Manager, Customer Service & Order Management - Food Industry

About Our Client: Our client is a leading distributor of high-quality food products serving a diverse range of commercial and hospitality customers.

Position Scope: This is a new role and a critical one in supporting our client’s growth. The Manager, Customer Service & Order Management owns the order desk end to end: approximately 20 people across day, night and weekend shifts, two shift leads, and the Pepper App, their wholesale customer ordering portal.

The order desk takes every order across both channels, wholesale and direct, handles the first customer question or complaint, and works directly with production, logistics and warehousing to get every order made and out the door on time. You will sit at the centre of Sales, Finance and Operations, with a direct line to the executive team.

We are looking for an up-and-coming leader with energy and ambition, someone who wants to shape a team and set a standard rather than simply inherit one. If you are ready to run something that matters, this is it.

This position is Monday to Friday, on site at their Etobicoke facility, with Saturday coverage as required.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the team. Coach and develop the order desk staff through the daytime and night and weekend shift leads. Hire, onboard and train. Set clear expectations and hold people to them. Build the next shift leads from within.
• Staff the operation. Own scheduling, coverage and attendance across six days and three shifts, matched to the shape of daily order volume.
• Run the desk. Own accurate, complete and on-time order entry across both channels. Manage the daily order deadlines and the handoff into production, logistics and warehousing so every order is cut, picked and routed on time. Work the exceptions directly: shorts, substitutions, custom specifications and same-day changes.
• Own the customer experience. The desk is the first point of contact for customer questions and complaints. Own the speed and quality of that response. Track complaints by root cause and take recurring issues back to the responsible team with the data.
• Own the Pepper App. Full ownership of the wholesale customer portal: roadmap and backlog, customer onboarding and training, and adoption targets that move order volume from phone and email onto the portal.
• Establish and manage KPIs. Build the desk's scorecard with the team, starting with order accuracy and orders per hour and extending to response times, on-time order release and Pepper order share.
• Drive process improvement. Own the desk's standard operating procedures and lead continuous improvement across a high-volume, custom-cut operation.
• Lead the desk through SAP S/4HANA. Represent the order desk through design, testing, training and go-live, and own the transition off their current order management system.

Qualifications and Experience:

• 5 or more years in customer service, order management, inside sales or operations, including 2 or more years leading a team
• A proven people leader who has built and coached a team, not just supervised one
• Thrives in a fast, high-volume environment where the product is perishable and the day does not reset
• Equally credible with customers, the sales team and the plant floor
• Data literate: you can build a KPI, read it and act on it. Strong Excel
• SAP S/4HANA order to cash (SD) experience preferred. Having been through an ERP implementation as a tester, trainer or super-user is a significant asset
• Foodservice distribution, meat, produce or other perishable goods experience is a strong asset
• Experience owning a customer ordering portal or e-commerce platform is an asset
• Bachelor's degree preferred, or equivalent experience

AI Disclosure: AI will not be used in the recruitment process.

Vacancy Disclosure: This is a new position.

Application Instructions:

To apply, please send a resume to Aman Sodi at aman.sodi@summitsearchgroup.com

Summit Search Group is a fair and equitable search firm. We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the recruitment and selection process.