Studio General Manager

Hours: Full-time, Wednesday to Sunday
Start date: July 2026

About Daysee

Daysee is a new family photography studio opening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We are building a warm, elevated studio experience for families, with thoughtful photography, a polished client journey, curated retail, and community programming.

We are building Daysee intentionally. This role is the heartbeat of the studio: the person who holds the space together so everything else can happen.

We are not looking for someone to manage a checklist. We are looking for someone who genuinely loves creating environments where people feel welcome, calm, and cared for. This is also a hands-on operating role for someone who can run the daily business with discipline, judgment, and ownership.

About the Role

This is the role that makes the studio feel like Daysee.

You are the first person a family sees when they walk through the door, and the reason the whole operation runs smoothly behind the scenes. You hold the schedule, the space, the energy, and the standard.

This is not a reception role. It is a hands-on studio management role with ownership across daily operations, customer experience, retail, team coordination, classes, events, health and safety, and on-site performance.

Operational fluency and genuine warmth are equally important here.

What You’ll Own:

Staffing and Scheduling

The studio runs because of you.

You will own the day-to-day studio calendar, including staff shifts, shoot bookings, class programming, and community events.

You will coordinate closely with photographers, digital techs, instructors, and support staff so everyone knows the plan, timing, and standard. You will anticipate gaps before they happen, keep the schedule tight without making the experience feel rushed, and ensure the right people are in the right place at the right time.

When the day is complex, no one should feel it but you.

Client Welcome and Check-In

You are the first face every family sees and often the person they turn to before, during, and after their visit.

You will greet families by name, make them feel immediately at ease, manage check-in, answer questions, and help the experience flow smoothly from arrival to departure.

You will also support customer communication, rescheduling, issue resolution, and relationship-building with returning families.

This is not a sign-in moment. It is the beginning of their experience. You hold it with warmth, intention, and confidence.

Retail and In-Studio Shop

You will manage the retail floor with care.

That means keeping inventory accurate, ensuring the space feels considered and stocked, and helping families discover products they will genuinely love.

You can guide a purchase conversation naturally: never pushy, always informed. You know what is available, what is running low, and what is worth highlighting.

You understand how retail contributes to the overall experience and to revenue. You will identify opportunities to increase average order value through service, thoughtful recommendations, and optimizing the product mix, not pressure.

Studio Environment and Daily Operations

The studio should feel the same on day 300 as it did on day one.

You will own the environment, including opening and closing, cleanliness, flow between sessions, supplies, music, lighting, scent, and facilities.

You notice when something is off before anyone else does, and you fix it quietly.

The standard is not posted on a wall. It lives in you.

Classes and Community Events

Daysee is more than a photo studio. You will support the scheduling and smooth execution of classes and community programming, ensuring each one is set up properly, runs on time, and feels consistent with the Daysee brand.

You will coordinate with instructors, partners, and the internal team, manage attendance flow, and help build the rhythm that keeps families coming back.

Health, Safety, and Compliance

Families trust us with their youngest children. That responsibility is not taken lightly.

You will own health and safety standards across the studio, with particular care for infants, toddlers, and young children.

You will know the protocols, train others on them, and ensure the space is always safe, clean, and compliant.

You will also maintain incident and escalation processes, while proactively identifying risks across equipment, layout, cleanliness, and daily operations.

Safety is not reactive here. It is embedded in how the studio runs.

Standards, Reporting, and Continuous Improvement

You are closest to what customers feel, ask for, love, and struggle with.

You will track and share useful insights on bookings, studio utilization, retail sales, customer feedback, repeat visits, operational issues, and opportunities to improve the experience.

You will help the founders understand what is working, what is not, and where the studio should evolve.

What you see on the ground will directly shape what Daysee becomes.

What We’re Looking For:

We are looking for an operator who also happens to be a host.

Operational Skills

You should be confident with:

• Scheduling systems and calendar management
• Retail inventory and POS systems
• Studio, retail, hospitality, or physical space operations
• Health and safety standards in customer-facing environments
• Customer communication, bookings, rescheduling, and issue resolution
• Team coordination across photographers, digital techs, instructors, and support staff
• Vendor, supplies, and facilities coordination
• Tracking business metrics and sharing operational insights
• Strong written and verbal communication

Client Experience Skills

You should also bring:

• Genuine warmth with families and young children
• The ability to read a room and know when to lead, follow, or give space
• Calmness under pressure, especially in live environments
• A high ownership mindset
• Strong judgment when resolving customer issues
• Care for how a physical space feels
• Commercial awareness without a hard-sell mentality

Who You Are

You are likely a strong fit if you have:

• 5 years of experience in a high-touch, customer-facing environment such as a studio, hospitality, boutique retail, wellness, events, or a similar setting
• Experience running or helping manage the operations of a physical space
• A natural hosting instinct and the ability to make people feel welcome without forcing it
• Strong commercial awareness and comfort with retail, inventory, and revenue contribution
• A sharp eye for detail
• Comfort working in an early-stage environment where things evolve quickly
• A collaborative working style
• The ability to handle customer issues with calm, clarity, and good judgment
• The confidence to share what you are seeing on the ground and turn observations into improvements
• The ability to work with hands-on founders without needing constant direction

What Success Looks Like

We will know this role is working when:

• Families arrive, feel immediately welcome, and leave wanting to come back
• The schedule runs cleanly, with no dropped bookings or avoidable surprises
• The studio looks, sounds, and feels like Daysee every single day
• Retail is stocked, considered, and actively contributing to the experience
• Classes and events run on time and feel intentional
• Health and safety is never an afterthought
• The team knows what they are doing and when because you have made it clear
• Customer issues are resolved before they escalate
• Returning families feel recognized and cared for
• Weekly learnings on bookings, retail, customer feedback, and studio flow are clearly surfaced
• The founders have visibility into what is working, what is not, and what should improve

How You’ll Work With the Team

You will work closely with photographers, digital team members, instructors, support staff, vendors, and the founders.

During launch, this role will work directly with the founding team to help shape the daily operating rhythm of the studio, the client experience, retail standards, class and event flow, and the way Daysee shows up for families every day.

Schedule and Compensation

This is a full-time, in-studio role based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Schedule: Wednesday through Sunday
Days off: Monday and Tuesday
Weekend availability: Required
Compensation: From $70,000

How to Apply

Send us a note about yourself, your background, and what draws you to this role.

We would love to hear about spaces you have managed, teams you have worked with, and how you think about the relationship between operations and experience.

The best candidates will have a point of view on what makes a space feel right, and the discipline to maintain that standard every day.

Pay: From $70,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• Paid time off

Application Question(s):

• Please share why you think you're a good fit for this role?

Work Location: In person

Salary : $70,000