VP of Operations

Elavi; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote role with annual offsite

Equity opportunity

Medical and dental

Job summary

Elavi is seeking an experienced operations leader to build and scale a best-in-class Ops team for a fast-growing food CPG brand. You will own supply chain, co-manufacturing, quality and food safety, regulatory, and logistics, driving cost reduction and margin improvements.

Reporting to the CEO and managing two direct reports, you will shape the operating foundation to support multi-channel growth across club, natural, conventional grocery, distributors, and e-commerce, with a clear path toward

Qualifications

• 10+ years in food or beverage CPG operations, including scaling to $20M+ revenue.
• Proven ability to run club, natural, conventional, distributor, and e-commerce channels simultaneously.
• Direct co-manufacturing experience: negotiating terms, managing performance, and holding partners accountable
• Strong FSQA background covering food safety systems, audits, certifications, and quality standards
• Working knowledge of food labeling and regulatory requirements
• Track record hiring and leading operations teams, including making difficult personnel calls
• Comfortable owning logistics, 3PL relationships, and retailer compliance, or hiring the person who does
• Fluent with the retail landscape: Costco, Whole Foods, UNFI, KeHE, and club channel requirements

Responsibilities

• Lead supply chain and co-manufacturing strategies to scale operations.
• Drive cost reductions and optimize margins against a moving demand plan.
• Oversee quality, food safety, and regulatory compliance across co-manufacturers.
• Own logistics, 3PL, and inventory management in coordination with e-commerce platforms.
• Build and scale the ops team, hiring and developing two direct reports.
• Partner with CEO on strategic transformation and future COO readiness.

Skills

Channel management

Leadership

Supply chain

Co-manufacturing

FSQA knowledge

Logistics ownership

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Shopify

Cin7

Amazon

Job description

About Elavi

Elavi is a high-growth, venture-backed food CPG brand on a mission to bring permissible indulgence to the masses. Our protein brownies are sold in 2,000+ retailers nationally, including Whole Foods, Costco, Wegmans, H-E-B, Amazon, and adding retailers every quarter.

We move fast. We hold each other accountable. And we love sweet snacks.

The Role

Elavi is in scale mode and we’re searching for an experienced operator to build and lead a best in class Ops team.

Supply chain, co-manufacturing, quality and food safety, regulatory, and logistics all sit here. You will be responsible for cost reduction, strategic sourcing, supply chain optimization, organizational transformation, and product innovation. It is a wide remit, and it is meant for an operator who wants that much ownership.

You will report to the CEO and also be managing two direct reports to start.

We are looking for someone who has done this before, at a food or beverage brand that scaled past $20M across retail and online. Someone who has already built this once and wants to do it again earlier, with more room to shape it and more upside if it works.

This role is built with a path to COO. As the business grows and the operating foundation you build proves itself, the scope of this seat grows with it.

The role opens with a structured first 90 days and a formal review at the end of it.

What You’ll Own

Supply chain and co-manufacturing

• Co-manufacturer relationships, ensuring that we’re building systems to scale and innovate while maintaining integrity and quality
• Production planning and capacity against a demand plan that keeps moving
• Ingredient sourcing, supplier terms, and cost of goods
• Responsible for reducing costs and inefficiencies with clear targets for improving margins
• Managing Director of Supply Chain

Quality, food safety, and regulatory

• FSQA end to end: specs, audits, corrective actions, and the standards co-manufacturers are held to
• Certifications, including kosher, and anything a new retailer or channel requires
• Regulatory and labeling compliance across the markets and channels Elavi sells into
• Owning any product quality issues from first complaint through root cause and fix

Logistics and fulfillment

• Managing Logistics & Inventory Manager and the freight, 3PL, and inventory function they own
• Working with E-Comm Platforms (including Shopify, Amazon, Faire, etc)/
• 3PL relationships and performance, including network decisions as volume grows
• Retailer compliance, chargebacks, and fill rate
• Working with Cin7 to support with inventory management, supply planning, and accurate accounting

Team and standards

• Hiring, developing, and structuring the ops team as the business scales
• Managing two direct reports and building out the team as company needs evolve
• Holding the internal team (two direct reports) and outside vendors to their commitments, with full authority to do it
• Building the process and documentation that makes performance repeatable instead of personal

Who You Are

You have scaled a food or beverage brand past $20M, through these exact channels. You know what breaks between $10M and $50M because you were there when it broke, you know which fires are worth putting out and which ones burn themselves out, and you have already learned the expensive lessons somewhere else.

Nothing rattles you. A co-man shorting a run the week of a major ship date is a Tuesday. You get calm and specific under pressure instead of loud, and the people around you get calmer too.

You are the reason things do not fall through the cracks. You track commitments without being asked. Nobody has to repeat themselves to you. You close loops.

You build teams that hold a standard. You hire well, you are direct about performance, and the bar stays high after you set it. You have had the hard conversation with an underperformer and handled it cleanly.

You go deep and stay strategic. You can work through a spec sheet with a co-man in the morning and think about the 2028 manufacturing footprint in the afternoon, and you know which one the moment calls for.

You do not waste time. Meetings have a point. Documents are short. You would rather send a decision than schedule a discussion.

Qualifications

This is a hard requirement, not a preference. Candidates must have extensive, hands‑on experience scaling a food or beverage CPG brand at $20M+ in revenue through the same retail landscape Elavi operates in. That means club, national natural, conventional grocery, distributors, and Amazon, run at the same time.

• 10+ years in food or beverage CPG operations, including scaling at least one brand through $20M+ in revenue
• Proven ability to run club, natural, conventional, distributor, and e‑commerce channels simultaneously, including the different compliance and fulfillment demands each one carries
• Direct co-manufacturing experience: negotiating terms, managing performance, and holding partners accountable
• Strong FSQA background covering food safety systems, audits, certifications, and quality standards
• Working knowledge of food labeling and regulatory requirements
• Track record hiring and leading operations teams, including making the difficult personnel calls
• Comfortable owning logistics, 3PL relationships, and retailer compliance, or hiring the person who does
• Fluent with the retail landscape: Costco, Whole Foods, UNFI, KeHE, and club channel requirements

Nice To Have

• Better-for‑you or functional food experience
• Kosher, organic, or other certification build‑outs from scratch
• Having led a co‑man transition or the addition of a second manufacturing site
• Export or international market experience

Compensation & Structure

• Competitive salary and opportunity for equity in a venture‑backed brand
• Medical, dental, major holidays off, and unlimited PTO
• Fully remote role with an annual offsite retreat
• Direct partnership with the CEO, you are their right hand and report directly to them