Warehouse and Logistics Manager in Bowling Green, Kentucky at Inked Brands Inc

Inked Brands is a fast-growing, technology-driven company built around one simple idea: turning passion into product. We partner with creators, entrepreneurs, and innovators to bring their brands to life through full-service e-commerce, design, production, and fulfillment.

With an expansion underway and a brand-new headquarters on the horizon, we’re doubling our space, growing our team, and continuing to push the limits of what’s possible in creator commerce, wholesale distributing, and mass retail partnerships. Our culture is collaborative, hands-on, and focused on innovation - blending creativity, data, and technology to make real impact.

At Inked, every role matters. Whether you’re coding, designing, accounting, or strategizing, you’ll have the opportunity to own your work, learn from industry experts, and help shape the future of digital commerce.

The Warehouse Manager leads Inked Brands’ warehouse fulfillment and wholesale fulfillment teams and owns the flow of goods from receiving and put-away through inventory control, picking, packing, and shipping. This new role builds reliable, scalable processes for a multi-brand operation with both individual and wholesale orders. The Manager develops the team, maintains safe and accurate operations, and coordinates freight and retail-compliance requirements so orders leave correctly and on time.

A Shipping and Receiving Clerk supports the Manager with shipment paperwork, carrier appointments, LTL scheduling, and routine administrative follow-up. The Manager remains accountable for shipment readiness, service performance, exceptions, and the controls that prevent errors and retailer chargebacks.

· Direct daily receiving, put-away, replenishment, picking, packing, staging, shipping, and returns across warehouse and wholesale fulfillment.

· Set daily priorities and labor assignments based on order volume, customer commitments, inbound deliveries, and carrier cutoffs.

· Establish clear work standards and handoffs between Production, Quality Assurance, warehouse, wholesale fulfillment, and shipping.

· Maintain orderly locations, accurate product identification, efficient slotting, and capacity plans for new products and seasonal peaks.

· Investigate missed orders, short shipments, damages, and delays; correct the immediate issue and address its cause.

· Set and enforce right-sized packaging and material-use standards for parcel and wholesale shipments, including protection needed to reduce transit damage.

· Own inventory accuracy through disciplined receiving, system transactions, cycle counts, variance research, and reconciliation.

· Verify that received goods match purchase orders and packing documents; route quantity, damage, and quality discrepancies to the appropriate owner.

· Ensure product on quality HOLD is identified and kept unavailable for picking or shipment until Quality Assurance authorizes release.

· Monitor stock movement, replenishment, slow-moving inventory, and space use; recommend improvements to layout and storage practices.

· Maintain traceable records for receipts, transfers, adjustments, returns, and shipments in the systems used by Inked Brands.

· Analyze warehouse, order, inventory, shipping, and integration data to confirm transactions and uploads post correctly across the platforms used by Inked Brands; investigate missing, duplicate, delayed, or inaccurate records.

· Oversee wholesale order execution, including allocation, pick accuracy, carton and pallet preparation, required labeling, documentation, and delivery deadlines.

· Translate customer and retailer routing guides into practical checklists and train the team on account-specific requirements.

· For mass retail accounts such as Walmart and Target, oversee applicable purchase order, advance ship notice, routing, appointment, labeling, and pallet requirements; partner with the appropriate internal teams on system or EDI transactions.

· Review retailer shortages, noncompliance notices, deductions, and chargebacks; document causes and lead corrective action with Sales, Finance, and other owners.

· Confirm that customer-specific packing and shipping instructions are current before the team releases orders.

· Coordinate with the Customer Operations Manager to confirm vendor and retailer guidelines are updated, current versions of internal documents and checklists are in place, and changes are communicated and applied by the fulfillment teams.

· Plan parcel and freight shipments, including LTL and full-truckload moves when applicable, around cost, capacity, service commitments, and customer requirements.

· Supervise the Shipping and Receiving Clerk’s preparation and verification of bills of lading, packing lists, pickup and delivery appointments, LTL bookings, and shipment records.

· Manage carrier relationships and resolve missed pickups, late deliveries, freight claims, damages, and proof-of-delivery questions.

· Review freight costs and service results, escalate material exceptions, and recommend carrier or process changes when warranted.

· Ensure shipment data and documents are complete before dispatch and that tracking and exceptions are communicated to the right teams.

· Lead, coach, and hold accountable the warehouse fulfillment team, wholesale fulfillment team, and Shipping and Receiving Clerk.

· Build schedules, staffing plans, cross-training, work instructions, and coverage for peaks, absences, and changing order mix.

· Train employees on safe equipment use, inventory transactions, order accuracy, customer requirements, and escalation steps.

· Conduct regular performance conversations and partner with HR on hiring, documentation, development, and employee relations.

· Coach current team leaders on planning work, communicating expectations, using performance measures, documenting issues, and developing employees so their roles can grow with the operation.

· Create a team culture that raises problems early and treats accuracy, safety, and service as shared responsibilities.

· Maintain safe storage, material handling, dock practices, housekeeping, traffic flow, and equipment use in assigned areas.

· Conduct routine inspections, correct hazards promptly, and coordinate training, incident response, and corrective action with Operations and HR.

· Ensure powered industrial trucks and other equipment are operated only by trained and authorized employees.

· Identify capacity, racking, layout, and equipment needs and bring recommendations to Operations leadership.

· Build and maintain a practical operating dashboard for on-time and in-full shipping, order accuracy, inventory accuracy, productivity, dock-to-stock time, freight costs, and retailer deductions as reliable data becomes available.

· Review return reasons and supporting order and shipment data, especially damage and wrong-product returns; identify patterns by SKU, packing method, team, carrier, or process and lead corrective actions.

· Set baselines and improvement targets with Operations leadership; use daily and weekly reviews to identify bottlenecks and assign action owners.

· Monitor platform license assignments and actual usage; request reassignment or removal of unused access and flag access gaps or inappropriate use under company approval practices.

· Document system defects and improvement needs, submit clear work tickets to in-house or third-party developers, prioritize with Operations leadership, and verify the fix after release.

· Improve slotting, travel paths, work methods, system use, and staffing to increase throughput without sacrificing accuracy or safety.

· Monitor labor and shipping spend against plan, explain variances, and recommend changes supported by operational data.

· Track packaging and warehouse material consumption against order volume and work standards; control excess use and waste while protecting product and meeting customer packaging requirements.

· Document standard procedures and verify they are followed consistently across both fulfillment teams.

· Coordinate with Production and Product teams on inbound timing, product readiness, transfers, and inventory availability.

· Partner with Quality Assurance on receiving concerns, damage, product HOLD, returns, and release decisions.

· Work with Wholesale Sales, Customer Experience, and Finance on order priorities, customer commitments, claims, deductions, and freight issues.

· Partner with Customer Experience and Quality Assurance to investigate damage and wrong-product returns, and coordinate with internal or third-party developers when system defects contribute to errors.

· Escalate service, inventory, safety, or retailer-compliance risks early, with a clear recommendation and owner.

The Warehouse Manager may assign work, adjust daily fulfillment priorities within approved commitments, hold an order for an unresolved shipping or inventory discrepancy, and recommend staffing, carrier, system, or process changes. Product on a Quality Assurance HOLD may be released only through the established QA process. Material changes to customer commitments, spending, or retailer exceptions require approval under Inked Brands’ operating and financial approval practices.

· At least 3 years of progressive warehouse, distribution, fulfillment, or logistics experience, including direct team leadership, preferred.

· Hands-on experience with receiving, inventory control, order fulfillment, shipping, freight coordination, and warehouse systems.

· Comfort using a warehouse or enterprise system, spreadsheets, operational reports, and carrier or retailer portals.

· A college degree is not required; equivalent hands-on operations and leadership experience will be considered.

Preference for someone with experience in:

· Managing wholesale or multi-channel fulfillment in a consumer-products or 3PL-style environment.

· Walmart, Target, or other mass retail logistics experience, including routing guides, appointments, labeling, advance ship notices, retailer portals or EDI workflows, and chargeback prevention. This experience is especially relevant for candidates at the upper end of the salary range.

· Lead hourly teams with clear expectations, training, coaching, and follow-through.

· Read order and freight documents, spot discrepancies, and make sound decisions under time pressure.

· Analyze inventory and service data and turn recurring failures into workable process changes.

· Communicate clearly with frontline employees, carriers, suppliers, retail customers, and internal leaders.

· Balance customer deadlines, labor capacity, freight cost, inventory integrity, and safe work practices.

· Regular presence on the warehouse floor, shipping docks, and office areas; ability to stand, walk, bend, reach, and move throughout the facility for portions of the workday.

· Ability to inspect orders, labels, pallets, documents, and inventory locations and to use standard workplace technology.

· Schedule flexibility during inventory counts, seasonal peaks, critical shipments, or operational disruptions.

· Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

Anticipated base salary: $65,000-$80,000 annually, based on relevant warehouse leadership and logistics experience. The upper end of the range is intended for candidates who can independently manage complex wholesale and mass retail shipping requirements. Compensation above the range may be considered for exceptional directly relevant experience, subject to approval.

Success means both fulfillment teams operate safely and predictably, inventory and order records can be trusted across systems, orders ship accurately and on time, and retailer requirements are met with fewer preventable deductions. The Manager should reduce avoidable damage and wrong-product returns, control packaging waste and license use, and build a capable team and repeatable processes that support growth across Inked Brands’ products and sales channels.