About Azalea Wang

Azalea Wang is a fast-growing footwear and fashion brand with a bold point of view, sold directly to consumers and through national retail partners such as Dillard's, Boot Barn, Cavender's, ASOS, and Urban Outfitters. We're a lean team, which means your ideas don't sit in a queue. You'll see the impact of your work on the business every week.

If you like owning outcomes, fixing what's broken, and building the processes a growing brand needs, this is a place where you can make things happen.

Position: Operations Lead

Location: Chicago, IL (On-site)

Position Overview

The Customer Operations Specialist owns the order-to-delivery experience for our key wholesale accounts. You'll make sure every PO is shipped correctly, on time, and to each retailer's requirements, then tracked, invoiced, and reported on.

You'll be the go-to operations contact for your accounts. That means communicating proactively, spotting issues before they reach the customer, and working closely with Sales and Finance. You'll also partner with our Operations Lead to map processes, build automations, and define the system improvements that help us scale.

Key Responsibilities

Key Account Order Management & End-to-End Delivery

• Own the end-to-end delivery process for assigned key accounts, from PO receipt through shipment, ASN, invoicing, and proof of delivery.

• Release orders to our 3PL warehouse with clear instructions on each retailer's routing, labeling, packing list, and carrier requirements.

• Make sure shipments follow each retailer's vendor guide and compliance rules, carton marking, and ship-to accuracy.

• Coordinate with the warehouse, freight forwarders, and carriers to resolve holds, shortages, missing POs, and delivery exceptions.

Tracking & Reporting

• Keep the customer order tracker accurate and current for every key account PO.

• Track inbound shipments from factories and forwarders, and flag late or at-risk orders before they affect a retailer's ship window.

• Share regular updates with the team on new arrivals and available-to-sell inventory.

• Build and maintain reporting and dashboards on on-time shipment, fill rate, open orders, chargebacks, and delivery exceptions.

• Turn data into clear recommendations for Sales, Finance and the Operations Lead.

Customer Communication

• Serve as the day-to-day operations contact for key account buyers, planners and logistics teams.

• Communicate proactively. Share shipment status, risks and recovery plans before the customer has to ask.

• Manage retailer portals and requests, including PO confirmations, top-up orders, routing requests and compliance documents.

• Handle escalations calmly and follow them through to resolution.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with Sales on new orders, order changes, delivery dates, and account priorities.

• Work with Finance and Accounts Receivable on invoicing, deductions, chargebacks, and payment issues.

• Coordinate with production and sourcing on factory POs and delivery timelines.

• Direct and support outsourced operations partners who help keep trackers and invoicing up to date.

Process Improvement, Automation & Systems

• Support the Operations Manager with process mapping of current and future-state workflows.

• Spot manual, repetitive work and help build automations, including AI-assisted workflows, to remove it.

• Gather and document business requirements for system improvements

• Take part in system implementations and testing (e.g., EDI, ERP, B2B e-commerce and wholesale platforms)

SOPs & Key Account Onboarding

• Write and maintain clear SOPs for order processing, shipping, invoicing and exception handling.

• Support onboarding of new key accounts: vendor setup, EDI and label testing, portal access and compliance review.

• Build account playbooks that capture each retailer's requirements so the whole team can execute consistently.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in customer operations, account management, order management or a similar customer-facing operations role.

• Direct experience working with customers or retail partners, preferably wholesale accounts in fashion, footwear or consumer goods.

• Working knowledge of supply chain basics: the PO lifecycle, warehouse and 3PL coordination, shipping, ASNs and invoicing.

• Comfortable with reporting and data. Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills (lookups, pivot tables, clean trackers).

• Clear, professional written and verbal communication, including with external partners across time zones.

• Strong organization and follow-through. You can manage many open orders without letting details slip.

• Experience writing SOPs, mapping processes or gathering business requirements for system projects.

Preferred Experience

• A bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business or a related field, or equivalent experience.

• Experience building AI-assisted workflows or automations (for example, with Claude, Zapier, Make, or Apps Script).

• Logistics experience with freight forwarders, carriers, routing guides, or import shipments.

• Familiarity with EDI (SPS Commerce or similar), retailer vendor portals, and compliance or chargeback programs.

• Exposure to OMS, WMS or ERP systems.

Benefits and Perks:
AKIRA offers competitive benefits for full-time employees, including Medical, Dental, Vision, Pet Insurance, Life, LTD, FSA/HSA/Dependent Care FSA, Flex Transit (CTA), 401(k), and a generous employee discount. We’re committed to internal growth, providing meaningful development and career advancement opportunities.

Job Type: Full-time (Onsite)

We are committed to fair and transparent compensation practices. Compensation for this position will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors. Additional compensation and benefits may also apply and will be discussed during the hiring process.

We may utilize AI-assisted and automated tools as part of the recruiting and hiring process. All employment decisions are made in compliance with applicable laws and without discrimination.