Senior Manager, Customer Excellence

Kinder's•Walnut Creek, CA

13d•$160,000 - $180,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Kinder’s is seeking an experienced Senior Manager, Customer Excellence to manage the processes, systems, and performance practices that help Customer Operations scale with the business. Based in Walnut Creek, California, this hands-on leader will manage execution of the Customer Operations excellence roadmap and build and develop a team of two Senior Customer Excellence Analysts. The role connects order-to-cash expertise, EDI onboarding, ERP implementation support, process governance, analytics, and cross-functional project management to create scalable, measurable ways of working. The position reports to the Senior Director, Customer Operations. The role partners with the Senior Director and teams across IT, Finance, Sales, Planning, Inventory, Warehousing, and Logistics to improve service, accuracy, efficiency, and scalability. It owns the order-to-cash process framework, supports system implementations and customer EDI onboarding, establishes performance measures, improves allocation processes, and leads team and project execution. The position is based at Kinder’s Walnut Creek office. The company uses a hybrid structure, with four days per week in the office and Fridays as flex days when employees may choose to work in the office or from home. The expected starting salary range is $160,000–$180,000 per year. The role may also be eligible for paid time off, a 401(k), bonus or incentive compensation, equity grants, competitive health benefits, parental leave, and other family-friendly benefits, subject to eligibility.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in Customer Operations, order-to-cash, process excellence, systems implementation, project management, or related supply chain functions.
Strong understanding of order-to-cash processes, including EDI order flow, order management, inventory and allocation, fulfillment, invoicing, and deductions.
Hands-on experience supporting an ERP implementation or major system change.
Experience with EDI onboarding, retailer requirements, customer portals, and transaction testing.
Demonstrated ability to create SOPs, process maps, governance routines, KPI definitions, dashboards, and management-ready trackers.
Advanced analytical and Excel skills.
Strong people and project management skills, including setting priorities, coaching analytical talent, influencing across functions, and turning ambiguity into clear action.

Nice To Haves

CPG or food industry experience.
SAP experience.
Familiarity with common retail EDI documents such as 850, 855, 856, and 810.
Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or similar reporting tools.
Bachelor’s degree.
Lean, Six Sigma, PMP, or related process improvement certification.

Responsibilities

Manage and execute the Customer Operations excellence roadmap in partnership with the Senior Director, prioritizing improvements to service, accuracy, efficiency, and scalability.
Own the end-to-end order-to-cash process framework across customer setup, order receipt, EDI, order management, inventory and allocation, fulfillment, invoicing, deductions, and issue resolution.
Document current- and future-state workflows, clarify roles and decision rights, and establish controls to reduce manual work and prevent recurring errors.
Create, govern, and continuously improve SOPs, work instructions, process maps, and training materials, including ownership and review cycles.
Support Customer Operations system design and implementation, including requirements, process decisions, testing, data readiness, training, cutover, and post-launch stabilization.
Lead Customer Operations readiness for EDI and customer onboarding by coordinating trading-partner requirements, mapping, testing, issue resolution, and handoff to ongoing support.
Partner with IT, Finance, Sales, Planning, Inventory, Warehousing, and Logistics to align system design with practical order-to-cash execution.
Identify system gaps and manual touchpoints, develop requirements, and create adoption plans that improve data quality and user effectiveness.
Create the Customer Operations KPI framework, including definitions, targets, ownership, reporting cadence, and escalation thresholds.
Build and maintain dashboards and analytical trackers for order accuracy, cycle time, EDI performance, backlog, fill rate, OTIF, allocation adherence, deductions, and other service measures.
Analyze trends and recurring failures, lead root-cause reviews, and translate findings into prioritized corrective actions with measurable results.
Design and improve the allocation process from constraint identification through prioritization, approval, customer communication, tracking, and release.
Create allocation governance, decision rules, and reporting that provide Customer Operations and cross-functional leaders with a clear view of risks, commitments, and actions.
Support operational readiness for new customers, items, programs, and process changes by confirming requirements, owners, dependencies, and launch criteria.
Build, lead, and develop a team of Senior Customer Excellence Analysts, setting priorities, clarifying ownership, and ensuring execution across projects and recurring work.
Support cross-functional Customer Operations and customer onboarding projects with clear scope, milestones, owners, risks, decisions, and status reporting.
Facilitate working sessions, maintain action trackers, and escalate decisions when timing, resources, or process ownership are at risk.
Coach the team on structured problem solving, process discipline, and data use, and build adoption through practical training, communication, and follow-up.