Chain Bridge Cellars, a neighborhood wine shop in McLean, Virginia, is looking for a Manager of Operations to join us in building a successful business by creating community with and around wine. This is a full-time, permanent, salaried position and is open now.

We serve casual wine enthusiasts, service seekers, and those who love how wine connects us with history, people and places. People who come through our physical and virtual doors feel welcomed, seen, heard, served, and, when they get home, glad they took home the wines we suggested. We carry real wines made by real people with real passion for their place and craft. And we create a mutually supportive, enjoyable, work experience for our team with opportunities for each member to learn, grow, and be recognized and fairly compensated for their contributions.

That’s what we’re trying to do, anyway! And the Manager of Operations will be a big part of making it happen. This is “working manager’s” role where you’ll spend more than half your time doing the same day-to-day work as the rest of the team to make the shop work: Sales and service on the floor, checking in deliveries, stocking shelves, printing/posting shelf tags, pouring at weekend tastings, receiving wines in the POS, pulling and packing phone and web orders, even cleaning the bathrooms. All the nuts and bolts of retail.

While doing that, you’ll also be finding ways to make the shop run better. You’ll
ensure all staff are following admin, service and sales processes; work with the team to coordinate events; and make the team and shop just work well. And you’ll be part of the team that figures out what we should buy and how we’ll sell it. Here are the details:

Core Responsibilities
-Drive the effective, consistent, day-to-day operation of the store by identifying what needs to be done, assigning tasks, monitoring performance, and adjusting as needed
-Effectively sell by providing welcoming, connective, customer service and recommendations on the sales floor, via email and on the phone
-Schedule, train and coach retail staff for consistently high performance in operations, sales and service
-Anticipate operational requirements for, and ensure necessary preparations for, events and changing selling seasons.
-Supervise and provide quality control for POS and website data entry and online order processing
-Organize, coordinate, and present at in-store consumer tastings, classes and events
-Work with the owner to develop and implement strategies, tactics and processes that strengthen the company’s positioning and grow sales and gross profit

Skills and Attributes Sought
-Strong personal habits of organization, record keeping and follow-through
-Effective and direct oral and written communications skills – deciding what to communicate and consistently getting that message across
-Demonstrated success in understanding and connecting with customers and colleagues and using that understanding to make them feel seen, heard, valued
-Demonstrated passion for wine and using wine to build connections with producers, places and fellow wine drinkers
-Habitually positive, collaborative workstyle that invites others to contribute
-Comfort with managing and collaborating with an outspoken, direct, business owner
-High level of comfort and capability with business/office computers and software

Requirements
-At least two years’ work experience in specialty retail and/or restaurants
-At least two years’ work experience in the wine trade – retail, on premise, distribution and/or production
-At least two years’ experience supervising/directing the work of others formally or informally
-A valid driver’s license and access to a car for commuting to/from the shop (we are not really Metro accessible)
-Ability to stand for up to 4 hours at a stretch and safely lift/carry 40lb boxes of wine including up/down stairs
-Willingness and ability to work weekends

Schedule
-Store is open 7 days per week, Mon-Sat from 10am-7pm and Sundays noon-5pm
-Standard shifts are Open-6pm or 11am-Close or full day on Sundays five days per week including either/both days most weekends
-2-4 events per month may require noon-8pm or 1-9pm
-Schedules written quarterly and work days/shifts may vary extensively week to week

Compensation
-$70-$75,000 per year salary
-Year-end bonus of 3-10% depending on total business performance
-Employer contribution of 50% of individual health insurance premium through our plan
-Paid leave (we say 3 weeks per year PTO, but it’s actually more flexible than that)
-Employee discount (our cost + 20%)
-Some opportunity for travel to Europe, West Coast

We’re a basically fun, fairly quirky team with an owner (me) who is pretty much always sure he knows the answer to everything, but accepts having it pointed out that he’s wrong with a reasonable amount of grace. Eventually. Most of the time.

If all this sounds like something you’d be good at and enjoy doing, we’d love to hear from you. Send us your resume and a cover letter. In your cover letter, please let us know why this position is interesting to you and share an example of a time you “got ahead of” a potential problem at work or in your personal life. Your cover letter is an essential part of your application and resumes without cover letters or an equivalent note will not be reviewed. No calls or drop-ins, please. Looking forward to hearing from you.