Operations Manager

COMPANY BACKGROUNDApply is a fast-growing New York City-based sticker brand, driven to give more people a chance to make things they're proud of; personalize their everyday objects; and engage with art & culture.We make the best stickers & patches on Earth, designed in-house & in collaboration with iconic artists (ex: Warhol); musicians (ex: The Beatles); and characters (ex: Snoopy). You'll find our products in world-class cultural institutions (ex: MoMA); bookstores (ex: The Strand); outdoors stores (ex: REI); art supplies stores (ex: Blick); airport retailers (ex: WHSmith); amongst hundreds of others. On the Faire wholesale marketplace, we have a 5-star rating across 99 reviews.Our team is a tight hybrid group of a dozen people, backed by some of the most creative people in business. People like Scott Belsky (Chief Strategy Officer at Adobe), Jen Rubio (Founder of Away), Michael Lynton (Chairman of Snap); Lucy Deland (COO of PaperlessPost); and Jonathan Klein (Founder of Getty Images).OPPORTUNITY OVERVIEWEfficient operations is core to our success and fulfillment is at the heart of it. Excellence therein drives customer satisfaction; boosts order velocity; and increases our speed & quality of our decision making.We're seeking a full-time Operations Manager to help lead our fulfillment & product operations at our HQ in Dumbo, Brooklyn.You'll manage a team of ~6 part-time Fulfillment Associates, facilitating inbound & outbound logistics; identifying & escalating risks; prioritizing our work; and troubleshooting when necessary. You'll ensure that our fulfillment team is properly staffed & trained as well as set a high performance culture, supported by clear metrics & efficient workflows.You'll balance these ongoing tasks with long-term projects that impact our whole business. Where process already exists, you'll seek to refine it. Where it doesn't, you'll work to define it "” with a bias towards software-driven solutions.SPECIFICRESPONSIBILITIES:Oversee Receiving & Quality Assurance: take in parcels from suppliers; examine & document the state of each; determine conformity to quality guidelines; share conclusions with broader ops & product teams.Coordinate Product Assemblymanage the assembly of sticker components into finished products by fulfillment team.Orchestrate Fulfillmentoversee pick, pack, ship, and track for direct-to-consumer, wholesale, and B2B parcels.Manage Shipping Carriersensure we're getting the highest quality service at the most competitive pricesLead Inventory Management: keep track of product components, factoring in daily fluctuations resulting from inbound parcels, outbound orders, defective product, etc, partnering with the Product Team to replenish, as necessary. Enter, manage, and reconcile inventory data for the Apply product team.Maintain Data Hygieneensure all product operations are accurately reflected in Airtable (our source of truth); spot discrepancies & deficiencies; create dashboards & operational workflows as necessary to address themEstablish Vendor Compliancereview routing guides; understand core customer requirements; complete requisite onboarding materials; communicate needs & potential deficiencies across relevant stakeholdersImprove Relevant Processesroutinely identify bottlenecks & risks in our workflow, proposing solutions for refining our fulfillment & product operations using a combination of off-the-shelf software & bespoke agentic workflows. Maintain SOPs & document changes to enable the broader organization to level-up.Elevate Office Organization & Environmentensure that products, parcels, packaging, and fulfillment supplies are highly-organized with attention to process & spatial dynamics, enabling our space to reflect the tasteful, positive, and creative brand we're building.Triage Incidents with Care: work with Apply partners, customers, and team to understand where parcels may have gone awry; resolve briskly & fairly; document learnings; and update relevant teammates along the way.QUALIFICATIONS:Enthusiasminterest in physical consumer products as well as delivering an exceptional consumer & partner experiences.Curiosityjoyfully learns independently; eager to understand the "whys" & "hows"; comfortable expressing when things aren't clear; committed to helping us arrive at the best answer, with proper urgency.Organized: adept at keeping track of multiple work streams across team. Great at managing a physical space with high volumes of inventory & packaging parcels with precision.Attention to detail: anticipates gaps or compliance risks in operational processes before things get off-track; spots a product defect form a mile a way.Clear proactive communicator: concisely provides context on issues; explains potential solutions; and thoughtfully leaves notes for teammates "” comfortably in a hybrid working environment (i.e. both IRL & via Slack)Demonstrable good judgmentable to weigh & clearly convey costs & benefits of key decisions, advocate for what's best; and have track-record of generally making right callData-Nativeyou get excited by spreadsheets & databases, eager to unlock the value that lies within, through analysis, building workflows, and systems thinkingMetrics-orientedunderstands what drives success & failure; identifies metrics as leading indicators; builds culture of fluency & progress accordinglyDemonstrable acumen with AIuses AI not just for research, but to organize context, build workflows, run analysis, and create artifacts (ex: presentations, spreadsheets, documents, mini apps)Inventory management or fulfillment experiencethrough Shopify, Airtable, or another comparable system.Ability to work in-office 5 days a weekexcited to be in our Dumbo studio / fulfillment center (M-F, 9am-5pm)BONUS:You love stickers! You're interested in art, craft, design, and creativity. Apply partners with a variety of artists and you'll get to see their collaborations with Apply first. Plus, you may discover new artists through their collaborations with Apply.Proficiency with our tech stackAirtable, Claude/ChatGPT, Zapier (or similar), Google Drive, Google Sheets, Shopify, Faire, and Slack, and/or desire to learn these programs.COMPENSATION & BENEDITS OVERVIEW:The target base salary for this role is $90,000-$110,000 + annual performance bonus + equity + benefits. Apply provides a range of health benefits to full-time employees, beginning with covering up to 75% of monthly premiums for medical, dental, and vision insurance. We have a 401K plan with an employer match up to 3%. Typically, this amounts to ~$9,000/employee/year in healthcare & retirement contributions.INTERESTED? Reach out to join@. Applications considered on a rolling basis. Please include:(i) A 2 min video (recorded via a service like Loom):Expressing what excites you about this roleDescribing an operational system or process you've devised that you're most proud of(ii) Your resume(iii) A cover letter

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