Studio Manager - AURA Candle Bar

Position Overview

At AURA Candle Bar, the Studio Manager is responsible for cultivating an exceptional in-studio experience that blends hospitality, education, creativity, operational excellence, and emotional connection through fragrance. This role oversees the daily operations of the studio while leading the team in delivering highly personalized scent experiences that align with AURA’s philosophy: fragrance is deeply personal and transformative.

The Studio Manager acts as both an operational leader and a culture-builder — guiding the team, maintaining the studio environment, supporting customer education, and ensuring every guest interaction feels intentional, elevated, and memorable.

This is a leadership role for someone who thrives equally in hospitality, creative environments, team development, and operational systems.

Core Responsibilities:

Studio Experience & Hospitality Leadership

• Create and maintain a warm, elevated, emotionally engaging guest experience from arrival through checkout.

• Lead by example in customer interaction, fragrance education, and personalized scent consultations.

• Ensure every guest feels welcomed, guided, and empowered during the candle-making experience.

• Support the development of meaningful customer relationships that encourage repeat visits and long-term brand loyalty.

• Help guests connect fragrance to memory, identity, celebration, and self-expression.

• Manage in-studio flow during high-volume weekends, private events, and special events while maintaining calm, hospitality-forward energy.

• Handle guest concerns with empathy, professionalism, and solution-oriented communication.

Team Leadership & Development

• Hire, onboard, train, coach, and schedule Scent Consultants collaboratively with AURA’s owners

• Foster a collaborative, creative, accountable, and emotionally intelligent studio culture.

• Provide ongoing coaching in:

  • hospitality standards

  • fragrance knowledge

  • customer education

  • emotional intelligence

  • operational consistency

• Conduct regular performance conversations and team development check-ins.

• Maintain clear communication between ownership team and studio team members.

• Support team morale and cultivate an environment where employees feel valued and empowered.

Operational Management

• Oversee daily studio operations including:

  • opening and closing procedures

  • inventory management

  • cleanliness within the studio and the store front outside

  • organization

  • Studio maintenance

• Ensure all fragrance oils, vessels and other applicable operational supplies are stocked appropriately.

• Monitor operational systems for efficiency and identify opportunities for improvement.

• Coordinate with ownership regarding inventory forecasting, seasonal launches, and operational needs.

• Maintain open communication with the team about all updates.

• Maintain visual merchandising standards throughout the studio.

Leadership Team Collaboration

• Work closely with ownership and leadership to help shape the future growth, culture, and operational direction of AURA.

• Serve as a trusted thought partner in refining studio systems, guest experience standards, team development, and operational strategy.

• Participate in leadership meetings, planning discussions, and long-term business initiatives.

• Provide feedback and observations from day-to-day studio operations to help leadership make informed decisions.

• Help translate leadership vision into actionable systems, team practices, and elevated guest experiences.

• Support a culture of accountability, collaboration, adaptability, and continuous improvement across the organization.

• Operate with a high level of discretion, professionalism, and ownership mindset as a member of the leadership team.

Event & Community Coordination

• Oversee private events, workshops, bridal experiences, corporate bookings, and collaborations.

• Ensure event execution reflects AURA’s elevated hospitality standards.

• Assist in cultivating relationships with local businesses such as event planners and community partners.

• Help create memorable sensory experiences tied to milestones, celebrations, and meaningful life moments.

Brand Stewardship

• Embody and protect AURA’s brand voice, standards, and philosophy in every interaction.

• Maintain a studio environment that reflects the company’s aesthetic, emotional tone, and customer experience standards.

• Help translate AURA’s mission into tangible guest experiences.

• Ensure team communication and customer interactions align with the company’s educational and emotionally intelligent approach to fragrance.

Qualifications:

Required

• 2+ years of leadership or management experience in hospitality, retail, experiential retail, events, wellness, beauty, or related industries with a proven track record, including references.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

• Ability to lead teams with empathy, accountability, and professionalism.

• Excellent organizational and multitasking abilities.

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment.

• Weekend availability required. Wednesday through Sunday

• Ability to lift up to 45 pounds and remain active and standing throughout shifts.

• Completed Bachelor's Degree

Preferred

• Experience in luxury hospitality, experiential retail, fragrance, beauty, wellness, or boutique environments.

• Passion for fragrance, storytelling, design, hospitality, or customer experience.

• Experience with event coordination and team scheduling.

• Familiarity with POS systems, inventory management, and operational reporting.

• Strong emotional intelligence and conflict-resolution skills.

Ideal Studio Manager Traits:

• Warm and highly personable

• Emotionally intelligent and intuitive

• Calm under pressure

• Naturally hospitable

• Operationally organized

• Is grounded in a stable personal life

• Collaborative and team-oriented

• Detail-focused without losing sight of the larger vision

• Adaptable and solution-oriented

• Excited by creativity, sensory experiences, and meaningful customer connection

• Has enthusiasm for the culture that Chicago has to offer

• Loves animals, especially of the canine variety (we have many 4-legged friends of the studio who stop by for cookies regularly)

• Living close to the studio is beneficial

Compensation & Benefits:

• Competitive compensation based on experience $64,600 ($48,000 salary + $16,600 Tips) 

• Health and dental insurance

• Paid vacation time

• Performance incentives and bonus opportunities 

• Team member discount

• Comprehensive paid fragrance and candle-making training, including the proprietary AURA curriculum developed by our Grasse-trained ownership.

• Growth opportunities within an evolving creative brand

• Opportunity to help shape a unique experiential retail concept

We are excited you are considering leading the AURA Candle Bar studio. To apply, please submit the following three items to info@auracandlebar.com:

1. Resume

A clear record of your professional experience.

2. Cover Letter

A brief letter telling us why this role, why AURA, and what you would bring to the studio and the team.

3. Introductory Video

A short video allows us to hear from you directly, which matters for a role that is constantly in front of guests and team members.

Video Requirements

• Three-minute maximum.

• Well-lit setting with minimal background noise.

• Speak directly to the camera.

Video Prompts (please address each within the three minutes total video time)

• Tell us about yourself and how you align with the Studio Manager role at AURA.

• Describe a time you led a team to deliver an elevated guest or customer experience, and what you specifically did to make it happen.

• Tell us about a moment you held a high standard when it would have been easier to let it slide. What was the outcome?

• If you have visited AURA Candle Bar before, describe your experience and how it made you feel. If you have not, tell us what draws you to leading a fragrance-focused experiential studio.
  About AURA Candle Bar

  AURA Candle Bar exists to help people explore personal expression and create meaningful moments through scent. We believe fragrance is one of the most personal forms of self-expression — capable of holding memory, shaping emotion, and becoming an invisible signature. Through guided fragrance experiences, thoughtful hospitality, and sensory storytelling, we help guests create candles and fragrances that feel uniquely their own.
   

  Since opening, AURA Candle Bar has welcomed over 150,000 guests into our Chicago studio for custom candle making and custom fragrance creation experiences. Our team of Scent Consultants is trained by the iconic Grasse Institute of Perfumery located in Grasse, France — the epicenter of global fragrance for over 200 years — and guides every guest through a personalized scent journey using our library of 110+ uniquely curated fragrances. AURA Candle Bar has become a go-to Chicago destination for date night experiences, bachelorette parties, bridal showers, birthday celebrations, girls' night out, family gatherings, and private group events. We also partner with leading companies — including Nike, Netflix, Google, Marriott, Reddit, Belmond Hotels, Hard Rock Hotels, Instagram, Pinterest, and Hilton — for corporate entertaining, team-building events, client experiences, custom signature scent development, wholesale fragrance and candle programs, and bespoke company gifting that turns scent into a powerful form of brand storytelling. 

   

  Recognition

  AURA Candle Bar has been recognized as:

• Homebase Top US Local Workplace, three consecutive years. (2024-2026)

• Yelp People Love Us Award winner, (2021-2025) five consecutive years.

• One of Chicago’s Top Experiences by Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.

• Chicago’s premier fragrance and candle-making experiences.