Merchandising Operations Manager

Grove Collaborative is a sustainability-focused consumer products company creating household and personal care essentials that are effective, beautifully designed, and healthier for people and the planet. We are a certified B Corp, plastic-neutral, and on a mission to transform the CPG industry for good.

Merchandising Operations Manager

Grove's merchandising operation is full of good instincts running on manual work. This role exists to fix that: redesign the core processes, then personally build the automation that makes them stick. This is a rare shot at rebuilding how merchandising actually runs, and at proving AI belongs in the hands of the person closest to the problem, not just the AI team.

We're not hiring someone to write a strategy memo about AI and hand it off. We're hiring someone who will map the workflow, feel where it breaks, and then sit down and build the thing that fixes it.

More About the Opportunity

• Merchandising at Grove runs on real expertise and too much manual glue.
• Buyers chase vendors for the same data, week after week.
• Marketing launches promotions inventory finds out about too late.
• Good people spend their time on work a workflow should be doing for them.
• We have an internal AI team. They coach. They don't build for you.
• This role is for the person who wants their hands on the keyboard, not the person who scopes it and waits.
• The honest version: no template here. You're defining the standard as you go, with review at key milestones and real autonomy in between.
• Some of what you build will work on the first try. Some won't. That's the job.
  
  

What You'll Own

• Map how merchandising actually works today, not how the org chart says it works.
• Redesign core operating processes for speed, accuracy, and margin protection: assortment planning, item setup, pricing and markdown, vendor and PO management, allocation, replenishment.
• Own the calendar connecting marketing activations to inventory, so launches are stock-backed, not a surprise to the warehouse.
• Translate activation plans into buy, allocation, and replenishment signals; flag stock risk before launch, not after.
• Coordinate vendor commitments tied to activations: fill rates, lead times, launch quantities.
• Build self-service tools and proactive alerts that scale the buyer-vendor relationship, including visibility into vendor performance.
• Build the automation yourself, using Claude and comparable AI tools, no/low-code platforms, and lightweight automation, from concept through rollout.
• Run pilots end to end: scope, build, test for accuracy, validate fit, scale. Keep humans in the loop on margin- and inventory-critical decisions.
• Maintain a registry of approved tools and active automations, so what exists and what it's for is never a mys