Director of Operations

Title: Director of Operations

Reporting to: CEO

Location: Boston, MA (on-site)

The Opportunity

Polka Dog is a beloved Boston-based premium pet treat brand — a manufacturer and multi-channel retailer with eleven stores, a fast growing wholesale business, and a national Amazon presence. Newly acquired by TAW Ventures, the company is entering an ambitious stage of investment, multi-year growth phase. We are looking for a hands-on operations leader to own making our product, getting it to our customers, and own the plan for how we scale it. This is a foundational leadership hire: the person who builds the operational growth engine as a critical element of an expectation of high growth over the next decade.

The Role

As Director of Operations, you will own end-to-end operations — from the raw materials that come in the door to finished product arriving at a retailer, an Amazon fulfillment center, or one of our stores. You will lead our production facility and distribution operation, build the systems and team to support substantial growth, and serve as a core member of the leadership team helping set the future of the business. Your focus on organization, continuous optimization and developing the people who work on the team to achieve success.

What You’ll Own

• Production. Own the manufacturing of our product end to end — production planning and scheduling, recipe and yield management, throughput, quality, and the day-to-day running of our facility and kitchen team.
• Growth & capacity. Build and expand our operational capacity to support the substantial revenue growth we are targeting over the coming years — including standing up and optimizing our distribution operations across multiple sites.
• Wholesale fulfillment. Own pick, pack, and ship for our wholesale channel — getting product to retailers (including key national accounts) accurately and on time, plus international orders.
• Amazon fulfillment. Own the pick-pack-ship and inbound transfer process that keeps our Amazon channel stocked and compliant.
• Store delivery. Own the reliable, efficient delivery of product to our retail stores.
• Inventory & systems. Own inventory accuracy and operational reporting across the business (we run Fishbowl), and drive the demand-planning and counting discipline that lets us trust our numbers.
• Food safety & compliance. Own food-safety standards and regulatory compliance across our facilities, working with our food-safety partners and keeping our programs audit-ready as we add sites and capacity.
• Cost, margin & P&L. Own the operations budget and drive the cost and gross-margin performance of the business — managing labor, materials, yield, and landed cost, and giving leadership clear visibility into true operating margin by channel.
• Continuous improvement. Continuously optimize labor, equipment, logistics, and process — applying Lean / continuous-improvement methods and root-cause discipline, and identifying and justifying the investments (equipment, automation, fleet) that make us faster, leaner, and more reliable.
• People & leadership. Lead, build, and develop the operations team across production, fulfillment, and distribution — and partner across finance, sales, retail, and marketing as a member of the leadership team.

Who You Are & What We Hope You Bring

• Food manufacturing & distribution expertise. A proven track record leading operations in food (or comparable CPG) manufacturing and distribution — spanning production, fulfillment, logistics, and inventory — with experience scaling a growing, multi-channel businesses.
• A natural organizer and optimizer. You love bringing order and structure to operations and obsess on minimizing waste — thinking in throughput, yield, cost per unit, margin, turns employee retention. Hands-on experience with Lean, Six Sigma, or other continuous-improvement methods is a huge plus.
• Food safety & regulatory. Strong working knowledge of food-safety and regulatory standards — FDA, GMP, HACCP, FSMA, and SQF — a huge plus - with the ability to keep our programs audit-ready as we add capacity and sites. Relevant certification (e.g., SQF Practitioner, PCQI, HACCP) is a plus.
• Financial acumen. Comfortable owning a budget and managing to cost, margin, and inventory targets; able to read operational and financial data and act on it.
• Systems. Proficiency with inventory / ERP systems (we use Fishbowl) and the reporting that supports demand planning and accurate counts.
• A hands-on people leader. You love leading and developing teams and collaborating cross-functionally as part of a leadership team — happy on the floor and in the data alike, and energized by a fast-moving, founder-built business that is professionalizing.
• Education. Experience in operations, supply chain, food science, engineering, business, or a related field preferred — or equivalent hands-on operating experience.

What Success Looks Like in Year One

• Production and fulfillment operation that runs on a reliable, efficient, stable, and planned schedule — not firefighting.
• Inventory and clear operational reporting that leadership can manage with consistency.
• Scalable pick-pack-ship process across wholesale, Amazon, and store delivery.
• Capacity and investment plan aligned to scale, well-led team to support multi-year growth.

Why Join Us

Polka Dog has spent nearly two decades building something rare: a genuinely loved brand with deep customer loyalty, a strong retail footprint, and real momentum across wholesale and Amazon. The foundation is built. What it needs is a true operational leader — and that is the job. You will own how the product gets made and delivered, and you will design the systems and team that let the company scale without losing what makes it special.

This is a build, scale & optimize, not a babysit. With fresh backing from TAW Ventures, there is capital behind the growth plan, a clear mandate to professionalize operations, and the autonomy to do it your way. You won’t be inheriting someone else’s playbook — you’ll be writing it. The decisions you make in the first year will shape the company for the next decade.

You’ll have a real seat at the leadership table, an ownership group invested in your success, and the satisfaction of building the engine behind a brand that people — and their dogs love.