Grapejuice Group imports wine and spirits from family-owned producers across France, Italy, Spain, Argentina, and beyond, and represents them in nearly every U.S. state. Our portfolio and footprint have grown faster than the systems behind them, and the next stage of the company runs on this role.

As Director of Operations, you’ll own everything that happens between a producer’s loading dock and a distributor’s payment: purchasing, freight, customs, inventory, compliance, order fulfillment, and the day-to-day books. You’ll report directly to our President, work closely with our CFO, direct a small part-time team today, and help shape the operations team as it grows.

What success looks like after your first year:

• Systems that talk to each other. VinoSmith, QuickBooks, and warehouse reporting line up at month-end, giving leadership numbers they can act on immediately.

• Receivables that don’t age. Invoices go out with orders, payments post promptly, and overdue balances get followed up before they become a problem.

• No avoidable freight costs. Every container is tracked from producer pickup to warehouse receipt, with zero demurrage or detention charges.

• Purchasing built on depletion data. Reorder plans for our core producers account for sales velocity, production timelines, and shipping lead times across both coasts.

• A compliance calendar nobody worries about. State registrations, renewals and label approvals are tracked and submitted ahead of deadline, every time.

• Operations that scale without adding friction. Every core process is documented well enough that someone else could run it, including while you’re on vacation.

• Leadership focused on growth. Our President and CEO spend their time on producers, distributors and new markets, with day-to-day operations fully in your hands.

The role carries an annual bonus of up to 20% of base salary, tied to the outcomes above. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance, paid time off, and an employee discount.

This role is in the office in Denver, with occasional international travel to visit producers.

To apply, send your resume with a short note about a logistics or operational problem you’ve handled: what it was costing, how you solved it, and what you changed so it didn’t happen again. Applications close December 2, 2026.

What you’ll own from day one:

Inventory and purchasing

• Manage inventory across our California and New Jersey warehouses, including transfers, replenishment and audits of monthly warehouse reports and billing

• Build forward purchasing plans with producers based on depletion trends, production schedules and shipping lead times

• Work with sales leadership on demand forecasting so every market carries the right stock

Accounts receivable, payables, and the books

• Run day-to-day bookkeeping in QuickBooks: distributor invoicing, payment posting, and entering and reconciling vendor bills against purchase orders

• Manage accounts receivable, including monitoring aging, following up on overdue balances and keeping distributor accounts clean

• Manage payables to producers, freight forwarders, warehouses and service partners, so bills match POs and payments go out on schedule

• Keep QuickBooks and VinoSmith in sync on orders, pricing and invoices

• Prepare month-end close for our CFO, and track producer marketing budgets and billbacks

Freight and import

• Plan container allocations and shipment timing with producers, consolidating where it makes sense

• Manage freight forwarders, customs brokers, truckers and warehouse receiving from origin to delivery

• Move every shipment through port without demurrage or detention

Orders and fulfillment

• Oversee distributor purchase orders and direct-import orders through VinoSmith and QuickBooks

• Resolve delivery issues with distributors and warehouse partners, and manage sample logistics

• Coordinate pricing updates and special programs with distributors

Compliance

• Own the compliance calendar for state registrations, renewals and label approvals, working with our compliance partner to keep submissions ahead of deadline

• Manage customs documentation, CBMA filings and duty reporting

How the role grows:

• Bring VinoSmith, QuickBooks and warehouse reporting into alignment, and keep them aligned as volume grows

• Turn how we work into documented processes that scale

• Build the operational reporting leadership relies on for purchasing and market decisions

• Lead operations for new producer launches and distributor onboarding

• Find and reduce costs across freight, warehousing and compliance

• Help design and build the operations team

Required:

• 5+ years in beverage alcohol operations at an importer, supplier or distributor, with direct experience in the three-tier system

• Hands-on management of international ocean freight: booking containers, working with freight forwarders and customs brokers, and getting product from origin to a U.S. warehouse

• Working knowledge of federal and state alcohol compliance, including COLAs, state product registrations and import documentation

• Experience managing inventory across multiple warehouse locations, including forecasting, replenishment and reconciling warehouse reports

• Hands-on accounts receivable and payable in QuickBooks or a comparable system, including invoicing, payment posting and bill-to-PO reconciliation

• Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills (pivot tables, lookups, building a reconciliation from scratch)

• Experience directing the work of others, whether direct reports, part-time staff or outside contractors

• A valid passport and the ability to travel internationally a few times a year to visit producers

Also valuable:

• Experience with VinoSmith

• Order management across a multi-state distributor network

• Building or rebuilding operational processes and documentation at a growing company

And if you speak Italian, French or Spanish, our producers will love you for it.

Precision matters here. In this role, small errors don’t stay small: they turn into freight charges, compliance problems and bad purchasing decisions, so we value people who catch them first.

At Grapejuice Group, we believe wine is ultimately about people. We give family-owned wineries and distilleries something most importers don’t: true national representation in the U.S., not a patchwork of regional deals. Since 2019, we’ve built a portfolio that runs from Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne to Etna, Rioja and Mendoza, chosen because each wine overdelivers on quality and value, and sold through distributor partners in nearly every state.

Our mission is to build lasting partnerships between exceptional producers and the U.S. trade, supporting our distributors, restaurants, and retailers with wines that tell a story and perform in the market.

We’re a small, collaborative team in Denver, and everyone here works directly with the families who make what we sell. We move quickly, hold a high bar for accuracy, and believe the best businesses are built on trust and curiosity.