Seasonal Toy Demonstration Manager

The Role at a Glance

The Toy Demonstration Manager is the leader behind the magic on the demo floor. Where others see a toy, this person sees a moment of wonder, and builds the team, the standard, and the business conditions to turn that moment into something guests never forget and always want to take home.

This is a specialist role built around finding and developing the ability to perform, demonstrate, and sell simultaneously. The standard this person sets lives on the floor long after the shift ends.

Creating the Magic

Lead the Demonstrations

• Build and own the standard for what a world-class demonstration looks, feels, and performs like, and embed it deeply within your team so it holds whether or not you are present.
• Ensure that sales strategies and techniques are part of the DNA of every demonstration, so every associate knows how to use storytelling, play, and product knowledge to turn curiosity into excitement and excitement into a sale.
• Conduct regular, structured observations across all demonstration areas, equipping your Leads to deliver pointed, in-the-moment feedback that sharpens guest connections, drives sales, and protects the wow.
• Create a floor culture where the team has so much fun with the product that guests cannot help but stop, play, and take it home.
• Play an active role in demo refreshes, product launches, and brand activations, ensuring that demo stations are prepared, the team is briefed, and every moment meets our standard.

Lead the Team

• Hold yourself accountable for the quality of leadership your Leads deliver, not just for their individual performance.
• Develop your Leads into people leaders in their own right by investing in their coaching skills and floor presence, and ensuring their ability to hold their own teams to a high standard with confidence and consistency.
• Own the hiring bar and onboarding standards for your teams, ensuring the right people come through the door and are set up to contribute quickly.
• Set clear expectations, course-correct quickly, and recognize great work; when performance falls short, address it directly and partner with store leadership and HR as needed.
• Hold regular calibration conversations across the Lead team to ensure performance is assessed fairly, development needs are identified early, and no one is left without a clear picture of where they stand and where they are headed.

Run the Operation

• Own the operational systems and routines that keep demonstrations running without interruption, ensuring Leads have clear processes to follow and the tools, materials, and technology needed to deliver every shift.
• Set and maintain the standard for prop and technology maintenance across all demonstration areas, ensuring Leads consistently perform upkeep and that nothing reaches the guest in poor condition.
• Own the demonstration inventory as a sales asset, maintaining visibility into stock levels, identifying gaps before they affect the floor, and ensuring the right product is always available, ready to be demonstrated, sold, and taken home.
• Build the operational framework that prepares demonstrations for launches, activations, and peak trading periods, enabling the team to execute without disruption when it matters most.

Drive Business Performance

• Own the sales demonstration goal, driving the culture, capabilities, and conditions that deliver it.
• Build a sales culture where confident, natural conversion is the everyday standard, coaching Leads on technique so they can embed this capability in their teams through daily floor interactions and in-the-moment coaching.
• Use performance data, floor observations, and sales trends to identify what is working, what is not, and where to focus the team’s energy, and translate what you see into clear action for your Leads.
• Maintain a clear view of the investment behind demonstrations, including product, props, and vendor support, and ensure every resource decision is grounded in what delivers the best return for the business.

Partner Across the Business

• Build strong partnerships across Operations, Visual, and Store Leadership to ensure demonstrations are integrated across the entire floor, with shared standards and no gaps.
• Serve as the commercial voice for demonstrations in cross-functional conversations, representing the performance, needs, and realities of the demo floor in decisions that impact it.
• Work closely with brand and vendor partners as the primary day-to-day floor contact, ensuring their presence at demonstrations is operationally sound, on brand, and driving results.
• Connect your Lead tier with senior leadership, ensuring that priorities and business updates flow clearly in both directions, risks and performance trends are surfaced early, and nothing reaches the floor as a surprise.

What Success looks like

• Demonstrations run to standard on every shift, with energy, quality, and results holding whether or not you are on the floor.
• The floor has genuine energy; guests stop, watch, and stay because the team is having as much fun with the product as they are.
• The demonstration sales goal is on track, and your Leads can speak confidently about what is driving results and where the opportunities lie.
• Your Leads are growing as people leaders, coaching their teams with greater confidence and independence, and needing less direction from you over time.
• The demonstration team has depth, and you have a clear view of who is ready for what comes next, and the pipeline ensures you are never caught short.
• Brand and vendor partners trust you as a reliable, results-oriented floor contact, and internal partners across Operations, Visual, and Store Leadership know what to expect from the demonstration team.
• The operational infrastructure behind demonstrations is invisible to guests; props are ready, technology works, stock is in place, and nothing on the operations side ever interrupts the magic.

This role aligns with Level M4 in our Career Framework, reflecting responsibility for a specialist team, full ownership of the demonstration sales goal, and the people leadership capability to develop the leaders who deliver it. It provides a strong foundation for progression to Senior Manager roles (Level M5).

Requirements

You don’t need to have done this exact role before, but you do need the business acumen, people leadership depth, and specialist expertise to build something genuinely world-class.

• 3+ years of management experience in retail, hospitality, experiential, or performance-based environments, with a track record of developing people and achieving sales results.
• Deep specialist expertise in demonstration, performance, or experiential retail, with a genuine understanding of what it takes to perform, demonstrate, and sell simultaneously, and a track record of building that capability in others.
• Proven experience developing first-line leaders, with the coaching skills and patience to build management capability rather than focusing solely on floor performance.
• Strong business acumen, resulting in confidence reading performance data, owning a sales goal, and building the systems and standards that link operational choices to business outcomes.
• The instinct to build the leaders around you rather than do the work for them.
• Strong communication skills and the confidence to clearly represent your team and the realities of the floor in cross-functional conversations.
• Flexibility to work days, evenings, weekends, and peak retail periods. Ability to stand for extended periods and to lift up to 25 pounds.

Experience in live performance, improv, or entertainment-led retail environments is a strong plus. A genuine love of play is essential.

Benefits

• $33.65/hr + Store Incentive Bonus

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision coverage
• Employee discounts
• Pre-Tax Commuter Benefits
• Retirement Plan (401k + Match)
• Paid Vacation + paid company holidays
• Paid + Unpaid sick time

This job description should not be construed to contain every function/responsibility that may be required to be performed by this role. Employees are required to perform other related functions as assigned.

FAO Schwarz is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, military or veteran status, arrest or conviction record, predisposing genetic characteristics, status as a victim of domestic violence, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.