Position Type: Full-time hourly – 32 hours per week over 4 days

Compensation: $30–$36 per hour (DOE), equivalent to approximately $50-60k annually based on a 32-hour workweek

Location: Queens, NYC (in-person production and fulfillment facility)

A note on the role: We are looking for a dedicated, ambitious individual to join us in this full-time position and grow within our team. We are excited to invest in someone eager to lead and expand our operations as we scale.

Are You the Strategic Leader Who Can Oversee and Optimize Our Production and Fulfillment Engine?

At Senbird Tea, our connection to thousands of customers begins with the care and precision of our production and fulfillment processes. We are not just looking for someone to manage tasks or oversee orders; we are seeking an operational leader—a strategic overseer who excels at optimizing systems, driving team performance, and ensuring excellence at every step of our operations, while maintaining a hands-on approach when needed.

This leadership role involves overseeing the entire product lifecycle, from raw tea processing upon arrival from Japan, through production on machinery, to packing and shipping out the door. You’re the type of person who finds deep satisfaction in building, refining, and perfecting systems—especially while guiding your team to achieve peak efficiency. Where others see a bottleneck, you see an opportunity to innovate and streamline. You don't just manage a process; you take pride in elevating it through strategic leadership and team empowerment.

About Senbird

Senbird Tea is an Asian American family-owned Japanese tea company dedicated to bringing you the finest teas from family farms in Japan. Rooted in wellness, sustainability, and quality, our curated collection of teas, premium gift sets, and handcrafted teaware has been recognized by Forbes, Food & Wine, BuzzFeed, and Sustainable Jungle. With over 15,000+ five-star reviews on Amazon, we take pride in delivering an exceptional tea experience that nurtures a healthy mind, body, and spirit. Join us in celebrating the rich traditions of Japanese tea—one cup at a time.

Who We’re Looking For

We are seeking a leader who embodies our values of collaboration, care, and efficiency. You'll know you're the right person for this role if:

1. You lead by example, balancing strategic oversight with hands-on involvement while guiding and mentoring a team to achieve shared goals.
2. You are relentlessly proactive—you don’t wait to be told what to do and are always thinking several steps ahead to anticipate needs and opportunities.
3. You thrive on bringing order to chaos and love turning manual tasks into streamlined, repeatable systems that scale with growth.
4. You communicate with clarity and purpose, ensuring that everyone from the production and fulfillment team to leadership is aligned and informed.
5. You view challenges as opportunities for growth and find genuine fulfillment in seeing a tangible, high-quality product in a customer's hands because of your team's collective effort.

What You’ll Do

As an Operations Lead, you will:

1. Oversee and drive daily production tasks, including machinery operations for tea blending, filling tins, labeling, and packaging, ensuring high accuracy, consistency, and that daily and weekly quotas are met or exceeded by the team. (Full training on all processes and equipment will be provided as needed.)
2. Develop, maintain, and update Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure consistency, support effective training, and promote continuous improvement.
3. Manage inventory levels for raw materials, packaging supplies, and finished products to prevent shortages, overstock, and out-of-stock situations on key items, while forecasting needs based on demand.
4. Oversee fulfillment operations, including packing and shipping D2C and B2B orders on time, ensuring team efficiency and handling incoming shipments.
5. Train, mentor, and support new hires, seasonal interns, and team members on production machinery, fulfillment processes, and best practices, while monitoring performance to meet quotas and fostering professional development.
6. Coordinate with the team to align production and fulfillment with demand forecasts, optimizing workflows for maximum efficiency.
7. Collaborate cross-functionally and lead updates during weekly team meetings to drive alignment and process improvements.
8. Maintain organization, cleanliness, and safety of the production and fulfillment space to ensure efficiency and compliance with quality standards.

Your qualifications

1. 5+ years of experience in production, manufacturing operations, e-commerce fulfillment, warehouse management, or related fields.
2. Hands-on experience with production machinery and processes in a manufacturing or food/beverage environment.
3. Proven leadership skills, including team management, training, mentoring, and ensuring consistent achievement of production targets/quotas.
4. Strong ability to improve processes, optimize workflows for efficiency, drive operational excellence, and manage inventory (including finished goods) to avoid stockouts.
5. Clear and effective communicator who works well across teams and can influence at all levels.
6. Familiarity with platforms such as Shopify, ShipStation, or similar systems is a plus.
7. Comfortable with hands-on tasks; able to lift and carry packages up to 50 lbs.
8. A passion for tea and an appreciation for Japanese culture are highly valued.

Additional Details

1. Schedule: 4 days per week, 32 hours total (e.g., 10am-6pm or similar flexible hours; occasional adjustments during peak seasons may apply).
2. Interview process: typically includes 2-3 interviews, including a brief assessment, all designed to ensure we're the right fit for you and you're the right fit for us. We look forward to connecting with you!

What We Offer

1. 4-Day Work Week (32 hours over 4 days): We love our 4-day schedule because it drives focused productivity during the week and gives everyone a more open, relaxed weekend to recharge. Weekend work happens only when truly necessary, supporting real work-life balance for the team.
2. Paid Time Off & Sick Leave: So you can rest, recharge, or handle life when needed.
3. Health Insurance: Access to health insurance coverage (available upon request and eligibility) to help you stay well and secure.
4. Monthly Tea Allowance & Generous Employee Discount: A monthly allowance to enjoy our teas at home (becoming a true product expert) plus a significant discount on all teas and teaware.
5. Team Events & Connection: Regular team gatherings to celebrate wins, build relationships, and keep our small crew feeling supported.
6. Career Development & Growth: Direct mentorship from the founders, hands-on learning, and a clear path to grow into bigger responsibilities as Senbird scales.
7. Direct Impact in a Small Team: A real voice in decisions and the chance to see your work shape customer experiences and sales.

Team, Culture, Values

Senbird has been based in Queens, NYC, since our start in 2018. We’re looking for creative, capable, and collaborative team members to join us and keep up our momentum.

We're a small, hands-on team of self-starters who care about doing things well and supporting one another. We appreciate people who are dependable, proactive, and willing to jump in where needed. It helps to be organized, communicative, and open to learning as we grow together. Most of all, we aim to keep things sustainable—for the business and ourselves—so we can all enjoy a healthy, balanced life.

Senbird Tea is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic.