Sr Manager, Fridge Operations

Farmer's Fridge Careers•Chicago, IL

30d•$140,000 - $150,000

About The Position

Farmer’s Fridge makes fruits and vegetables accessible and approachable for everyone. We offer a variety of fresh, healthy, ready-to-eat meals and snacks through our fresh food vending machines, wholesale partners, and our office pantry solution — providing chef-curated meals to customers within seconds. Today, we operate a network of Fridges and partner with clients nationwide in high-foot-traffic areas, such as airports, hospitals, universities, and large office buildings — where there is limited accessibility to fresh, healthy, grab-n-go options. We care deeply about what we’re creating and aspire to make sure our customers feel that through every touchpoint. This shows up in many ways across the business. We are committed to prioritizing food safety, we are passionate about product quality, we value our employees, we champion the best idea no matter where it comes from, and we’re committed to making an overall positive impact as we scale. About this Role: The Sr Manager, Fridge Operations will lead the full lifecycle of our 1,800+ and growing network of smart fridges nationwide. You will own the entire fridge supply chain, including procurement, buildouts, maintenance, deployment strategy, installation execution, relocations, removals, and asset and parts inventory management. As the leader, you will oversee the team responsible for fridge deployment and inventory coordination and provide leadership and support to the national service technician function. The role works cross-functionally with Distribution, Sales, Channel Management, Food Safety, IT, and Fridge Tech partners to ensure seamless launches and a consistent, high-quality experience in every market.

Requirements

Minimum of 7 years of experience in operations, logistics, field service, or distributed equipment management.
Proven leadership experience managing field-based or geographically distributed teams.
Strong operational and financial acumen with experience managing functions that drive P&L performance.
Ability to analyze operational data and turn insights into measurable improvements.
Excellent communication skills and ability to build strong relationships across technical and commercial teams.
Demonstrated change management and continuous improvement leadership.
High emotional intelligence with strong judgment and reliability under pressure.

Nice To Haves

Experience with vendor management or equipment lifecycle programs preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the strategic plan for fridge operations, ensuring alignment with growth, uptime expectations, and cost targets.
Maximizing the uptime and reliability of the existing fleet
Enabling business growth by ensuring fridges are ordered, built, and placed at the pace Sales wins new deals
Manage the full deployment pipeline, including procurement, inventory positioning, build scheduling, and installation planning, to ensure fridge capacity keeps pace with sales growth.
Own uptime performance across the fridge network using trend data and analytics to proactively identify and resolve reliability risks while improving cost-to-serve.
Lead uptime workstreams focused on solving the highest-impact downtime drivers and ensuring improvements are rolled out consistently across the fleet.
Oversee national fridge and parts inventory, including forecasting, asset tracking, warehousing, and parts usage optimization.
Provide leadership and guidance to the service technician function and service manager, supporting a culture of safety, accountability, and high performance.
Ensure reliable, accurate maintenance data to strengthen operational reporting and decision-making.
Partner with Sales and Channel Management on launch planning, site readiness, and priority account support.
Partner with Distribution to ensure fridges are placed, serviced, and supported effectively across all hub-and-spoke markets.
Manage vendor and third-party partner performance, including contracts, sourcing, and issue resolution.
Improve overall fridge reliability by addressing recurring equipment issues and deploying root-cause solutions across the fleet.
Maintain regulatory and safety compliance and uphold consistent field standards in all markets.
Own budgeting, invoice accuracy, spend controls, and financial performance for all fridge operations activities.