Sales Operations Associate, North America
Vancouver, BC | Full-time | Base + commission
Grounded is looking for a smart, organised and commercially minded Sales Operations Associate to join our North American team in Vancouver. We're particularly interested in people who have spent time in one of two worlds:
- Startup and high-growth CPG: You might work for an emerging consumer brand, co-manufacturer, ingredient company, distributor, agency or another business connected to the startup CPG ecosystem.
- Specialty coffee: You might work for a specialty roaster, green coffee company, equipment business, distributor or another company connected to the specialty coffee community.
You don't need to know packaging, we can teach you that. What we're looking for is industry knowledge, intellectual curiosity, technical capability, organisation and a real desire to learn and progress.
About Grounded
Grounded is building a better way for consumer brands to source and manage sustainable flexible packaging. We work with emerging brands through to some of the world's fastest-growing consumer businesses, combining deep packaging expertise, a global manufacturing network and our own technology to develop, manufacture and manage their packaging.
We're a small team by design and operate much more like a startup than a traditional packaging company. We use technology and AI extensively, move quickly and give people plenty of responsibility.
The role
This is a hybrid role across sales, technical problem-solving and project management.
You'll help take customer projects from initial enquiry through to delivery, understanding what the customer needs, helping develop and quote the right solution and keeping the project moving.
Packaging is technically and specification heavy. A project can involve materials, specifications, artwork, compliance, pricing, freight, warehousing and inventory.
We don't expect you to know this when you arrive. We do expect you to be able to absorb a lot of information, learn quickly and become technically credible with customers.
What you'll do
- Respond to and qualify new customer opportunities.
- Work with customers to understand their products, requirements and commercial priorities.
- Learn packaging quickly and help explain different options and trade-offs.
- Prepare quotes and proposals and follow up opportunities consistently.
- Manage customer projects and keep track of the information, decisions and actions required to move them forward.
- Coordinate with sales, operations, suppliers and other teams through to delivery.
- Increasingly own smaller customer opportunities from enquiry to completed order.
- Use AI extensively for technical learning, customer communication, research, project management and follow-up.
Who we're looking for
- You learn quickly. You can absorb technical and commercial information and apply it to real problems.
- You're organised. You can manage multiple projects without losing track of the detail.
- You're commercially minded. This isn't a back-office operations role. You'll spend plenty of time with customers.
- You take ownership. You follow things through rather than assuming somebody else will pick them up.
- You're technically curious. You enjoy understanding products, specifications and how things work.
- You're comfortable with ambiguity. You enjoy working in a small business that moves quickly and is constantly evolving.
- You're AI-enabled. You already use AI or are motivated to become very good at it.
- You're good with people. You communicate clearly and build good relationships with customers.
- You care about sustainability. You should be interested in what we're trying to solve.
Your background
Your current title could be sales, account management, customer operations, project management, partnerships or another customer-facing role. Experience around startup CPG or specialty coffee would be particularly relevant, but we're also open to people from other fast-moving businesses who are highly capable and learn quickly.
Packaging experience is helpful, but it isn't necessary. We can teach packaging. We're looking for the capability to learn it and the ownership to apply it.
The opportunity
You'll join a small team and get exposure to the full customer journey, from the first conversation through to a physical product being manufactured and delivered. You'll learn sales, packaging, sustainability, supply chain and project management while working with growing consumer brands across North America.
If you're good, there is a lot of room to grow with it.
