Operations Manager — Chelsea Cannabis Co.

Employer: Chelsea Cannabis Co. (CAURD-licensed adult-use dispensary, 104 7th Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan) Collaborates with: General Manager and the Founder Schedule: Full-Time, full availability required — including evenings and weekends Compensation: $70,000 – $120,000/year, based on success in the role

Who We Are

Chelsea Cannabis Co. is a CAURD-licensed adult-use dispensary at 104 7th Avenue in Chelsea, Manhattan. We opened in early 2025 and grew significantly in our first year — not by discounting or outspending, but by doing something simpler and harder: building a store people actually want to come back to. Curated product. Real relationships. A team that knows what they're talking about and cares whether you leave with the right thing.

We're open late every night of the week. The energy at 11pm on a Friday is nothing like noon on a Tuesday, and both require someone who is fully present and genuinely skilled. If that sounds like your environment, keep reading.

The Role

The Operations Manager is the operational backbone of the store and a direct extension of its leadership. You'll collaborate closely with the General Manager and the Founder, and you'll be expected to carry GM-level responsibility when either of them is out of the building. That means owning the judgment calls, the standards, and the culture of the floor — not just the checklist.

This is not a ceiling role. We're run like an early-stage startup — we move fast, think carefully, and everyone wears more than one hat — and we're looking for someone who brings curiosity and problem-solving alongside their floor skills. The cannabis industry in New York is still being built. There will be situations without a playbook. We need someone who finds that interesting rather than unsettling. We are only seeking applicants with the desire to learn, grow, and move up — not those content without pushing the envelope.

What You Might Be Doing

You're a generalist. Depending on the shift, the day, and what the store needs, here's the range of what this role covers — some of it every shift, some of it as it comes up.

On the floor

Own real-time SOPs and operational standards on every shift you run
Be the first call for staff questions, customer issues, and anything that needs a decision
Coach budtenders in the moment — specific, behavioral, and between customers when possible
Manage shift flow, pacing, and floor positioning for an experience that feels effortless
Execute opening and closing procedures completely, every time
Hold compliance standards with zero shortcuts — this is licensed cannabis retail

Inventory & compliance

Own inventory accuracy end to end — receiving, cycle counts, audits, and discrepancy controls
Keep us aligned with NY OCM requirements and hold compliance with zero shortcuts
Flag inventory discrepancies and compliance concerns the moment you spot them (the software is learnable; the diligence is the job)

Sales & customer experience

Drive in-store selling, upsell and cross-sell, and measurable revenue lift
Hit and exceed sales targets while keeping the experience genuinely helpful, never pushy
Stay comfortable and present with customers through the busiest stretches

Back-office & money

Own register variance, cash handling, and end-of-shift reconciliation
Support daily financial reporting, payroll inputs, AR/AP, and audit prep
Understand how the day's decisions roll up into store P&L

Developing the team

Deliver feedback that is direct, useful, and respectful of the person receiving it
Identify individual performance gaps and address them with the GM systematically
Bring new staff into how the store actually operates, not just how it looks on paper
Model the standard you're holding — the floor reflects your behavior first

Covering leadership

Step into GM-level decision-making when leadership is absent — hiring, scheduling, vendor coordination, compliance, full-store ownership
Coordinate with the GM on scheduling and coverage, and support delivery coordination with accuracy before anything leaves
Communicate clearly what happened on your shift, what you decided, and why

Who We're Looking For

Someone who walks in and the room adjusts — not because they're loud about it, but because they're clearly present and clearly capable. Someone who can give a useful redirect between customers, handle an escalation before it reaches the GM, and close the store the same way whether anyone is watching or not.

Beyond the floor skills, we want someone who is genuinely curious. Who asks good questions, absorbs new information quickly, and gets meaningfully better over time. We'll teach you what we know. We need you to have the capacity to learn it and push past it.

You communicate in the time you have. You know how you land with people. You hold a standard without making the people who meet it feel like they're being managed. You show up the same way at the end of a late shift as you do at the beginning of a slow Tuesday.

Here's what we weigh. The best candidates cover most of these, not necessarily all:

Work ethic — you do it right when no one's watching, you don't cut corners, and you finish what you start
Adaptability — you adjust when the plan breaks, stay steady under pressure, and figure out what's not in the manual
Experience that earned its scars — you've actually owned a standard, not just observed one, and you can tell us what you did and why
Inventory & compliance — accurate counts, receiving, audits, discrepancy controls, OCM compliance (the specific software is learnable)
Sales — in-store selling, upsell and cross-sell, hitting and beating targets, real comfort with customers
Accounting / back-office — cash handling, daily reconciliation, financial reporting, payroll, AR/AP, P&L
GM-ready — you could run the store solo: hiring, scheduling, vendor management, P&L, compliance
Tech / AI curiosity (a plus) — you pick up new tools fast and are interested in how automation and software make the work better
Marketing (a plus) — social media, brand or community campaigns, content creation

Experience We Value

How you think and how you operate matter more to us than your resume. Above all, we value small business and startup experience — you've helped build something from the ground up, worn multiple hats, and owned outcomes when there was no one else to hand them to. Beyond that, these backgrounds tend to produce what we need:

Cannabis retail management — floor accountability, staff development, licensed compliance
High-volume hospitality — bar or restaurant management, performance under pressure, fast-moving teams
Customer-facing retail management where you owned the standard, not just observed it
Genuine curiosity around existing and new technologies and how it best applies to your work

Tell us what you actually did. Titles without responsibility don't move the needle here.

Schedule and Compensation

Full-time with full availability, including evenings and weekends. Compensation is $70,000 – $120,000 per year, based on success in the role.

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