Warehouse Flow Manager (Industrial Engineer)

Overview

Ship Essential is hiring a builder to own the fastest path from dock → stock → ship . You will live between Inbound and Outbound and turn late launches, pre-sold inventory, and tight timelines into clean, predictable flow. This role blends warehouse leadership, account partnership, industrial engineering, and project management. You will design the system, communicate the plan, and drive the result.

This is an in-person role at our Brooklyn warehouse reporting to the NY General Manager.

What you will own

Plan the flow before the truck arrives

• For every major inbound, create a written plan for receiving, slotting, and first-ship readiness and share it with Inbound, Outbound, Wholesale, and the brand.
• Model labor, space, and equipment needs; pre-assign staging, pickable locations, overflow, and move paths.

Activate inventory fast

• Convert arriving units into pickable stock with the fewest touches.
• Choose slotting that optimizes first-day pick speed for pre-sold and launch SKUs.
• Stand up “fast lanes” for drops and late arrivals.

Run launch command

• Serve as the single point of coordination during launches and re-stocks.
• Provide real-time status, constraints, and ship timing to brands and internal teams.
• Trigger short standups to unblock work and maintain momentum.

Engineer the work

• Map value streams and remove waste across dock, intake, putaway, replenishment, and pick.
• Use time studies, standard work, and WIP caps to reduce touches per unit and queue time.
• Apply simple, proven tools: 5S for layout, kanban for replenishment, SMED-style setups for pack lines, Little’s Law to size WIP and staffing.
• Redesign slotting and aisle flow to minimize travel and balance takt time with demand.

Align with leadership and keep everyone informed

• Work closely with the NY General Manager on high-priority initiatives and brand-specific playbooks.
• Keep leadership up to date on brand performance, risks, and escalations with clear, concise summaries.

Document, template, and scale

• Create and maintain crisp documentation of workflows that the team can actually use.
• Build reusable templates for plans, brand updates, post-mortems, and reports.
• Organize SOPs, playbooks, and email templates in a shared hub so information is easy to find and apply.

Communicate like a pro

• Write calm, direct updates to brands and internal teams.
• Guide brands toward scalable SOPs, and flag custom requests for scope and pricing.
• Host quick calls when nuance matters and recap decisions in writing.

Measure, learn, improve

• Stand up lightweight dashboards with the GM and WAMs that show flow health in real time.
• Run post-launch reviews and turn lessons into standard work for both coasts.

What success looks like

• Dock-to-stock under 24 hours for planned loads, faster on priority lanes.
• Time-to-first-ship measured in hours for pre-sold and launch SKUs.
• Touches per unit and picker travel time trending down.
• Replenishment demand reduced through right-sized pickable capacity.
• SLA hit rate up and escalations down.
• Clear playbooks documented, trained, and followed.

Requirements

• 4+ years in 3PL, fulfillment, or distribution across inbound and outbound.
• Hands-on experience planning slotting, putaway, and launch readiness.
• Industrial engineering toolkit: time studies, standard work, line balancing, layout optimization, basic queueing concepts.
• Strong project management skills and the ability to run cross-functional work.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with brands and internal teams.
• Comfortable with WMS tools (ShipHero a plus), spreadsheets, and basic BI; SQL familiarity is helpful.

How you work

• You break hard problems into first principles and design simple systems.
• You adapt quickly and stay aligned with brand and company goals.
• You keep communication clear, concise, and action-oriented.
• You have an exceptional eye for detail, from a messy tour path to a sloppy workflow.
• You review requirements and communications meticulously so nothing slips through.
• You prioritize continuous improvement and you own outcomes, not activity.

Benefits

• Health Care Plan
• Retirement Plan (401k)
• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)