Company Description Water, Inc. is a leading provider of high-quality drinking water systems and the premier representative for these solutions across the Western United States. We offer eco-friendly, advanced water filtration systems that help reduce plastic waste while delivering safe, filtered water. Water, Inc. provides a comprehensive range of products that filter, heat, brew, chill, soften, and dispense water for residential and commercial customers. The organization is supported by knowledgeable sales professionals and specialized programs. Applicants can expect to join a company focused on sustainability, innovation, and customer service.
Role Description The Business Operations Manager (Order Flow, Purchasing & Systems) is a full-time, on-site role based in Los Angeles, CA. This role oversees end-to-end order flow, ensuring accurate and timely processing from order entry through fulfillment and post-sales support. The manager coordinates purchasing activities, manages vendor relationships, and monitors inventory levels to maintain optimal stock and cost efficiency. Day-to-day responsibilities include analyzing operational data, improving processes, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to enhance system performance and business workflows. The role also involves managing operational programs, supporting budgeting and cost control efforts, and implementing systems and tools that improve visibility, efficiency, and customer experience.
Qualifications
- Demonstrated expertise in Business Operations and Operations Management to oversee order flow, purchasing, and system processes.
- Strong Analytical Skills to interpret data, identify trends, and recommend process improvements.
- Experience in Program Management to coordinate operational initiatives and cross-functional projects.
- Working knowledge of Finance to support budgeting, cost analysis, and vendor pricing evaluations.
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Operations Management, Supply Chain, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Proficiency with ERP or order management systems, and strong Excel or data analysis skills.
- Excellent organizational, communication, and stakeholder management abilities, with attention to detail and follow-through.
- Experience in consumer products, water treatment, or related industries is beneficial, as is familiarity with inventory and logistics best practices.
The Role
Orders come in, primarily through B2B customers. Product gets bought, stocked, picked, and shipped. Customers call when something isn't right. You're the person who owns the space between them, and you're the person who makes sure things run properly.
You'll sit between the order desk and the warehouse, handle our purchasing, and make sure work actually gets finished. Not by watching a dashboard. By knowing how an order should move through this company, noticing when it doesn't, and fixing the thing that caused it.
You'll also be our internal owner of the ERP system. You'll report to the President and work with him directly. There's a lot of room here to change how a 49-year-old company operates.
What You'll Own
Order flow, end to end. Every order that comes in, from entry through purchase, allocation, shipment, and invoice. You own the accuracy and the turnaround. When an order stalls, you're the one who knows where it is and why. We have a great warehouse manager, and you won't be on the floor.
The ERP system. You'll be the internal expert: order entry, inventory, pricing, purchasing, customer and vendor records, reports. Understanding how it's set up, where it's set up wrong, and how to fix that. We run Prophet21. We're also bringing in new tools, including AI-assisted document processing that reads incoming POs and quotes, and we want someone who's interested in using that well rather than nervous about it.
Purchasing. You will help manage and execute what we buy and when. Reorder points, lead times, vendor relationships, expediting when a customer order depends on it. You'll help create a process for this as a function of this job.
Inventory. Keeping item and pricing data clean, running and reconciling counts, and staying ahead of stockouts on the products that matter instead of reacting to them. You will occasionally run inventory audits.
Clean data for our accounting firm. Our accounting is handled by an outside firm. You are not doing the books, the close, or the reconciliations. You are the person who makes sure what they’re closing is real, that data entered into P21 from orders is correct: POs received correctly, invoices matched, inventory transactions posted right, vendor and customer records accurate. When they ask why a number moved, you’re who they call. You also will run and maintain Crystal Reports.
Customer service, and customer escalations. First, ensuring that we are providing great service to our customers. And when necessary, fielding the hard calls, the disputed orders, the mistakes we made. You're the escalation point, and you close the loop on the underlying cause.
Process. Writing the SOPs that don't exist, fixing the ones that don't work, and making sure people follow them.
Who You Are
You've spent your career at a company that makes or sells physical products, and you've been the person people come to when something is stuck. You're organized without being rigid, you follow up without being asked, and you're comfortable telling someone their part of the process is the problem.
You're hands-on. This is a small company. Some days you'll be solving a systems problem, and some days you'll be entering an order because it has to go out today. Neither is beneath the job.
What We're Looking For
- 5 to 10 years in operations, purchasing, order management, or business systems at a distribution, wholesale, or manufacturing company
- Real buying experience: POs, vendors, lead times, reorder decisions, and the judgment to know when to hold inventory and when not to
- Real ownership of daily order flow: entry, fulfillment, exceptions, and the customers on the other end of them
- Hands-on depth in an ERP system. We use Prophet21, but if you have gone in depth with another advanced ERP system (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, Sage, Acumatica, Epicor, etc) and understand how it's configured and why things break, you'll learn P21. Running standard reports and opening tickets is not the same thing.
- Enough financial fluency to know what a clean transaction looks like and why it matters downstream
- Comfortable coordinating across people you don't necessarily manage
- Clear, direct communicator, in writing and on the phone
- On-site in Carson, five days a week
Nice to have, not required: supervisory experience, Shopify or another e-commerce platform, Crystal Reports or SQL, experience through an ERP implementation or conversion.
What This Is Not
This is not a warehouse role. You're not running a crew or driving a forklift or packing orders, but you will help liaise with them and our sales team and dealers to make sure things run smoothly.
We're looking for someone who will own the operational middle of this company and make it run cleanly, every day. And while it's not an accounting job, some of the responsibilities will help support our outside accounting firm, but you won't be closing the books.
Details
$90,000 to $105,000, depending on experience. Health, dental, vision. 401(k) with company match. Paid time off. Full-time, on-site, Carson CA.
To apply: tell us briefly about an operational problem you found that nobody had asked you to look at, and what you changed. Cover letters are read.
No recruiters, please.
Water Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered in accordance with the California Fair Chance Act.
Posting metadata: Industry — Consumer Goods / Wholesale. Employment type — Full-time. Seniority — Mid-Senior. Suggested Indeed title: Business Operations Manager, Purchasing & Order Flow.
