E-Commerce Operations Manager

About the Role

KittySpout is looking for an E-Commerce Operations Manager to join our team!

This role reports directly to our Head of Ops, who built and runs the entire operational infrastructure behind a $22M+ DTC brand. We’re hiring an Operations Manager to work underneath him, learn the business inside and out, and develop into the person who takes over as Head of Operations — running all ops across the entire brand. This isn’t a support role. This is a clear, defined path to becoming the main operations leader at a fast-scaling company targeting $45–50M in 2026.

Day to day, you’ll own the operational engine — coordinating cross-team workflows, managing supply chain logistics, supporting demand planning, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks as we scale. You’ll work closely with the founder and have real visibility into how every part of the business works. As you prove yourself, the scope expands and the role grows with you. The goal is simple: find the right person, invest in them, and build them into our long-term ops leader.

Who We Are

KittySpout is a premium DTC brand selling stainless steel cat water fountains, filters, and accessories. We sell across Shopify, Amazon, and Chewy, and we’re one of the fastest-growing brands in the pet space — $22M+ in revenue and targeting $45–50M in 2026. We recently launched DoggySpout, expanding into an entirely new vertical and customer base. We’re lean, we move fast, and every person on this team has a massive impact on the business.

Culture Fit

Culture-fit is our #1 factor when hiring.

We are a fast-moving, data-driven team with no corporate politics. Everyone is hands-on, and if something needs doing, you do it — regardless of whether it’s “in your job description.” We value speed, ownership, and people who overdeliver without being asked. This is not a 9–5 corporate role. If you need rigid processes and someone telling you what to do every day, this is not the right fit.

What you get: you’ll work closely with the founder, play a big role in the growth of the brand, and have real ownership and visibility into how the business runs. We hire people we trust and get out of their way. If you’re the kind of person who thrives with freedom, accountability, and the ability to make a real impact — you’ll love it here.

Our core values: Work Smart. Overdeliver. Speed is King. Better Every Day.

Key Objectives

• Run the operational engine end-to-end with AI as a force multiplier. Own day-to-day coordination across supply chain, fulfillment, 3PL, and manufacturer relationships. We expect you to use AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, internal dashboards) to 5x your output on anything that can be automated or accelerated, not as a crutch, but as a baseline expectation of how the role operates.
• Own the supply chain coordination layer — PO tracking, lead time monitoring, 3PL invoice reconciliation, and manufacturer follow-ups. You will inherit our existing tools and playbooks; your job is to run them, improve them, and catch what they miss.
• Surface insights, not just status. Every week we expect you to bring 1–2 things we did not ask you to look at; margin leaks, SKU anomalies, 3PL billing weirdness, inventory imbalances across channels. AI makes the analysis cheap; your job is knowing what is worth analyzing and acting on it before we ask.
• Partner with the Head of Ops on demand planning with a clear ramp. Months 1–3 you shadow and own the data layer — sell-through analysis, reorder math, AI-assisted baseline forecasts. Months 4–6 you propose forecasts for review. Month 7+ you own demand planning end-to-end with spot-checks. We are not throwing you in the deep end; we are deliberately building you into the person who runs it.
• Partner with our CS Manager on operational escalations. Our CS Manager runs the customer service team day-to-day. You sync with her on issues that touch ops — defective unit patterns, fulfillment errors, return trends — and help close the loop on systemic fixes.
• Be the operational early warning system. If the Head of Ops or the CEO learns about a problem from someone other than you, that is a miss. You triage cross-team issues, unblock team members, and keep work moving — but more importantly, you spot what is about to break before it does.
• Build and maintain the operational reporting layer — dashboards, weekly ops reports, monthly leadership rollups. We do not want pretty charts. We want decisions enabled. Every report should answer: what happened, what is at risk, what should we do about it.
• Improve the playbook as you run it. Every process you touch should be better documented, more efficient, and more AI-leveraged when you hand it back. We are scaling from $22M to $45M+ and the ops infrastructure has to scale with us — the right person helps define how that happens.

Requirements

• Fully remote position (must be available for overlap with US Eastern timezone core hours).
• Fluent in English (written and verbal) — you’ll be communicating across every function daily.
• 2–5 years of operations experience at a product-based ecommerce or DTC brand. Agency or non-ecom ops experience alone won’t cut it — you need to understand the reality of physical product logistics, subscription fulfillment, and multi-channel selling.
• Hands-on experience with Shopify (required) and familiarity with Amazon Seller Central and/or Chewy Marketplace is a strong plus.
• Proficient in Asana (or similar project management tools) for tracking tasks, timelines, and cross-team dependencies.
• Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills — you will be working with inventory data, demand forecasts, and operational reports regularly. Bonus if you can drive AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT) to do the heavy lifting on top of them.
• High AI fluency is required, not optional. You should already be using Claude, ChatGPT, or similar tools daily to accelerate your work — analyzing data, drafting docs, building reports, automating repetitive tasks. If you do not currently use AI as a core part of how you operate, this role will not be a fit. We will test for this in the interview.
• Experience with 3PL coordination, supply chain logistics, or demand planning — even at a junior level — is highly valued.
• Extremely organized and proactive — you flag problems before they escalate and you don’t wait to be told what to do next.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, lean environment where processes are still being built. You need to thrive in ambiguity, not freeze.
• Aligned with our values: work smart, overdeliver, speed is king, better every day. We do not track hours — we track output. When the business needs it, you step up; when it does not, you have the freedom to operate the way that makes you most effective.

Accountabilities

What success looks like in this role

• Zero operational surprises reach leadership. If the Head of Ops or the CEO learns about a problem from someone other than you, that is a miss. With real freedom and autonomy comes real ownership of the outcome — not just the process.
• 2–3 quantified operational improvements shipped per month. Examples: caught a 3PL billing error worth $X, restructured a reorder cadence to free up $Y in working capital, identified an SKU running out 3 weeks early, automated a recurring report that was costing 4 hours a week. You do not wait to be assigned these — you find them, ship them, and report the impact.
• Operational issues triaged and resolved (or escalated with a recommendation, not just a question) within the same business day. The Head of Ops should rarely be pulled into reactive problem-solving — and when escalation happens, you bring options, not just a problem statement.
• Fires get put out fast and stay out. When something breaks across teams, you fix it quickly and put a system in place afterward — ideally an AI-leveraged one — to prevent recurrence. A problem solved twice is a process failure you owned.
• Demand planning handoff complete by month 6. Measured by: forecasts you propose require no material changes from the Head of Ops 80%+ of the time. Until then, demand planning inputs (sell-through data, reorder flags, inventory alerts) are delivered to the Head of Ops on a weekly schedule without prompting.
• Cross-team coordination is invisible when it works. Launches, restocks, and channel rollouts go smoothly without leadership having to chase status. If they do not, you owned the post-mortem and the systemic fix within the same week.
• Monthly operational review delivered to leadership by the 5th of each month. Format: what happened, what is at risk, what you recommend, what you need from us. Covers fulfillment performance, CS ticket trends (in partnership with the CS Manager), inventory health, and emerging risks.

How Our Hiring Works

We move fast and respect your time. Our process has three stages: (1) Soft Interview — a conversational call to understand your background and see if there’s mutual fit. (2) Technical Interview + Test Project — a deeper dive into your ops experience plus a short practical exercise so we can see how you think and work. (3) Culture Fit Interview — a final conversation with the founder to make sure this is the right team for you and you’re the right person for us.

Timeline from first interview to offer is typically 8–10 business days . KPIs and performance targets will be defined together before your start date so expectations are crystal clear from day one.

Compensation

$50,000 – $65,000 USD per year

Based on experience and expertise. As you grow into the Head of Operations role, compensation scales with the scope — including a performance bonus structure that kicks in at the senior level. We invest in the people who earn it.