Caroline Gardner Publishing
Operations Manager / Head of Operations
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We're looking for an experienced, dynamic and collaborative Operations Manager / Head of Operations to join our team!
permanent / full time / split between SW London and Banbury / ASAP start
Caroline Gardner Publishing is a leading supplier of cards, stationery, and stylish home and gifting products, catering to design-focused retailers worldwide. From high street brands and department stores to independent galleries, our products find a home in a diverse range of retail spaces.
The business is at an exciting stage of growth and transformation. We have recently established our own warehousing operation in Banbury, giving us greater control over fulfilment, stock management and customer service. Alongside this investment, we are continuing to modernise our operational systems, strengthen our supply chain and logistics network, and build more joined-up ways of working across the business.
This role is central to that journey. Working across our London office and Banbury warehouse, you will help shape how the business operates as we continue to grow, improving processes, connecting departments, and ensuring our operations remain scalable, efficient and capable of supporting our ambitious plans for the future.
Role Overview:
We are looking for an experienced operations leader to bring greater coherence and control to the operational side of the business. Depending on your experience, this may be an Operations Manager or a Head of Operations appointment, and we are open to both. For an exceptional candidate with less senior experience, we would consider appointment as Operations Manager, with the opportunity to grow into the Head of Operations role.
This is not a warehouse management role. Our Warehouse Manager runs the day-to-day operation and will report to you. The role sits above and across the business, ensuring that the operational decisions taken in Sales, Buying, Merchandising, Design, Finance, Warehouse and Shop are coherent and serve the whole company, rather than each department working in isolation.
This is a hands-on role. As a close-knit and growing business, we need someone who is comfortable working in the detail as well as leading, rather than managing solely through delegation.
You will report to the Strategy & Operations Director, operating with their delegated authority, with a dotted line to the Finance Director on systems and improvement work. You will assume day-to-day responsibility for operations, bring rigour and joined-up thinking to how we run, and make good use of modern tools, including AI, to help us work more efficiently and make better decisions.
What You’ll Do:
The remit is broad and cross-functional, and will include but is not limited to:
Joined-up operations:
- Company-wide perspective: Bring coherence to operational decision-making across Sales, Buying, Merchandising, Design, Finance, Warehouse and Shop, ensuring decisions serve the whole business rather than individual departments.
- Operational planning: Own a regular operational planning rhythm that connects demand, buying, stock, fulfilment and retail, keeping departments aligned and focused on shared priorities.
- Operational delivery: Translate operational decisions into clear, delivered plans with defined ownership, timescales and accountability.
- Resolving tensions: Identify where operational priorities conflict, make decisions within your remit, and escalate larger trade-offs with clear recommendations.
- Supplier coordination: Work closely with Buying, Merchandising and suppliers to ensure production and inbound supply supports business priorities.
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Warehouse, logistics and fulfilment:
- Warehouse leadership: Lead and support the Warehouse Manager, ensuring they build a capable, high-performing team, set clear standards and deliver excellent operational performance without becoming involved in the day-to-day running of the warehouse.
- Fulfilment strategy: Own cross-channel fulfilment strategy, service levels, capacity planning and operational KPIs, ensuring our warehouse operation supports the needs of wholesale, retail and ecommerce.
- Freight and logistics: Develop and oversee our freight and logistics strategy, including carrier selection, commercial negotiations, supplier performance, international shipping, cost optimisation and long-term logistics capability.
- Outwork partners: Develop the outwork strategy, selecting and managing partners, agreeing commercial terms, planning capacity and ensuring suppliers deliver value, quality and reliability.
- Inventory performance: Own company-wide inventory performance and stock accuracy targets, supporting the Warehouse Manager and Merchandisers through robust processes, reporting and continuous improvement.
Operational systems and data:
- Operational systems: Own the operational systems roadmap and prioritisation, acting as the business lead for operational systems and managing external IT partners to improve capability, reliability and efficiency.
- Systems improvement: Work alongside the Finance Director to deliver operational systems improvements, ensuring business requirements are translated into practical solutions.
- Data and AI: Improve operational reporting, data quality and the practical use of AI and automation to drive better decision-making and operational efficiency.
- Performance reporting: Produce clear operational KPIs and insight for the leadership team, providing visibility of performance and early identification of risks and opportunities.
Projects and commercial:
- Operational budgets: Manage operational budgets and cost-to-serve, ensuring investment delivers value and supports business objectives.
- Operational improvement: Lead business-wide operational improvement, simplifying processes, improving collaboration and supporting sustainable growth.
- Project delivery: Lead operational projects from planning through to successful implementation, ensuring delivery against agreed objectives, timelines and budgets.
- Sustainability: Support our B-Corp and sustainability commitments across operations, including packaging, freight and waste, without compromising quality or commercial performance.
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Why Join Us:
- Competitive salary depending on the level of the appointment and your experience.
- Benefits include a generous holiday allowance, staff discount of up to 65%, discretionary annual bonus scheme, pension and group life assurance policy, an Employee Assistance Programme, and much more.
- This is a full-time role, based across our London office (Putney) and Banbury warehouse, with regular travel between the two. Some flexibility on hours will be needed to support peak periods and the rhythm of the business. Exact working hours other details will be discussed with you at interview should your application be shortlisted.
What We’re Looking For:
- Proven experience leading operations across more than one function in a product, retail or multi-channel business, with a track record of joining things up rather than running a single department.
- A hands-on leader who leads by example and is comfortable working in the detail, not solely through delegation.
- Experience of an operational or sales-and-operations planning rhythm that aligns demand, stock and fulfilment is highly desirable.
- Strong systems and data capability, confident managing external IT partners, and genuine AI literacy, with experience of using modern tools and automation to improve how an operation runs.
You Will Have:
- A sound understanding of warehouse, logistics and fulfilment, with the ability to lead it through a manager.
- Strong commercial judgement across cost, service and return.
- The maturity to operate with delegated authority and to lead through influence and trust, building strong relationships with department heads in a close-knit, founder-led business.
- Comfortable dividing your week between our London office and Banbury warehouse.
- And finally, you will be someone who shares our values: thoughtful, practical, open and collaborative, with a clear eye for quality and care.
How to apply:
Please send your CV & cover letter to jobs@carolinegardner.com as soon as possible. No agencies please. If your application is shortlisted, the interview process will consist of a number of stages, the first of which will be a remote interview via Teams with HR or the Strategy & Operations Director.
We welcome your application: Caroline Gardner is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability or age.
Please find out more about Caroline Gardner on our careers page in the link here!
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