Operations Manager

Job Overview

PlanetArt is looking for a Operations Manager to support the company’s Operations department. The successful candidate will be  a high energy, motivated individual who combines strong organizational and process improvement skills with business acumen and proactive leadership, to contribute to our growth.  This position serves as a key role responsible for managing our day-to-day operational relationship with our printing partners, managing inventory, finding cost savings opportunities, expanding our US product lines with global printing partners, and providing the final checks for new products before they go live. These tasks are key to our revenue growth and cross-functional in nature. This position reports to the Vice President of Operations for PlanetArt LLC.

PLEASE NOTE: Candidates much be local to or willing to relocate to Minnesota area as we operate on a hybrid work model (3 days onsite, 2 remote)

What You’ll Do

Key Responsibilities

Domestic introduction of new product lines:

• Identify opportunities to grow revenues and reduce expenses by introducing new I See Me! product lines at domestic printing partners and vendors
• Identify specifications, provide forecasts and work with PlanetArt Operations team to negotiate costs with domestic printing partners
• Work with PlanetArt’s’s compiance team to ensure that new products are meeting safety compliance standards, send samples to 3rd party labs as needed, and send testing reports to ISM marketing team
• Review new product pages for accuracy before they go live to foresee any potential operations or customer service issues.
• Place and review sample test orders
• Give the green light for new product launches once printers are ready and any needed inventory is on-hand

Global expansion of existing product lines:

• Identify and implement opportunities for global printing partners to produce US product categories
• Obtain unit forecasts from financial analyst and provide to printing partners for new product categories
• Obtain specifications from printing partners for new products and communicate cross-functionally to I See Me! designers and R&D teams
• Work with PlanetArt Operations team to negotiate production costs with international printing partners
• Coordinate safety compliance testing
• Give leadership team the green light for when a new printer is ready to produce orders

Daily operational relationship with printers:

• Manage existing printer relationships through weekly calls, alterting them to new products and other changes in the business.
• Provide forecasts to printing partners upon request

Shipping profit and loss:

• Manage the shipping profit and loss for the I See Me! brand, finding ways to reduce costs through alternate shipping methods
• Determine cut-off dates for last-day-to-order and set up shipping rules to enable automatic shipping upgrades, at the lowest cost, at holiday

Cost-cutting:

• Identify and implement cost savings opportunities with our product allocation between printers
• Identify areas for cut-cutting with inventory item sourcing

Inventory management:

• Forecast inventory re-ordering needs
• Initiate, review and approve inventory purchases through PlanetArt Operations team
• Develop calendar of upsell items to add to iseeme.com and bookofus.com sites

What You Should Have

Skills, Qualifications, and Requirements

• 3-5 years related experience
• 4-year college degree

Operations Experience

• Vendor relationship management
• Inventory management
• Project management
• Cost analysis & optimization
• Product launch coordination

Business acumen

• Financial analysis, with advanced Microsoft Excel skills
• Process improvement
• Strategic planning
• Details orientation

Leadershp & communication

• Cross-functional leadership
• Problem-solving
• Excellent verbal and communication skills

What You Can Expect

Working Conditions

• Work is performed in an office environment with low to moderate noise levels.
• Position requires regular, continuous use of computer.
• Position requires regular sitting and standing.
• Position requires regular interaction with team members through the following methods: in-person, phone, WebEx, Slack, or email.
• May require occasional travel.
• This is a hybrid position; employees are expected to be in the office three days per week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday) with the option of working remotely two days (Wednesday and Friday).

Benefits

PlanetArt offers a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• 401(k) with matching
• Excellent Work/Life Balance – Paid Time Off, Sick Days, Paid Holidays, and Floating Holidays
• Employee Product Discounts