PRODUCT CATALOG & VENDOR OPERATIONS MANAGER

Job Description

PRODUCT CATALOG & VENDOR OPERATIONS MANAGER

Location: Remote

Employment Type: Full-time

Direct Reports: 1–2 Product Catalog / Listing Specialists

ABOUT ALL SECURITY EQUIPMENT

All Security Equipment is an e-commerce distributor of gate access, parking, perimeter security, safety, and related commercial equipment. Our catalog includes thousands of technical products, parts, options, kits, and accessories from many different manufacturers and distributors.

Accurate product information is essential to our customer experience and to the Sales and Operations teams supporting every order.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a highly organized Product Catalog & Vendor Operations Manager to oversee the accuracy and timely flow of product information from our vendors into Odoo and Shopify.

This is an execution-focused and highly collaborative position. The individual tasks are generally straightforward; the challenge comes from the size of our catalog, the volume of ongoing changes, the number of stakeholders involved, and the need to complete work accurately and on time.

The ideal candidate is an exceptionally organized manager who can turn incoming requests into a controlled workflow, delegate production work, verify quality, communicate changes clearly, follow up consistently, and ensure every project reaches completion.

This person will manage a remote team of one or two Product Catalog / Listing Specialists. The manager is not expected to perform every catalog update personally but will remain accountable for the accuracy, timing, and completion of the team’s work.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Product Catalog Management

• Maintain accurate and complete product information across Odoo and Shopify, including titles, descriptions, images, specifications, SKUs, vendor information, costs, selling prices, categories, tags, collections, and search filters.

• Ensure product variants, options, kits, components, bills of materials, accessories, and recommended add-ons are configured correctly.

• Maintain accurate stock status, lead times, backorder messaging, shipping methods, freight rules, drop-ship information, and other attributes affecting customer expectations and order fulfillment.

• Coordinate catalog cleanups, including duplicate records, placeholder images, outdated information, inactive items, and discontinued products.

• Ensure discontinued or replaced products are archived, updated, migrated, or redirected appropriately.

• Establish quality-control procedures to verify catalog changes before or immediately after publication.

Pricing and Bulk Data Management

• Process vendor price lists and cost changes involving hundreds or thousands of products.

• Validate source data and calculate selling prices or margins according to company rules.

• Prepare and safely execute bulk updates in Odoo and Shopify.

• Use advanced Excel or Google Sheets functions to compare files, map SKUs, identify exceptions, calculate changes, and detect missing or conflicting information.

• Set up and roll back promotions, discounts, surcharges, tariffs, MSRP changes, and MAP pricing accurately and on schedule.

• Maintain an audit trail showing the source of each update, effective date, affected products, formulas used, approvals received, and any exceptions requiring follow-up.

• Reconcile data after imports and investigate discrepancies between vendor files, Odoo, Shopify, and connected sales channels.

Vendor Coordination

• Serve as the primary operational contact for vendor product-data and pricing matters.

• Proactively request updated price lists, cost files, catalogs, product images, specifications, literature, promotions, and availability information.

• Ensure that All Security Equipment has information about each vendor’s current and newly released products.

• Confirm price increases, new products, discontinued items, product replacements, vendor migrations, promotions, and lead-time changes.

• Follow up consistently until all required vendor information is complete and usable.

• Escalate missing, conflicting, or late vendor information before it creates customer-service, margin, purchasing, or fulfillment problems.

• Coordinate structured product attributes when required, including country of origin, GTIN/UPC, tax categories, and government or compliance classifications.

Cross-Functional Communication

• Maintain a reliable communication process for Sales, Operations, Purchasing, Marketing, and other affected teams.

• Communicate new products, price increases, promotions, discontinuations, substitutions, inventory changes, lead-time changes, shipping changes, and known listing issues.

• Translate detailed vendor or system information into clear guidance explaining:

  • What changed

  • When the change becomes effective

  • Which products or customers are affected

  • What each team needs to know or do

• Provide a structured weekly update separating completed work, work in progress, recurring tasks, blockers, decisions needed, and backlogged projects.

• Respond promptly to product-data questions from Sales and Operations.

• Document important decisions in the appropriate system, procedure, or project tracker.

Team and Project Management

• Manage, coach, and develop a remote team of one or two Product Catalog / Listing Specialists.

• Convert incoming requests into a prioritized project backlog with a clear scope, owner, deadline, dependencies, and definition of completion.

• Delegate product research, data preparation, listing creation, image work, and recurring catalog checks.

• Review delegated work and remain accountable for its quality and timely completion.

• Balance urgent pricing or availability changes with longer-term catalog projects.

• Identify resource constraints and escalate competing priorities before deadlines are missed.

• Create and maintain standard operating procedures, templates, checklists, and training materials.

• Track commitments through completion and prevent projects from remaining indefinitely in an “ongoing” or “backburner” status.

Systems and Process Improvement

• Use Odoo, Shopify, Excel, and Google Sheets efficiently.

• Understand how product data moves between Odoo, Shopify, and connected applications or sales channels.

• Improve bulk-import templates, validation checks, naming standards, and recurring data-maintenance processes.

• Coordinate with internal or external technical resources regarding integrations, workflows, system issues, and support tickets.

• Test high-impact changes carefully before broad deployment.

• Identify opportunities to reduce repetitive manual work through formulas, Power Query, macros, Shopify Flow, import tools, or lightweight scripts.

• Document system logic and automated processes so the team can operate and troubleshoot them reliably.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• At least four years of experience in e-commerce catalog operations, product information management, merchandising operations, ERP administration, marketplace operations, or a closely related field.

• At least two years of experience managing people, projects, or a high-volume operational workflow.

• Hands-on experience managing product data in an ERP and an e-commerce platform.

• Strong proficiency with Excel or Google Sheets, including lookups, conditional formulas, data cleanup, reconciliation, pivot tables, and bulk-update preparation.

• Understanding of SKUs, variants, options, kits, components, vendor costs, pricing rules, categories, tags, and product attributes.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Ability to explain detailed changes clearly to non-technical teams.

• Strong project-management, delegation, prioritization, and follow-up skills.

• Ability to manage multiple deadlines while maintaining a high level of accuracy.

• Ability to work independently and manage a remote team effectively.

• Availability during agreed business hours with sufficient overlap with our U.S.-based Sales and Operations teams.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Direct experience with Odoo and Shopify.

• Experience with product information management systems, inventory feeds, marketplace integrations, Amazon or eBay connectors, Quotify, or similar catalog tools.

• Working knowledge of SQL, Python, JavaScript, APIs, macros, Power Query, or other data-automation tools.

• Experience managing technical, industrial, security, access-control, gate-operator, electrical, or parts-heavy product catalogs.

• Experience coordinating vendor pricing, MAP/MSRP policies, promotions, shipping attributes, and country-of-origin information.

• Familiarity with product taxonomy, collections, filters, search merchandising, SEO fundamentals, and product-page optimization.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

• Systematic: You build trackers, processes, and controls instead of relying on memory.

• Accountable: You own the final result even when another team member performs the task.

• Proactive: You anticipate deadlines, request information early, and escalate blockers before they become emergencies.

• Clear: You communicate changes in plain language and confirm that the appropriate people received the information.

• Data-minded: You verify inputs, reconcile outputs, investigate exceptions, and avoid untested mass changes.

• Practical: You choose the simplest reliable process and automate when doing so creates meaningful value.

• Team-oriented: You delegate, coach, provide useful feedback, and create clarity instead of becoming a bottleneck.

This is not a software engineering position. Coding knowledge is valuable because it can help you design more efficient workflows, communicate with developers, validate data, and automate repetitive work.

WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS

When product information is accurate and changes are communicated properly, customers receive better information, Sales can quote confidently, Operations can fulfill orders correctly, Purchasing can make better decisions, and the company protects its margins and reputation.

The Product Catalog & Vendor Operations Manager creates the organization, accountability, and operational discipline that make those outcomes repeatable.

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