General Manager (East Coast) Fairfax, VA

Fairfax, VA, United States

Groombuggy is the nation’s premier mobile dog grooming company. We are growing rapidly. We are taking a Silicon Valley tech startup approach to the mobile dog grooming industry. We are proud of the work we do to create great jobs for dog groomers and help pet owners care for their loved ones. We’re excited to become the next modern national pet brand.

We are looking for a General Manager for the East Coast of the United States. The General Manager (East Coast) is responsible for driving the operational excellence, product quality, profitability, growth, and team culture of our East Coast cities. Alongside groomers, our General Managers are the lifeblood of the organization.

Being a Groombuggy General Manager is an extremely exciting and rewarding position. You are 100% supported in everything you do by the team at “corporate headquarters.” However, you are also 100% responsible for the success (or failure!) of the region’s operations. You get the best of both worlds: entrepreneurial ownership with a great team supporting you every step of the way.

The General Manager is the person who owns the day-to-day front line for groomers, customers, and vans in the area. You will be responsible for recruiting, managing, and retaining the groomers (in partnership with our People & Recruiting teams). You will need to navigate trust & safety incidents that occur with customers, their dogs, groomers, or the trucks (in partnership with our Customers Operations Manager and Customer Success team). You will be responsible for the welfare of the trucks and ensuring their ongoing maintenance and productivity (in partnership with our Fleet Manager). You’ll be guided and supported by many of our already-existing best practices, technology, and standard operating procedures. That said, at the end of the day you will be on call 24/7 for anything that comes up and responsible for the success of the territory!

Groombuggy’s home location is the San Francisco Bay Area. We are also present in Denver. Over time Groombuggy will operate in many cities across the country. The General Manager will be focused exclusively on and will be responsible for driving productivity in the East Coast region. Our initial East Coast cities are Washington DC and Atlanta.

The role is ideal for someone with 7+ years of experience in business and operations. We have found our most successful General Managers to have an unusual, outstanding mix of “blue collar” and “white collar” skills:

Extremely strong organizational skills, adept at operating in a tech startup environment, always online and responsive, outstanding builder of systems and processes

The enthusiasm to get in the weeds of building something from nothing

The experience and maturity to lead at scale – over time you’ll be managing many dozens of vans and a team of 100+ groomers and groomer managers

Great understanding of how to build team culture and values

The ability to coordinate and communicate with mechanics and other service providers that help maintain our vans

Familiarity with basic mechanic terminology is a plus

Quick learner - becoming familiar with basic grooming equipment and how to troubleshoot

The approachability to recruit, relate to, and retain great groomers

The ability to travel regularly to the East Coast cities and also the Bay Area for team offsites

Overall, the common sense and leadership it takes to solve problems for yourself wisely and with low drama

Above all, you’ll be responsible for leading teams. You’ll be setting meeting agendas, coaching groomer managers and beyond. This is a big, important leadership role – you will be in charge.

This is a full-time salaried role. We are a high-growth startup that will be scaling extremely fast over the coming year. As such, your primary working hours will be during the workweek but you will be “on” 24/7 alongside the rest of the leadership team to do what it takes to build this and make it a success! You’ll be doing high-impact work with a high-caliber team in a very fun and high-growth business.

We’re a fantastic, high-quality team looking to grow quickly. Come join the pack!

Responsibilities You will be the owner of Groombuggy East Coast:

Revenue per van – this is the core driver of the business and you’ll be responsible for it in the region. You’ll be in the weeds maxing out van utilization. Growing this metric over time is mission-critical to the business.

Vans – ensuring vans are properly onboarded to the local area according to our standard operating procedures, properly assigned to and scheduled with the groomers to maximize productivity, cleaned and maintained properly according to our standard operating procedures, attended to promptly for any nicks and scratches, operated safely and taken care of by groomers, stocked with all the proper equipment, repaired promptly for any breakdowns, responding promptly to any van accidents or safety issues. You own the uptime, productivity, and safe operation of our local van fleet!

Groomers and groomer experience – recruiting our grooming team according to our standard operating procedures, performance managing the team, being on call for the groomers 24/7 when they need help, continuing to build a team of groomer managers as the location grows, performing regular structured 1x1 meetings with your groomer manager reports, conducting quarterly in-person “offsites” with the whole groomer team in coordination with company leadership and other Groombuggy locations, managing work schedules and call-outs, ensuring groomers are properly onboarded and set up for success, ensuring our groomers have and maintain the tools and supplies they need to do great work, attending closely to any groomer accidents or injuries.

Customers and customer experience – ensuring that we are providing a great customer experience and partnering with our Customer team to innovate and improve on our offering. Supporting our Trust & Safety team in gathering information on high-priority customer cases, and monitoring groomer Slack channels to ensure proper communication and coordination between groomers and our customer success team.

Requirements We’re looking for someone with the following skills and characteristics:

7+ years of work experience, ideally entirely in business and operations

4+ years in a managerial operations role, ideally with physical things in the real world

Demonstrated team leadership experience

Excellent attentiveness, ownership mentality, high sense of responsibility to self and others, “always on” approach in case of incidents or otherwise

Ability to travel regularly to other cities on the East Coast and also to the Bay Area for team offsites

Demonstrated excellence in building systems, processes, and technology

Bonus if you have experience at a growth-stage, rapidly scaling company

Clear verbal and written communication, detail orientation, team collaboration, and personal organization

Strong communication skills and a good manner with the internal team of dog groomers

Enthusiasm and positivity

Above all – fun, friendly, detail-oriented, highly organized, and positive!

This role is based in the Washington DC region. The work will be a mix of remote meetings, travel to the Bay Area and other East Coast cities, and time in the field locally to meet with groomers, vendors, and community partners. The role will require deployment to new cities for 2-4 weeks at a time to open them on the East Coast over the course of the coming months and years. The role will also require every-six-week travel to the San Francisco Bay Area for in-person company retreats.

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