Role: Visual Operations Associate Manager
Location: Hybrid in San Francisco with ability to travel to retail stores/supplier locations as needed
Pay: $40-46/hr depending on experience

The Planet Group is looking for a Visual Operations Associate Manager to join one of our well-known beauty clients. As a member of the Retail Visual Merchandising and Operations team, you will collaborate with internal partners and external suppliers to drive innovation and bring marketing and merchandising strategies to life through visually compelling, consumer?centric retail displays and print collateral delivered on time and within budget.

In this Visual Operations Associate Manager role, you will focus specifically on the operational aspects of retail graphics production to support the visual design space and merchandising execution. Responsibilities include managing store support requests, maintaining data across various trackers and tools, and overseeing product comp tracking and shipping. This role reports directly to the Visual Operations Manager.

Visual Operations Associate Manager Responsibilities: 

• Collaborate (25%)
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with internal teams from the store design, marketing, merchandising, retail operations and store procurement teams. 
  • Build and maintain strong external vendor relationships with established and new vendors. 
  • Partner with internal and external partners to ensure hotline online requests are responded to promptly and accurately so stores are set up for success. 
  • Support and partner with the Retail Print Production team to ensure distribution lists are accurate and provided to external vendors on time. 
  • Proactively work with cross-functional business partners and vendors to troubleshoot issues that arise. 
• Client Focus (35%)
  • Build knowledge of store layouts and operations practices to better support stores, internal teams, and external vendors.
  • Meet store needs when it comes to operational execution of in-store materials and with how our team communicates to the field.
  • Ensure stores are supported and issues are resolved within our service level agreements through our internal store support system (Hotline Online).
  • Work to maintain accuracy of data that informs assets version on distribution lists.
  • Review fixture assortments and partner with merchandising to collect, catalog, and ship product comps to vendors. 
• Drive Operational Excellence (25%)
  • Maintain work focus in the face of obstacles and set-backs by proactively flagging issues to manager. 
  • Contribute to meetings and discussions with internal and external teams to help drive projects to finish line. 
  • Work steadily at routine tasks to drive to completion within established timelines. 
  • Consistently meet the objectives of assigned tasks while exercising established best practices and processes. 
• Manages Ambiguity (15%)
  • Willingness to ask questions and seek direction when tasks are unclear. 
  • Keep an open mind and operate with flexibility to changing priorities. 
  • Comfortable with moving forward on tasks before all the details are known. 

•  2+ years in a program, project or production manager within an advertising or marketing organization; retail experience is a plus. 
• Day to day use of MS Office including SharePoint, database management tools, and Smartsheet or similar for budget and schedule tracking 2+ years. 
• Bachelor’s degree in Visual Merchandising; Design, Communications, Marketing or related field. 
• Strong collaboration and communication skills. 
• Ability to work independently as well as with a team. 
• Strong ability to multitask on multiple programs at the same time in different phases and with different processes and requirements. 
• Willingness to be flexible with change and approach projects with a can-do attitude.