Grocery Department Team Leader

La Montañita Co-op; Albuquerque (NM); On-site; USD 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

La Montañita Co-op is seeking a Grocery Department Team Leader (DTL) to oversee daily operations, coaching staff and ensuring outstanding customer service in the Grocery area. The role emphasizes strong product knowledge, safety compliance, and effective management of department budgets and performance metrics.

You will guide team members, manage merchandising, inventory, and training to consistently meet sales and margin goals while upholding company values and policies.

Qualifications

• Minimum of three (3) years previous supervisory experience.
• Minimum of three (3) years' experience with grocery, bulk, dairy and/or frozen items.
• Food safety certification; if not certified, commit to completing within 1 month.

Responsibilities

• Oversee day-to-day grocery department operations to meet performance standards.
• Develop and implement operating standards and procedures; adjust as needed.
• Lead recruitment, training and engagement of department team members.
• Ensure compliance with safety, labor and product guidelines and maintain department cleanliness.
• Assist customers with product selection and provide excellent service.

Skills

Customer service

Supervisory experience

Grocery knowledge

Pricing & inventory

Team leadership

Microsoft Office

Communication

Education

High School diploma or GED

Job description

Description

The Grocery Department Team Leader (DTL) is responsible for overseeing and directing all aspects of the Grocery department operations. The Grocery Department Team Leader (DTL) is responsible for ensuring an excellent experience for customers in the Grocery Area. This customer experiences revolves around providing high quality products and service selections, in-depth knowledge of products and tends and consistently providing excellent customer service. The Grocery DTL, under the guidance of the Store Leadership, works with team members ensuring performance criteria of the department are being meet and exceeded in areas such as labor budgets, margin, sales goals and team member training. This position upholds management best practices, develops and mentors department team members, adheres to labor and product safety guidelines, and ensures compliance with policy and procedures by establishing clear expectations in a manner that upholds the values of La Montañita Food Cooperative.

SOME ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Ensures the department operates effectively and efficiently; facilitates day-to-day operation and guarantees performance standards are met and that team members consistently work towards their ideal and peak performance.
• Creates, develops, communicates, implements, audits, and evaluates operating standards and procedures and makes adjustments as needed.
• Supervises work performance and conduct of team members and supports the performance management practices as needed and in accordance with policies, procedures, labor and legal guidelines.
• Models behaviors that support the values, through supportive and participatory leadership, promoting cooperation, team building, and motivating team members to achieve goals.
• Establishes clear expectations for direct reports and supports direct reports to ensure expectations are exceeded.
• Delegates and assigns tasks for department team members as needed and ensures tasks are completed.
• Immediately addresses and reports concerns with team members' behaviors or work and addressing the concern appropriately.
• Conducts regular performance evaluations, timely feedback sessions, meetings/huddles and provides coaching to promote the growth and development of team members.
• Responsible for recruitment, retention and engagement of team members for the department.
• Orders, receives, and merchandises products following proper guidelines for merchandising, rotation, sanitation, pricing, mechanizing, and quality standards.
• Establishes annual department with guidance from Store Management, budgets that include sales, gross margin, labor cost, and net profit.
• Adequately accepts, orders, receives, prepares, packages, labels, displays, stocks, and replenishes floor stock and inventory merchandise.
• Ensures the department orderly and clean.
• Helps customers make product selections by answering questions and providing information about all items.
• Creates and maintains an environment that enables customers to feel welcome, important, and appreciated by answering questions regarding products sold within the department and throughout the store by providing excellent customer service.
• Assists in inventory counts, storewide cleaning, and other projects as needed.
• Reinforces safety within the store by complying with safety procedures and identify unsafe conditions and notify store management or addressing the concern if appropriate.
• Ensures federal, state, local and La Montañita Food Cooperative regulations and standards for product freshness, safety, refrigeration, sanitation and weights and measures are being adhered to and met.
• Follow proper procedures for opening and closing.

Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS & ATTRIBUTES:

• High School diploma or GED.
• Minimum of three (5) years' previous Customer service skills (able to complete the full customer service cycle).
• Minimum of three (3) years' previous experience with grocery, bulk, dairy and/or frozen items.
• Minimum of three (3) years previous supervisory experience.
• Knowledge of products, buying, pricing, merchandising, and inventory management.
• Excellent interpersonal, motivational, team building, and customer relationship skills.
• Proficient mathematical skills for assessing financial performance, monitoring profitability, and managing inventory.
• Food safety certification. If not currently certified, will commit to completing certification within 1 month.
• Demonstrates decision-making ability, leadership skills, and ability to prioritize and delegate.
• Experience with email, Microsoft Office, and operations-related applications.
• Effectively present information in one-to-one and small group situations to customers and other employees.
• Ability to adhere and follow safety, regulatory and Grocery guidelines. Safety Conscious and adhering to required PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is required.
• Able to act with integrity, ethically, professionalism, and confidentiality.
• Able to work with a diverse group of people.
• Strong team player, friendly and patient.
• Excellent ability to prioritize and multi-task with attention to detail.
• Professional appearance and manner.
• Must be able to work mornings, afternoon, evenings, nights and weekends as needed.