Director of Product

At NutriCanine, we believe in making it easy and convenient for pet owners to feed their dogs freshly prepared, real-food meals so that they can live longer, healthier, happier lives. We offer a personalized meal plan subscription service, where we learn all about your pup, create a customized meal plan to meet their unique dietary needs, and then deliver real-food meals to your door in pre-portioned, ready-to-serve packages on a recurring basis.

We are a fast-growing start‑up based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and we’re looking for a senior leader who is relentless about operational excellence, obsessed with customer experience, and energized by building systems in a high-growth environment. If you're a strategic thinker, creative problem-solver, and hands‑on operator who thrives in fast‑paced settings, we want you to join our pack

Job Summary

As the Director of Product & Fulfillment, you will lead NutriCanine’s end‑to‑end operational engine, overseeing procurement, production, inventory, fulfillment, logistics, and customer experience at our Richmond Hill facility. This full‑time, in‑person position requires a strategic, hands‑on leader who can balance operational efficiency with exceptional customer experience while meeting our target gross margins and unit economics.

You will manage and develop a high‑performing operations and customer service leadership team, implement scalable processes, and partner closely with the founders, finance, marketing, and production teams to support NutriCanine’s growth. This role is critical to ensuring customers receive a consistent, high‑quality experience from product creation to delivery. Personal transportation or proximity to our Richmond Hill location is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

- Own NutriCanine’s end‑to‑end product and fulfillment strategy, including procurement, production, logistics, and post‑purchase experience.
- Lead procurement for ingredients, packaging, and operational supplies, evaluating vendors for quality, reliability, and cost while supporting margin targets.
- Evaluate co‑packer relationships, negotiate terms, and drive long‑term strategic partnerships.
- Assess software solutions across operations and customer experience to ensure the company is using the most effective systems.
- Conduct delivery cost analyses and determine whether in‑house delivery is viable; evaluate changes to delivery schedules to optimize cost, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
- Explore opportunities to implement an EV delivery fleet, including cost analysis, leasing/buying models, and branded fleet strategy.
- Partner with product/nutrition stakeholders to:
- Maintain product quality and safety standards.
- Improve formulations, packaging, and formats.
- Support the product innovation roadmap with operational feasibility and costing.
- Collaborate with leadership to determine who leads innovation initiatives, ensuring new products are operationally viable and margin‑positive.

2. Fulfillment Operations & Logistics

- Lead daily fulfillment operations, including production scheduling, inventory planning, warehousing, packing, and logistics.
- Ensure orders ship on time, in full, and with zero quality defects.
- Build scalable SOPs and drive continuous improvement initiatives across packaging, processes, vendor selection, and technology.
- Strengthen relationships with suppliers, co‑packers, 3PLs, and carriers; negotiate contracts and SLAs.
- Own operational readiness planning for future in‑house production, including:
- Developing the long‑term plan and financial model.
- Supporting location evaluation and building acquisition.
- Evaluating equipment needs and financing options.
- Oversee relationships with customs brokers to ensure smooth cross‑border operations and compliance.
- Identify and pursue government grant opportunities, working with internal teams and external partners to support operational scaling and facility investments.
- Manage relationships with contractors (construction, maintenance, facility operations) to ensure the production environment is safe, compliant, and optimized for scale.
- Lead fire safety, workplace safety, and health planning initiatives within the facility.

3. Customer Service & Experience

- Provide strategic oversight of the customer service function to ensure it aligns with NutriCanine’s brand, customer expectations, and unit economic goals.
- Partner with the Customer Service team to refine structure, staffing models, and service standards that support a high-quality customer experience.
- Support CS leadership through guidance, coaching frameworks, and tools that help them elevate team performance, without taking over day‑to‑day management.
- Provide strategic oversight of the customer service budget to ensure it supports margin goals, partnering with the Customer Service Manager on staffing and resourcing decisions.
- Implement or sponsor system improvements that enable CS leadership to improve efficiency, reporting, and customer satisfaction.
- Ensure insights from the CS team are used to improve fulfillment operations, packaging, product decisions, and customer journey touchpoints.

4. Data, Measurement & Financial Ownership

- Use data to drive operational decisions, test improvements, and support innovation initiatives.
- Partner with finance to maintain a detailed unit‑economics model.
- Build dashboards that measure fulfillment, margin, COGS, CS performance, and productivity across the ops team.
- Use people metrics to support team development and workforce planning.
- Incorporate modeling and analysis for future facility, equipment, and fleet investments into operational forecasting.
- Serve as the single point of accountability for fulfillment, product operations, procurement, and customer experience performance.
- Develop and mentor operations leaders and frontline teams, including coaching, capability building, and running quarterly performance reviews.
- Build development plans for key team members, creating a clear growth and coaching framework.
- Collaborate closely with:
- Marketing & Growth to forecast demand, prepare ops for spikes, and protect customer experience.
- Finance on budgeting, costing, and financial controls.
- Tech/Ecommerce on tooling integrations that improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.
- Champion a culture of ownership, accountability, continuous improvement, and customer obsession.

Qualifications

- 7+ years in operations, fulfillment, or supply chain, ideally within DTC, food pet, or subscription categories.
- 3+ years in senior leadership managing managers and cross‑functional teams.
- Deep empathy for customers, ideally with a genuine love for dogs and passion for the pet‑parent experience.
- Demonstrated success building and developing high‑performing teams, including coaching, performance reviews, and structured development plans.
- Experience with procurement, vendor negotiation, and supporting product innovation.
- Proven ability to scale operations while improving margin and customer satisfaction.
- Strong analytical and financial acumen; fluent in dashboards, unit economics, and performance measurement.

#J-18808-Ljbffr