Expansion Manager

About Barkbus

At Barkbus we're dog-loving entrepreneurs and creatives aiming to build the premier pet services brand -- and we started by bringing the convenience and luxury of mobile dog grooming to pet parents throughout Southern California. Our brand is centered around building a community of world-class talent and providing reliable service through seamless technology. We are a tech-forward, pet services startup excited about solving problems big and small to better serve our clients, their parents and our local communities. We currently service Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego; and are excited to expand to Texas and other new locations in 2023. 

About This Role

This role will be responsible for expanding on our Southern California successes by launching new cities and states to further grow the brand across the country. 

In this role, you will identify areas and opportunities for expansion as well as work through all life cycle components of expansion to stand up and streamline new locations or “hubs”. This includes but is not limited to real estate sourcing, service area identification, recruitment, hiring & training, new market price sensitivity analysis, new market and satellite hub launches, handoff to operations and development of standard operating procedures.  

Role & Responsibilities:

• Simply put, your primary responsibility will be to bring all facets of the 5 star Barkbus experience to new markets. 
• Create and implement a comprehensive, data-driven Expansion Playbook for expansion cities. This includes but is not limited to real estate selection, hiring/on-boarding/training, service area identification, customer acquisition tactics, local partner/vendor sourcing, automobile operations etc. 
• Conduct market research and analysis to help determine pricing, suite of service options, and initial service area within a city for new and existing hubs
• Partner with HR to understand Pet Stylist pay rates in new markets and support recruitment and onboarding in expansion hubs.
• Partner with Sales and Customer Success in advance and during new market launches to ensure rapid customer acquisition. This includes identifying hyper local partnership opportunities to expand brand recognition.
• Act as the primary leadership team representative during market launch and ramp up - supporting Operations, Grooming, Sales/Marketing, HR etc - to ensure expansion success before handing off ownership to Director of Operations. 
• Develop a weighted methodology and criteria playbook to evaluate new markets and present to leadership based on the most upside and return to the business 
• Research and develop a strategy to launch satellite or “micro” hubs within a mature market to further expand Barkbus’s reach

Who You Are:

• A detail oriented project manager: No matter what, you get the job done. You obsess over the details and can flip back and forth between high altitude views and digging into the nitty gritty. 
• A relationship builder: You are reliable, accountable, and love to be part of a team while working cross functionally to ensure success of the company across the board. 
• A world class executor: Coming up with a great idea does not suffice, it’s closing the loop and executing the strategy seamlessly that excites you!
• A dynamic generalist: proactive self-starter and problem solver; able to learn and take on professional development independently. Ambitious and fast moving. Comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty. Hypothesize, experiment, iterate.
• A proactive thinker: On top of solving today’s problems, you take the time to think about the future and where you can apply energy and effort to have the biggest impact on the business. 

Qualifications & Experience:

• Must be a lover of dogs and people, and people who love dogs!
• Ability to travel up to 50% of the time during peak launch periods.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in a fast-paced and/or high growth startup environment.
• Minimum 2 years executing physical expansion initiatives across multiple geographic areas.
• Project management experience required with a PMP certification is strongly preferred. 
• Excellent time management and problem-solving skills to meet deadlines.
• Ability to adapt to the needs of a changing and growing organization.
• Pet or mobile service related experience is a plus.