Sr. Manager, Retail Ops Strategy

About the Role

The Sr. Manager, Retail Ops Strategy is responsible for building a highly effective program to drive operational success as we bring Caper Carts and other in-store programs to our retailer partner's stores and worldwide.  

In this role, you will focus on leading and defining the operational strategies needed for each Caper Cart deployed to sustainably perform and thrive in the store environment in a scalable manner.  You will work at the intersection of technology and in-store operations to solve our most critical challenges throughout the planning, launch, pilot, and scale stages of deployment.  

You will partner closely with our operations leaders and their teams to deliver the program you build to our partners in a way that engages and motivates their store teams to support the success of Caper. You will also work cross-functionally with other leaders at Caper and other Connected Stores programs, serving as their operations subject matter expert on what is needed in stores to succeed.  You will act as a thought partner to help them evolve the product to support success in the store environment.

About the Team

The Shopper & Retail Operations team focused on the intersection of Instacart technology and the physical world, supporting Shoppers and optimizing the in-store experience.

• Prioritize and tackle the most impactful operations problems head-on, bringing structure and solutions needed to overcome complex and ambiguous problem spaces effectively and efficiently  
• Partner directly with our Partner and Pilot Ops Excellence teams to identify critical problems to solve that unlock performance and growth of Caper and other programs in the retail environment  
• Leverage observation, analytics, and the expertise you build in Caper's product to identify opportunities for and drive continuous improvement in the retail environment
• Leverage dedicated analyst resources to build and execute a roadmap that brings data-driven approach to ambiguous problems
• Build robust operational solutions for today's challenges with a scale-forward lens that anticipates and addresses tomorrow's needs
• Identify and onboard new internal teams, tools, or vendors that support effective scaling of retail programs
• Identify and collaborate with the appropriate cross-functional partners discerningly and effectively, including product, engineering, design, and other teams.  Clearly communicate an objective understanding of operational challenges that leads to the right investment outcomes across the team

Minimum Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience building and driving programs in retail operations 
• Experience leading teams in large-scale initiatives across internal and client-facing stakeholders and partners with indirect authority.  You've directly worked with teams outside of your direct discipline in previous roles including product, engineering, and analytics.  You have effectively led change and transformation in these areas to support operations in impactful ways
• Experience collaborating across all levels of operations stakeholders including executives, corporate teams, retail managers, and store associates. Ability to overcome objections and collaboratively reach the right outcomes in a way that builds trust, engagement, and a sense of accomplishment for all parties involved
• Experience driving program technology implementation with retail teams and supporting change management required to do so effectively.  A proven track record of driving ideation to execution to scale across multiple sites; the more, the better  
• Highly effective in written and verbal communication.  To craft and present compelling data-backed narratives that engage audiences.   Ability to understand, attune to, and adjust content, style, and tone style to meet different audiences appropriately
• Experience collaborating directly with data scientists or similar roles to explore new data sets and execute investigation, complex analysis, and output that has been practically applied to drive change.  Comfortable leveraging and manipulating their output in Mode, Periscope, Tableau, Excel, and other tools used for data analysis and visualization  
• Ability to balance and manage strategy with a sense of urgency, while simultaneously delivering results.  Proven ability to work independently and thrive in a fast-paced environment. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Graduate degree in business, economics, operations research engineering, or related disciplines with practical application
• Previous experience in driving continuous improvement tools and methodologies to understand problems
• Experience in a client-facing role
• People management experience