Rip Van is a food innovation company. We exist to improve people’s lives with better convenient products that are uniquely delicious, healthier and beautifully designed. We are committed to improving and broadening our product portfolio to create more great tasting options for our fans.

Our first product, Rip Van Wafels is available in retail locations nationwide, including locations like Whole Foods, Meijer, Winn Dixie, Costco, CVS, Racetrac and many othersOur products are consistently ranked as best sellers on Amazon, where our products hold #1 spots for wafers and stroopwafels.

The company has grown 7X in the last three years, has made both the Inc & Forbes 30 under 30 lists, won numerous business awards and has been featured in publications such as Techcrunch, Entrepreneur, Bon Appetit, and The New York Times.

Role Overview

The Rip Van VP of Operations will oversee all matters related to the commercialization, manufacture and deployment of Rip Van products. S/he must have systems and process mindset, with the ability to spot talent and build a team to manage the supply chain flawlessly.

S/he will ensure products are made to Rip Van’s exacting standards on quality, while maintaining the most competitive pricing possible. S/He must be a team leader and partner, skilled negotiator and problem solver and able to both tackle day-to-day operational problems at a granular level and develop the next-level strategies and organization the company will need for the future.

Location

Remote (However strong preference for someone based on EST)

Specific Responsibilities

1) Operations Strategy and Management

• Experience in building tight and effective S&OP processes to coordinate demand, inventory and supply planning
• Able to build dashboards to both understand current supply chain status and run scenarios for future planning
• Effective team player, coordinating across Sales, Innovation and Senior Management

2) Functional and Team Leadership

• Lead remote team of eight people: Demand Planner, Inventory Manager, Supply Planner, Quality Associate, Customer Service Representative, External Manufacturing Manager, Procurement Manager and Analyst
• Develop and articulate strategic vision for Operations, as well as annual and quarterly goals for the function and team members
• Coach team to higher standards and recruit new team members when necessary

3) Co-Man Management

• Manage and build relationships with key supply chain and operations partners, including manufacturing partners and key materials suppliers.
• Negotiate co-manufacturing contracts with a deep understanding of leverage and key pressure points for both sides, with an eye to both financial and operational requirements for agreement to succeed.
• Find and evaluate new manufacturing partners for future product lines and extensions.
• Ensure strong visibility into key aspects of comanufacture operations, especially quality procedures, raw & pack inventory and capacity utilization.

4) Inventory Management

• Ensure visibility and maintain sufficient inventory levels across supply chain: Rip Van 3PLs, Amazon and key distributors.
• Oversee 3PL partners, ensuring performance at or above contracted requirements, create cost and service improvement plans and evaluate/on-board new supply chain partners as necessary.

5) Quality control

• Build and implement Quality Assurance and Quality Control protocols to ensure that every product in the marketplace meets our quality promise.
• Ensure quality programs are supported and implemented by partner practices and requirement to do so is enshrined in co-manufacturer and supply chain partners.
• Set regular quality goals for partners and drive to success

6) Customer Service

• Maintain best-in-class fill and OTIF rates
• Ensure strong linkage between sales, customer service and finance to ensure order to cash process is efficient and error-free.
• Lead customer service department, developing and implementing strategy and systems to support rapid growth without rapid escalation of costs.
• Manage transportation partners to best service at lowest cost.

7) Continuous Improvement

• Ongoing management and analysis of the brand’s cost-of-goods in order to maximize profit margins and meet key business goals. Design and set up a key measures process to track cost performance monthly.
• Identify cost improvement strategies and build a 2-3 year roadmap of same.

8) Commercialization & NPD

• Provide key operational support for new product development and participate in stage-gate review of new items.
• Oversee smooth transition from development to commercialization via transition from NPD process to normal S&OP processes.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in fast-growth and entrepreneurial environments.
• Must have experience scaling operations and operations teams in companies growing 5X revenue and/or expanding across multiple product lines and manufacturing partners.
• Demonstrated success in continuous improvement and supplier management
• Entrepreneurial; able to create a success path without the resources of large company
• Strong work ethic, professionalism and positive attitude
• Highly Organized; ability to manage and drive multiple projects to completion
• Extremely Curious
• Great attention to detail
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Strong analytic ability