensure management has real-time visibility into project status, delays, dependencies, and opening forecasts.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

- Project Planning & Scheduling
- Project Governance & PMO Management
- Risk Management
- Stakeholder Management
- Analytical & Problem-Solving Skills
- MIS & Dashboard Reporting
- Vendor & Consultant Coordination
- Strong Communication & Presentation Skills
- Leadership & Team Management
- Advanced Excel, Power BI, and Project Tracking Tools

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

- Project Planning & Delivery: Drive end-to-end execution of all NSO projects from award to opening; develop and monitor project timelines, milestones, and critical path activities; coordinate with BD, Projects, Design, Procurement, Finance, Culinary, IT, HR, Operations, and Airport Authorities; ensure projects are handed over and opened as per committed timelines; track all dependencies and proactively resolve execution bottlenecks.
- Project Governance & Reporting: Maintain a live centralized project tracker covering all ongoing projects; provide daily project status reports to management; monitor project health, completion percentages, and milestone adherence; maintain visibility on project risks, delays, approvals, and readiness status; present weekly and monthly project reviews to leadership.




- Risk Management & Escalation: Identify project risks and red flags at an early stage; escalate critical risks within defined timelines along with mitigation plans; ensure management is informed before risks impact handover or opening dates; maintain project risk registers and action trackers.
- Stakeholder Management: Act as the single point of coordination between internal and external stakeholders; ensure timely responses to management and stakeholder queries; drive accountability across departments for project deliverables; conduct project review meetings and follow up on action items.
- Project Closure & Performance Analytics: Prepare Project Closure Reports for every completed project; conduct planned versus actual timeline analysis; identify delay causes and department-wise accountability; perform root cause analysis and recommend corrective and preventive actions; develop project performance dashboards and trend analysis reports.
- Compliance Management: Maintain Geo Tagging compliance records for all operational locations; ensure timely geo-tagging of newly opened outlets; maintain centralized asset tagging and verification records; ensure compliance reporting is completed and submitted on schedule.
- Process Improvement & Governance: Establish and enhance project management processes and SOPs; develop governance frameworks to improve project delivery efficiency; drive lessons learned and best-practice implementation across projects; create management dashboards and executive reporting mechanisms.
- Leadership & Team Coordination:



Demonstrate ownership of the NSO function; drive cross-functional collaboration and accountability; foster a culture of proactive communication and problem solving; support strategic expansion initiatives and organizational growth plans.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIS)

- Project Delivery: 95% projects handed over on or before committed timelines; zero avoidable delays attributable to NSO coordination failures.
- Risk Escalation: 100% critical risks escalated within 24 hours of identification; zero critical issues reaching management before NSO escalation.
- Reporting & Visibility: Daily project tracker circulated without exception; 100% project coverage across all active projects.
- Stakeholder Management: 95% response compliance to stakeholder requests; reduction in follow-up reminders and unresolved actions.
- Project Closure Governance: 100% Project Closure Reports submitted within 7 days of handover; complete accountability reporting for delayed projects.
- Geo Tagging Compliance: 100% location geo-tagging compliance; new locations geo-tagged within 15 days of opening. Asset Management: 100% asset tagging compliance.
- Governance & Leadership: Weekly management reviews completed; stakeholder satisfaction score of 4.0/5; no recurring escalations related to visibility, ownership, or communication.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Education: Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Architecture, Project Management, Business Administration, Hospitality Management, or related field.
- PMP/Prince2/Project Management certification preferred.
- Experience: 710 years of experience in Project Management, New Store Openings, Retail Expansion, Hospitality Development, Airport Commercial Operations, or related functions; experience managing multiple concurrent projects across locations; exposure to stakeholder management involving landlords, airports, consultants, contractors, and cross-functional teams.

SUCCESS PROFILE

- A successful NSO Manager acts as the organization's Project Control Tower - providing complete visibility, proactive risk management, structured governance, and ensuring every project reaches handover and opening milestones on time while maintaining accountability across all stakeholders.

📌 Manager - New Store Openings (NSO) (Mumbai)
🏢 Pramila Parmar
📍 Mumbai