Job Postings From Our Member Companies Title:
Director of Operations

Post Date
4/5/2013

Expiration Date
6/4/2013

Details:
The Director of Operations will be responsible for overseeing the end-to-end catalog/online operations according to industry best-practices. Key responsibilities include managing third-party call center, distribution, and freight vendors for efficiency, cost, quality and branding. Supporting the implementation of workflows for all customer interactions, and managing key operational systems. Will be responsible for overseeing an $8M operational budget.

Must be able to travel for work. Currently estimate at least 8 to 10 trips per year.

Responsibilities
Financial Management:

- Direct P&L responsibility for the $8M operations budget, which includes fulfillment, distribution and freight expenses.

- Oversee third-party call center, warehouse, and outbound freight vendors; ensuring key financial and quality metrics are met. Metrics include calls per order, cost per call, shipping accuracy, shipping time, shipping costs, packages per order, overall return rates, percentage of return to stock, recovery on damaged merchandise, packaging costs and total operations cost per order. Identify areas for improvement and cost reduction.

- Develop detailed operational budgets and reports to measure actual expenses against plan and prior year. Develop volume forecasts for third-party vendors. Update projections as needed.

Call Center, Customer Service and Experience:

- Develop and implement programs to provide best-in-class customer experience, promote customer retention, repeat purchases, and overall satisfaction. Monitor workflow processes to ensure consistency with customer service goals and budget requirements. Identify deficiencies in customer service and propose and implement solutions. Develop programs to incentive call center staff and to increase up sells.

- Determine the best method to assess satisfaction at different customer touch points (phone or online surveys, metrics, etc.) and implement an ongoing plan to solicit, review and act on customer feedback.

- Monitor customer calls, emails and correspondence. Create and distribute appropriate customer service reports. Analyze customer returns and comments. Create and distribute appropriate returns reporting.

- Identify and recommend appropriate online messaging including such things as extended product information, inventory availability, general customer service questions, etc. Work closely with web team to implement changes as needed.

- Develop methods to solicit appropriate user content, feedback and community within our online store, i.e. customer reviews, customer testimonials, etc. Evaluate results of Click to Chat pilot to determine future investment.

- Develop policies to reduce fraud and short pays and create reporting to monitor on a daily and weekly basis.

Distribution and Frieght:

- Establish operational procedures for activities such as quality control, receiving, returns, packing, RTVs, and keeping warehouse inventory current and accurate. Evaluate new vendors and systems to meet new business objectives.

- Review warehouse operations in all key areas (pick/pack, shipping, receiving, returns, qc, etc.) to ensure proper quality standards are being met. Work with vendor to ensure warehouse staff is properly trained on procedures and can meet business requirements.

- Implement inbound and outbound freight solutions that reduce costs without negatively impacting customer experience. Review product packaging and labeling: identify problems and develop solutions. Work with packaging vendors to ensure timely delivery and to manage inventory.

- Develop programs to increase amount of returned merchandise that can be resold. Develop and implement refurbishment program. Work with inventory and merchandising staff to procure necessary parts for refurbishment. Determine best methods to liquidate damaged or obsolete merchandise. Oversee physical inventory counts and warehouse liquidations.

- Determine best mix of vendors and ship methods. Work with manifesting system to execute freight solutions. Develop tracking reports to monitor freight costs on a weekly basis. Develop and implement programs to improve the management of imports and to decrease costs.

- Create custom reports to manage business and report results to senior executives.

Operational Systems:

- Work closely with Manager of Business Systems on process engineering and to implement technical solutions needed to support our operations, reduce costs, increase capacity and efficiency, and improve customer experience.

- Responsible for the oversight of third-party operational platforms including drop ship, manifesting, forecasting, and product information systems.

- Establish appropriate procedures and audit checks for purchasing. Develop and maintain inventory control processes.

- Evaluate new vendors and systems to meet new business objectives.

Supervision Exercised
Responsible for supervison of 1-2 staff members and interns.

Qualifications:
Minimum Education & Experience
Bachelor's degree required. And a minimum of 7 years of operations and direct to consumer catalog/ecommerce experience. At least 5 years of management experience, including experience developing and negotiating contracts and vendor management. Plus 3 years of experience implementing and maintaining operational systems.

Knowledge & Skill Requirements
- Must be experienced in order management, warehouse logistics, database and inventory.

- Strong MS Word, MS Excel, and MS Access skills. Must have excellent analytics and spreadsheet skills. Peoplesoft experience is preferred.

- Must have excellent oral and writing skills to communicate effectively with business executives, internal departments, vendors and customers. Must have excellent interpersonal, planning and organizational skills with the ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.

- Must be highly proactive, self motivated and driven. Must be willing to dig-in to the details and do whatever is necessary to get the job done.

- Must be able to think strategically but be highly detail-oriented and have excellent follow-through.

- Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced environment across multiple projects, teams, and vendors is a necessity. Able to work quickly, accurately and efficiently while under pressure. Ability to prioritize in order to meet all deadlines.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Comments:
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Employer:
National Geographic Society

Website:
http://bit.ly/ZE29xh