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Your Opportunity as the Senior Manager, Retail Operations
This role leads the strategy, governance, and execution model for national retail coverage across J.M. Smucker Company priorities. This position is accountable for strengthening the company’s partnership with Acosta and other retail partners, improving the effectiveness of the retail coverage model, increasing accountability for retail investment, and ensuring retail activity translates into measurable business value. The role connects retail execution, customer priorities, display management, reporting, financial governance, and data-led on-shelf availability. Working across Sales, Procurement, Finance, Deduction Management, Transportation, category teams, external broker partners, and customer-facing teams, this leader establishes clear processes, improves execution, and directs resources toward the highest-value opportunities.
Location: Working Remote, USA and residing near a major airport
Work Arrangements: Approximate travel 50% or as business needs require.
In this role you will:
Lead Retail Operations strategy and execution.
Develop and continuously refine the national retail broker model across Food and Beverage, Hostess, convenience, and other priority retail channels, including dedicated and syndicated coverage, convenience-store support, back-office support, and customer-specific retail programs.
Set retail execution strategy across selling, merchandising, distribution correction, promotional execution, in-aisle activity, secondary displays, and total-company display execution.
Prioritize retail resources using account-level needs, store productivity, execution requirements, and expected return.
Support Perfect Store, 360 Selling, seasonal limited-time offers, shipper deployment, display management, and customer-specific execution initiatives.
Strengthen retail partner governance and accountability.
Serve as a primary point of contact for Acosta and other retail partner relationships, ensuring activities, coverage levels, costs, and expected outcomes are clearly defined.
Lead scorecards, monthly and quarterly business reviews, customer coverage reviews, and recurring performance discussions that connect field activity with customer priorities and measurable business results.
Challenge coverage levels and redirect resources when productivity, execution requirements, or expected return do not support the investment.
Partner with Procurement, Finance, Sales, and Deduction Management to define broker services, negotiate appropriate rates, validate billing, monitor variances, and connect costs with services delivered.
Advance data-led retail execution and on-shelf availability.
Use customer-specific data, Circana insights, real-time out-of-stock scanning, and authorized-item reporting to identify high-value distribution and availability opportunities before representatives enter stores.
Translate alerts, scorecards, and key performance indicator reporting into actionable priorities for retail representatives and sales teams.
Support customer initiatives such as Kroger On-Shelf Availability by connecting store-level corrections with customer ordering processes and broader retail productivity goals.
Measure execution impact across store visits, out-of-stocks, void correction, cases influenced, cases packed out, display execution, and priority-program performance.
Improve planning discipline and field communication.
Drive earlier communication among Sales, Retail Operations, customers, and broker partners to improve execution windows, reset readiness, and store-level awareness.
Establish recurring customer coverage reviews focused on shipment and key performance indicator tracking, planogram compliance, retail tools, and 90-day retail planning calendars.
Facilitate ad hoc requests from internal sales teams, field teams, and category partners while ensuring ownership and priorities are clear.
Lead internal share-out meetings to communicate progress, risks, opportunities, and required follow-up actions.
Manage display, freight, and retail investment governance.
Maintain oversight of the Hostess display-management relationship, budget, ordering, deployment, inventory, and shipment planning.
Establish disciplined financial review, return-on-investment evaluation, and approval processes before deploying display equipment or retail resources.
Identify opportunities for cost avoidance, improved financial control, reduced freight exposure, and stronger accountability for retail investment.
Lead cross-functional problem solving and process improvement.
Coordinate Sales priorities, field execution, Procurement discussions, Finance requirements, deduction-management needs, display production, analytics, transportation considerations, and customer-specific requirements.
Diagnose execution challenges by identifying whether root causes involve coverage, communication, inventory, reporting, store authorization, timing, ownership, or process gaps.
Partner with Pet and other counterpart teams to develop standard operating procedures, best practices, execution strategies, and consistent ways of working.
What we are looking for:
Minimum Requirements:
Bachelor’s degree.
10+ years of experience in consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail operations, sales strategy, customer execution, broker management, or related commercial roles.
Experience directing a national retail agency or broker partner and managing retail coverage models, services, costs, billing, resource allocation, scorecards, and performance reviews.
Strong knowledge of retail management, broker operations, customer execution, store-level merchandising, planograms, display and promotional execution, distribution correction, and on-shelf availability.
Experience translating customer, syndicated, store-level, and operational data into field priorities, measurable outcomes, and practical actions.
Strong commercial and financial acumen, including evaluating retail investments and prioritizing resources based on customer needs, productivity, execution requirements, and expected return.
Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify root causes and create clear operating processes that connect field activity, customer priorities, reporting, and financial governance.
Experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives and working effectively across Sales, Procurement, Finance, Deduction Management, Transportation, category and analytics teams, external partners, and customer-facing organizations.
Strong communication, facilitation, stakeholder-management, and influencing skills, including the ability to establish accountability and influence senior leaders without direct authority.
Ability to lead through ambiguity, make sound decisions, balance immediate execution with long-term operating-model improvements, and create effective planning, governance, and executive-update routines.
Additional skills and experience that we think would make someone successful in this role:
Master of Business Administration, other relevant advanced degree, or certification in retail analytics, project management, process improvement, or financial management.
Experience working with Acosta, Advantage Solutions, or a comparable national retail agency across food, beverage, convenience, or other consumer packaged goods retail channels.
Experience with Perfect Store, 360 Selling, seasonal programs, display deployment, planogram compliance, and on-shelf availability initiatives.
Experience overseeing display management, freight, deduction management, or related retail investment processes.
Experience using customer-specific, Circana, authorized-item, out-of-stock, or comparable retail analytics tools.
The Right Place for You
We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.
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We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.