Vendor Business Operations Manager

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Vendor Operations team (VOPS) plays a critical role in the business partnering with our inventory vendors, team of Buyers, and network of warehouses. We facilitate smooth end-to-end business partnerships between those teams with a focus on developing reasonable and impactful vendor-facing protocols and effective management of those protocols.  VOPs strives to ensure that our team of Buyers is able to onboard vendors efficiently,  and smoothly navigate the operational partnership. We support our vendors through onboarding and understanding our operational expectations so that vendors are set up for success through each transaction. We are focused on successful vendor and cross-functional partnerships, warehouse efficiencies, safety, and product quality as a result of effective vendor requirements and protocols. Our goal is to ensure these groups are able to execute their strategies and key results with the overall goal of driving efficiencies and supporting business growth. We’re looking for bright and kind individuals who excel in working in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment, love solving complex problems, and have an eye for process improvement.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Vendor Business Operations Manager is part of the Vendor Operations team and will support our inventory vendors in several facets of their Stitch Fix partnership, as well as own, develop, and optimize several critical workstreams. You will partner cross-functionally to onboard our new inventory vendors ensuring accurate technical system integration and alignment with our operational expectations and Terms and Conditions. This role will have a significant focus on optimizing our Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) program for efficiency, as you will triage, project manage, and facilitate resolutions for day-to-day EDI issues and transmission failures to solve problems quickly, and partner with our tech team, EDI provider,  and buying teams to prioritize putting long-term solutions in place.  As vendor-facing operational processes evolve you will support the Operations team in design and change management, ensuring alignment across stakeholders. Reporting to the Senior Manager of Vendor Operations, this role is highly cross-functional, working closely with the Operations team, our multiple warehouses, our network of Buyers, AP, Engineering, IT, Legal, our third-party EDI provider, and our external inventory vendors.

YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY BECAUSE YOU WILL…

• Drive new vendor onboarding in partnership with Buyers, AP, Legal, and our third-party EDI provider by facilitating financial setup, ensuring alignment with operational requirements and legal Terms and Conditions, executing technical system integration, and negotiating, documenting, and tracking any necessary exceptions creating a smooth vendor experience
• Own activation, deactivation, and any ongoing maintenance of inventory vendor accounts
• Prioritize, project manage, and facilitate resolutions for EDI transaction failures in partnership with IT, Engineering, Product, Buyers and our EDI provider, focusing on identifying root causes and developing long-term solutions, including technical and process improvement solves
• Act as the main internal point of contact for EDI questions, concerns, and best practices for cross-functional partners; surfacing vendor concerns and escalations as needed to the appropriate business owner
• Work with our EDI provider to provide support for the overall Stitch Fix EDI program, maintaining the partnership and continuing to optimize collaborative processes 
• As the business evolves, support the Vendor Operations team in developing new ways of working and implementing shifts by facilitating internal and external change management 
• Champion and embody the Stitch Fix culture, mission, and values

WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT YOU BECAUSE...

• You have a Bachelor’s degree (or comparable relevant experience)
• You have 3-5 years of experience in operations, logistics, or a related field developing and documenting end-to-end processes with experience navigating EDI and warehouse and order management systems; experience with retail or e-commerce preferred
• You excel at project managing multiple critical workflows to drive results and like to work in a cross-functional and fast-paced environment
• You have a consistent eye toward improvement and are execution-oriented,  along with the ability to think strategically and take into account multiple perspectives and trickledown impacts of process and system changes
• You are detail-oriented and have excellent negotiation and communication skills, both written and verbal 
• You’re excellent at poking holes in logic,  identifying open items and problem areas in workstreams, and ensur