Operations Manager

Location: Boston. This role requires occasional travel to our co-manufacturer, 3PL, and for team collaboration.

Reports to: Founder & CEO

ABOUT LUCILLE HEALTH

Lucille Health is a modern senior nutrition brand on a mission to change the way America nourishes its aging population. We make clean-ingredient nutrition shakes designed for older adults — real food, not the artificial formulas that have dominated the category for decades.

Founded by a granddaughter who experienced the innovation gap for seniors firsthand while caring for her own grandmother (Lucille), we’re building a brand that celebrates aging with vitality — not fear. We champion “super seniors” and believe older adults deserve better than the institutional, medicalized products the industry has offered them.

We launched in March 2026 and are selling via Amazon, DTC (Shopify), and B2B channels (senior living communities). Retail is planned for 2027. We’re backed by strong investors and advisors and are at the exciting, scrappy stage where this operations hire will be the engine that lets our brand actually deliver on its promise.

THE ROLE

We’re looking for a highly capable, detail-obsessed Operations Manager to build and own Lucille’s operational infrastructure from the ground up. This role is the connective tissue of the business — spanning finance, supply chain, manufacturing, logistics, and the internal systems that keep everything running.

Reporting directly to the founder, you’ll be our first dedicated full-time operations hire. From managing our co-manufacturer relationships and 3PL performance to building our finance function and standing up the tools and processes we need to scale — this is a build-it role, not a manage-it role.

This is ideal for someone who has 5-7+ years of experience in food & beverage or CPG operations and is ready to step into a role with real ownership and real stakes. You’re energized by ambiguity, allergic to dropped balls, and genuinely excited about building something that matters for an audience that’s been overlooked for too long.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Co-Manufacturer Management

• Own the relationship with our co-manufacturer(s) end-to-end: production scheduling, lead time management, capacity planning, performance accountability, and negotiation.
• Build and maintain the production calendar in sync with our finance team. Comfortable with demand forecasts, marketing launches, and new product timelines.

Supply Chain

• Manage ingredient and packaging procurement — negotiate pricing, build supplier relationships, ensure supply continuity, and identify backup sourcing for critical inputs.
• Develop, monitor, and improve our COGS structure. Identify ongoing opportunities to reduce costs without compromising ingredient quality or product integrity.
• Support new product development from an operations lens — packaging feasibility, ingredient sourcing, production readiness, and launch timelines.

Logistics, Fulfillment & Inventory

• Own the 3PL relationship end-to-end: inbound receiving, pick/pack/ship performance, returns handling, and SLA management.
• Manage inventory levels across DTC (Shopify), Amazon (FBA/FBM), and retail channels — minimizing stockouts and overstock while optimizing cash tied up in inventory.
• Build and maintain demand forecasting and replenishment planning processes, working closely with the founder and finance team on sales projections.
• Oversee Amazon fulfillment operations in coordination with our Amazon agency — including FBA shipment planning, reorder triggers, and stranded inventory management.

Retail Readiness

• Lead retailer and distributor onboarding including EDI, item setup, and compliance requirements.
• Manage on-time, in-full delivery, and minimize retailer fines and deductions.
• Own case and pallet specs, UPCs, and retail-ready packaging requirements.

Quality Control

• Own product quality including specs, batch records, COAs, and release before shipping.
• Manage production deviations and corrective actions with co-manufacturers.
• Maintain allergen controls and certificates.
• Track and resolve customer quality complaints working closely with our CX team.
• Own lot traceability, recall readiness, and shelf-life tracking.

Internal Systems & Process Infrastructure

• Build the internal reporting cadence — weekly and monthly scorecards covering sales, fill rates, inventory turns, COGS, freight costs, lead times, and quality metrics.
• Ensure clean data flow across Shopify, Amazon Seller Central, B2B order management, and retail — and flag and fix gaps before they cause problems downstream.
• Write the SOPs and build the operational playbook. As we scale and build out the operations team, these systems and documents will be the foundation everything runs on.
• Evaluate, implement, and manage the operational tech stack for the business as it scales: inventory management/ERP, demand planning tools, finance automation, and operational dashboards.

ABOUT YOU

• 5-7+ years of experience in operations or supply chain, ideally within food & beverage, CPG, or DTC brands. Beverage experience is a plus.
• Advanced excel skills and the ability to build operational models.
• Direct, hands-on experience managing co-manufacturers, 3PLs, and supplier relationships. You’ve negotiated contracts, held partners accountable to SLAs, and solved real problems when things go sideways. No problem is too small or too big to tackle with urgency.
• Comfortable building from scratch. You’ve stood up systems, written SOPs, and created structure in environments where none existed before.
• Data guru who loves leveraging data to make strategic decisions. Data-driven approach to making decisions. Inventory management, demand planning, and COGS optimization. You can build a model, read a P&L, and translate numbers into decisions.
• Familiarity with operational tools and platforms is a plus — inventory/ERP systems, Shopify back-end operations, and Amazon Seller Central.
• Exceptional attention to detail. You are the person who catches problems before they come to fruition, not after.
• Comfortable in fast-moving, early-stage environments where the playbook doesn’t exist yet and resourcefulness is the job description.
• Genuine interest in the senior care space, aging, or health & wellness. You don’t need to be an expert, but you should care about the people we’re building this for.

WHY LUCILLE

This is a rare opportunity to be the first operations full-time hire at a brand that’s building something genuinely new in a category that has never been disrupted.

You’ll work directly with a founder who is deeply invested in getting the operational foundation right — not just the brand story. The decisions you make in this role will shape how Lucille scales: what we produce, how we deliver it, and how much it costs to do so. You are directly shaping the business and providing real leverage.

We’re a small, mighty team that moves fast, cares deeply about what we’re building, and believes that older adults deserve a brand that makes them feel seen — not sidelined. If building the operational engine behind that mission excites you, we’d love to hear from you.