City Garage Manager CUPRA in Milton Keynes

CUPRA is recruiting for a CUPRA City Garage Manager on a full‑time permanent basis based in Manchester. This is a brilliant opportunity for someone who thrives in a premium retail, hospitality, events or customer‑facing environment and is ready to bring that energy into an immersive brand destination.

As CUPRA City Garage Manager, you will be the key connection between the agencies running the events and day‑to‑day site experience, the local network partner, and the CUPRA marketing team at Head Office. Located in Manchester, the CUPRA City Garage is more than a showroom; it is a cultural destination designed to bring together performance, design, music, wellness, food, drink and the local community.

In this role, you will be accountable for the commercial performance, operational delivery and brand execution of the Manchester City Garage, ensuring every activation delivers a standout guest experience and supports brand awareness, customer engagement and lead generation. You will act as the day‑to‑day bridge between the Retailer Investor, CUPRA brand, appointed hospitality and events partners, and the Head Office marketing team. That means keeping activity aligned, ensuring operational detail runs smoothly, and helping turn the City Garage into a locally relevant destination that reflects CUPRA standards and Manchester’s creative culture.

What you’ll be doing:

• Overseeing the day‑to‑day operation of the CUPRA City Garage in Manchester, ensuring the site consistently delivers a high‑quality guest experience.
• Working closely with appointed hospitality and events agencies to plan, coordinate and deliver an engaging programme of events, activations and brand experiences.
• Acting as a brand guardian, ensuring customer‑facing activity, merchandising, events and guest experience reflect CUPRA standards.
• Building strong relationships with internal stakeholders, external partners, agencies and the local community to support commercial and brand objectives.
• Managing budget activity, including allocation, forecasting, cost control and invoice management.
• Tracking and reporting on key performance measures, including lead management KPIs, commercial performance, stock/merchandising and event success.
• Contributing to wider CUPRA network initiatives, best practice sharing and collaboration with the global CUPRA City Garage network.

Skills & experience you can bring to the role:

• A proven background in a retail, hospitality, events, leisure or customer‑facing environment at management level, ideally with experience of delivering premium customer experiences.
• Confidence operating as the central coordinator between agencies, on‑site partners and Head Office teams, keeping plans moving and stakeholders aligned.
• Experience of running events, activations or experiential activity, with a strong eye for detail and the ability to turn plans into a polished customer experience.
• Strong commercial acumen, including experience of working towards targets, KPIs, budget accountability and performance reporting.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence internal and external partners in a fast‑paced environment.
• A strong understanding of Manchester’s cultural landscape and what creates a credible, locally relevant experience for customers and communities.
• A practical, hands‑on approach to solving problems, managing suppliers and ensuring the physical environment is maintained to a high standard.
• A passion for brand experience, customer engagement and creating moments that people want to talk about.

A typical week could include:

• Monday: Review the previous week’s commercial performance, leads, guest feedback, event outputs and agency actions. Align priorities with the CUPRA marketing team and local partners.
• Tuesday: Walk the site, check operational standards, merchandising, facilities and guest experience. Resolve supplier or site issues before they impact the customer experience.
• Wednesday: Coordinate the upcoming events calendar, briefing agencies and partners on brand standards, customer journey, staffing, hospitality and activation requirements.
• Thursday: Meet with internal stakeholders across marketing, PR, sales, customer experience and network teams to ensure campaigns, local activations and reporting are joined up.
• Friday: Prepare performance updates, review budget/invoice activity, confirm risk areas and ensure the team and agency partners are ready for weekend footfall or event activity.
• Weekend / event periods: Be visible during key activations where needed, supporting smooth delivery, guest experience and real‑time decisions that keep the City Garage running at its best.

What can we offer you?

Along with a competitive salary, car schemes (including cars for family members), discretionary bonus, fuel card, enhanced pension contributions, private healthcare, 27 days holiday plus bank holidays, 4 × life assurance & health & wellbeing support, we also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit you and your lifestyle.

At CUPRA UK, nothing is more important than the people who become part of our Tribe: our mantra really is that ‘People make the Brand’. We recognise that we can only achieve our ambitious business goals by providing an amazing and unique experience for our customers. To do so, we aim to attract and develop the most talented people by offering them the right development opportunities, whilst providing the means and motivation to realise their full potential in a truly inspirational and progressive brand.