Operations Manager

Position: Operations Manager

Reports to: General Manager

Salary: Depending on experience

Who are we?

Sweet Bee Organics is born out of a life lived. Hollie King, our founder, created Sweet Bee when she couldn't find a sun cream that she wanted to put on her children’s skin. She made one and that started a journey into learning deeply about suncream, packaging and how to create a sustainable business. Sweet Bee products are lovingly made for every moment in one’s life. From childhood to motherhood and fatherhood to menopause and changes in our lives, we harness the riches that nature offers, like the magic of magnesium to help us sleep and the soothing power of mushrooms to heal our bodies – nature is our teacher. 

Sweet Bee Organics is a fast-growing business that has supported over 250,000 customers with their health and wellbeing since launching, with no signs of slowing down. You will be joining at a very exciting time in the business as we continue to scale our DTC operations and expand into new channels and markets. 

What’s it like to work for us?

We are a small team of dynamic and most importantly, incredibly passionate people who care deeply about improving people’s lives on a daily basis. The team is hard working and acts as a network of support and inspiration, constantly communicating and advising each other in order to achieve the best results possible. At present, Sweet Bee is made up of over 20 individuals working across our UK and US offices. 

What are we looking for from you?

We’re looking for passionate people who are ready to take the next step with their career. This position is a stepping stone for further growth as the business continues to scale, and we’re looking for someone who is excited by the challenge and opportunity. Our culture is inclusive, supportive and energetic. 

What’s the work like?

We’re looking for someone to help scale our US operations as we move from shipping 300 daily orders to 1,000 daily orders across the next 18 months.

The Operations Manager will motivate and lead our logistics and production team, develop, and achieve performance goals and develop productivity and accuracy standards with emphasis on quality, urgency, and on-time in-full. You will collaborate with the COO and General Manager to operate within all guidelines and partner for success. This will mainly focus on scaling up the logistics and production capabilities of the team to meet our fast growing targets. The role includes:

Order fulfilment: 

• Responsible for order fulfilment and management - ensuring timely delivery of customer orders within Sweet Bee standard operating procedures. 
• Monitor how the logistics team is performing, and making notes/providing feedback on areas where improvements can be made. Ideally this would be supported by reporting how improvements and changes that are implemented impact efficiencies across the fulfilment lifecycle. 
• Ensuring that our pick and pack guidelines are being followed and that every order is arriving with the customer in the Sweet Bee guidelines. 

Production: 

• Supervise and participate in the activities required to ensure that production of finished goods meets the required Sweet Bee forecasts on a weekly basis. 
• Manage the production schedule taking into account any upcoming blockers highlighted by the operations team (e.g. team availability, marketing activities, wholesale orders, and stock levels).
• Support the broader operations team to improve efficiencies across the production lifecycle - from stock management to finished goods labelling. This involves monitoring how the production team is performing, and making notes/providing feedback on areas where improvements can be made. Ideally this would be supported by tracking how improvements and changes that are implemented impact efficiencies across the production lifecycle. 
• Ensuring that cleanliness and hygiene standards are maintained across your category.

Stock Management: 

• Weekly stock checks across all product and packaging (with support from the team).
• In-depth monthly stock check to ensure that our inventory is correctly forecasted for. 
• Working closely with the Business Manager and COO to build in checks to ensure our stock aligns with our growth forecasts. 

Staff:

• Training of new production and logistics staff in line with Sweet Bee on-boarding guidelines and supporting their journey to ensure that the production team is thriving in their roles.  
• Working closely with the General Manager to implement Sweet Bee standard operating procedures for all processes to ensure consistency across the US operations and UK operations. 
• Ensuring that any changes to processes are communicated clearly to all staff to ensure consistency across operations and product integrity. 
• Working closely with the General Manager to hire new team members onto our logistics and production team, ensuring that we are adequately staffed to hit growth milestones. 
• Ensures adequate and optimized staffing levels according to the business’s workload. Coordinates necessary staffing changes across departments based on projected volume. Manage the daily activity of our receiving, handling, and warehousing team.

Other: 

• Daily efficiency reporting to the General Manager and COO on logistics and production targets. 
• Supervise the activities of general warehouse operations by maintaining a clean and safe environment while being compliant with OSHA and Company Safety Guidelines and Policies in line with direction from the General Manager. 

What are we looking for from you?

You don't need to tick all the boxes to apply for this role. However, these might be some of the ways you can add value:

• 2 years of management experience in warehousing, shipping, planning, scheduling, inventory control and/or production supervising.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Strong organizational management skills.
• Comfortable with leading change.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with employees at all levels.
• Excellent written, verbal, and communication skills.
• Ability to work alone and in teams in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
• Passion for delivering continuous improvement, and a growth mindset. 
• Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Excel) basic skills.
• Must be Fluent in English, both written and verbal.

How will we interview you? 

We try to keep our interview process short, and as a small business, we can move through the stages quickly. Due to availability, there may be a change to the order of the interview process, but generally speaking, this is what you can expect:

• Introductory video call with Nikki, our COO, and will last around 30 minutes.
• Should it feel like there is an initial fit for all, we will invite you to a video call with Nikki and our CEO Hollie. This is a more structured interview and will deep dive into the role and technical needs
• Final interview will be to meet our General Manager in our US team that you will be working closely with. 

Next step:

Please reach out to our COO Nikki (nikki@sweetbeeorganics.com) with a very short cover letter explaining your interest in the position alongside your CV. We’ll be in touch! 

Benefits: 

• Healthcare included as part of your package 
• Competitive holiday of 20 days 
• 50% team discount on all Sweet Bee products! 

Start date:

As soon as possible.