Field Operations Specialist

Every week, our field team walks into grocery stores from Kaitaia to Invercargill.

Call cycles run. Shelves are sorted. Tasks are set and closed. Displays go up. Our partners get an honest picture of how their brands performed, and our team goes home knowing the work landed.

That is good. We are building for great.

Great looks like data that is right first time, every time. Call cycles that hold to the day. Every task set, maintained and measured, for every brand, in every store. Every display proven with the photo, not just reported. New starters live in every system before their first shift. And Team Leaders and Territory Managers who spend their week in store, because the systems and administration no longer sit with them.

This role is how we make that our everyday.

About the role

This is a newly created role at the centre of everything our field team does. It exists because we are growing, and the next phase of that growth runs on sharper execution, cleaner data and field leaders who are with their people rather than behind a screen.

You will own our CRM and the data behind it: call files, store universe, partner and product hierarchies, and the accuracy of all of it. You will load the promotional programme every cycle so the team walks into store knowing exactly what is running. You will track what actually happened against what was booked, capture the evidence, and tell our Business Managers where they stand while there is still time to act. You will also own the systems and administration that currently pull our Team Leaders away from coaching. Onboarding, setups, Store Safe passports, call cycle changes, travel. Every hour you take off them is an hour spent in store with a merchandiser.

You will report to our National Sales Manager and work closely with our General Manager on CRM and process. Your reach goes beyond merchandising: you will support our Territory Managers with their systems, hold the field data for Hardware Solutions, and be trained as backup for order processing in Logistics Solutions. It is a role that touches all three of our businesses. And you will be a known face across the team. The person a new starter is set up by before their first shift, the person the whole field team hears from every week, and the one who notices when something could work better and brings the idea for how.

Key responsibilities

• Own our CRM: the data, the call files, the store universe and the accuracy of all of it
• Load and quality check the promotional programme before every cycle opens
• Track task, call cycle and display execution, capture the evidence and report the gap while it can still be closed
• Present the execution and compliance view into our Partner Performance process
• Own the full onboarding journey for new field team members, live in every system before day one
• Create guides and onboarding material that let a new merchandiser get up to speed fast
• Prepare the week ahead deck and weekly mailer review the whole field team relies on
• Provide systems support for our Territory Managers, field data and reporting for Hardware Solutions, and trained cover for Logistics Solutions order processing
• Work directly with our General Manager as we move to a new merchandising system, and on the projects that follow it

About you

• A genuine head for systems and data, and the appetite to become the internal expert in ours
• High personal standards and a low tolerance for things being nearly right
• Initiative: you spot the problem, bring an idea and carry it through
• The confidence to chase people for information and follow up without being asked twice
• The ability to put an honest view of performance in front of commercial colleagues and stand behind it
• Strong Excel and the ability to build something clean, readable and useful
• Grocery, FMCG or merchandising experience is a real advantage

About us

Selling Solutions, part of The Solutions Group, is redefining the agency experience for premium brands in New Zealand grocery by truly partnering with our clients. We are a full service agency providing Business Management, Field Sales and Merchandising nationally: 93 merchandisers, 11 regional Team Leaders and a sales team calling into Foodstuffs and Woolworths NZ every week. We work with brands including Dilmah, ABE's Bagels, Gianni's Pita Breads, Serious Foods, Manuka Dr, Vista and Rutherford & Meyer, to name a few. We are a data and insights business as much as a field business, and the honest number matters more to us than the comfortable one. We are 123 people across three businesses. Big enough to work with major brands, small enough that you will know everyone and your work will be visible.

Benefits

• Office based on Auckland's North Shore, with a team that actually likes being there, and flexibility to work from home on some days
• The chance to learn across all three of our businesses, with a genuine focus on growth
• A business that means it when it says People First, Win Together, Agile Ambition and Keep It Real

Sound like you?

We read every cover letter, and for this role it counts for more than the CV. Skip the summary of your experience. Instead, tell us two things:

1. A time you found something that was not working, and what you did about it. What you noticed, what you changed, and whether it stuck.

2. What "right first time" means to you, and how you hold yourself to it when the week gets busy.

That is the job, so it is a fair place to start. If that sounds like the way you already work, we would like to hear from you.