Director of Operations - Portland

About us

Vieux Vins Group companies import, distribute and sell some of the finest wine in the world. Our Portland facility is new, and it does two things at once. It is the licensed Oregon wholesale operation for Bridge City Provisions, and it is the West Coast home of The Rare Wine Vault, our private storage service for collectors. We are building both this year, from the ground up.

The job

You run the Portland facility. Everything that happens at Columbia Blvd is yours: the licensed wholesale operation, the private client storage business, the warehouse team, and the physical space.

Two operations sit under one roof, and they are different animals. The wholesale side receives, holds and ships wine under an Oregon wholesale license. It has to be accurate, fast, and clean enough to stand up to a regulator. The storage side is a service private clients pay for by the case, every month. It has to feel like a private bank for wine. You own both.

This is a hands-on, 100% on-site job with real authority. You will hire your own team, set the standards, and own the numbers.

What you will own

The site and the people

• Full accountability for everything that ships, receives or is stored at Columbia Blvd.

• Hiring, performance, development and termination decisions for the Portland team.

• Setting the standards and building the culture in a building that does not have one yet.

• Keeping the licensed wholesale space and the storage space properly separated, and keeping the records that prove it.

Wholesale operations — Bridge City Provisions

• Order accuracy, fill rate and on-time delivery for every wholesale order out of Portland.

• Inbound receiving: accuracy, speed, and resolving discrepancies before they reach a customer.

• The records the Oregon wholesale license requires, and being the person who can answer a regulator without a scramble.

• Freight and carrier rates for Oregon outbound, reviewed at least twice a year.

• Growing the operation as we add wholesale customers beyond our first.

Private client storage — The Rare Wine Vault

• Standing up the storage operation, then running it as a business: intake, bottle-level accuracy, extraction requests, client service.

• Occupancy and space utilization against the rate card, and monthly billing being right.

• Treating every bottle as if the client is watching, because they are.

• Inbound wine from outside vendors, handled against our published standards.

Systems and data

• Becoming the Portland expert in NetSuite, and using it rather than working around it.

• Inventory accuracy, inventory turns and space utilization as reported numbers, not opinions.

• A weekly and a monthly review of results, with root cause on every exception: receiving, order entry, fulfillment, shipping and storage.

• Being the person other sites call when they want to know how something should work.

What you will be measured on: Excellence and Attention to Detail

• Order accuracy and on-time shipment

• Inventory accuracy at bottle level

• Storage occupancy and billing accuracy

• Cost per case shipped

• Team retention

What we need

• Real experience running a warehouse or distribution site, including hiring, managing and letting people go.

• Hands-on inventory and fulfillment work: receiving, allocations, pick and pack, discrepancy resolution.

• Comfort with data. You can find the root cause in a spreadsheet, not just describe the symptom.

• Working knowledge of an ERP and a warehouse system. NetSuite is a plus.

• Comfort operating in a licensed, regulated business, or the seriousness to learn it fast.

• Wine distribution or wine sales experience is a plus, not a requirement.

Who you are

• Hands-on. You would rather walk the floor than read about it.

• You improve things continuously, and without being asked.

• You solve problems instead of routing them.

• You want to satisfy the customer, and you are not afraid to say no.

• You communicate clearly with warehouse staff and with senior leaders

• You can make a hard staffing call and sleep afterward.

• You have entered an unfamiliar field before, learned it, and won.

The team

• You will lead a Portland team of 5-10 direct reports.

Compensation

• Salary range: Based on experience. Annual bonus in addition to salary.

• Full benefits. Medical, Dental, Vision, 401k, wine purchase program.

To apply

Send a cover letter telling us why this job interests you, along with your resume. Resumes without a cover letter will not be reviewed. No recruiters, please.

This role is based in Portland, Oregon.