Position
Director of Commercial Excellence, Sales Enablement & Customer Experience
Status
Full-Time, Exempt
Compensation
$90-$100K
Reports To
President / CEO
Location
Irvine, CA (On-Site)
Travel
Periodic travel required for retailer meetings, trade shows, industry events, and visits to the Oceanside warehouse.
About Whimsocal Studios
Since 2009, Whimsocal Studios (formerly Orange Circle Studio) has been creating thoughtfully designed products that transform everyday moments into something extraordinary. Today, we are a growing portfolio of purpose-led brands across stationery, gifting, lifestyle, and baby categories, including Orange Circle Studio, Studio Oh!, Saturday Sundae, JuJuBe, Bella Tunno, and Scoops. Together, we create products that spark delight, celebrate everyday moments, and make a meaningful impact.
Everything we create is guided by one simple purpose: To Curate Small Joys. Whether it's bringing a smile through beautiful design, supporting independent artists, or giving back to our communities, we believe the smallest moments have the power to create the greatest impact.
At Whimsocal, our greatest strength is our people. We're a collaborative team of curious thinkers, creative problem-solvers, and passionate brand builders who believe creativity, innovation, and purpose can brighten everyday life. Together, we're creating brands that inspire joy, foster connection, and make a meaningful difference for our consumers, our retail partners, our employees, and the communities we serve.
About the Position
The Director of Commercial Excellence, Sales Enablement & Customer Experience will build and lead the industry’s premier commercial operations organization—leveraging technology, Artificial Intelligence, consumer insights, operational excellence, and world-class customer service to create a seamless omnichannel experience. Partnering with leaders across the company, this role ensures that every customer interaction, every
commercial process, and every product launch strengthens Whimsocal Studios’ reputation as the easiest company to do business with and the industry’s most valued partner.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Excellence
· Ensure company and team are set up for success with clear goals and tracking against annual volume and profit goals. Owns delivery of sales and profit goals for the company.
· Own commercial operating rhythms, dashboards, KPIs, and executive reporting.
· Drive cross-functional accountability through disciplined project management.
· Ensure customer commitments are executed accurately and on time.
· Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on speed, quality, automation, and scalability.
People Leadership & Development
· Lead and develop a team of 4 Account Managers, 3 Administrators/Coordinators, 1 Customer Service Representative and surge contractors to develop the business and provide the best customer service.
· Develop the team’s analytical capabilities to conduct post-sales analysis—reviewing program and season sell-through, margin, fill rates, and customer profitability to inform future planning and buys.
· Hold the team accountable for achieving profitability targets by translating the company’s annual volume and profit goals into clear account-level and individual objectives, tracked throughout each program and season.
· Establish disciplined post-program and post-season business reviews to evaluate performance against sales and profit goals, capture lessons learned, and drive corrective action on underperforming programs or accounts.
· Coach Account Managers and Coordinators to use performance dashboards and post-sale insights to identify margin erosion, pricing opportunities, and ways to grow profitable business.
· Partner with Finance to monitor account-level profitability and ensure pricing, promotions, and program investments deliver their targeted return..
Inventory Management
· Work with analysts to order and manage inventory. Ensure no out-of-stocks for core and national account authorized products.
· Manage inventory effectively to ensure cash is managed effectively.
· Minimal mark downs and write-offs at end of program/season.
Sales Enablement Excellence
· Develop compelling retailer presentations utilizing consumer insights, market data, trend analysis, AI-generated insights, and category management principles.
· Ensure every sales presentation clearly demonstrates how Whimsocal Studios helps retailers grow their businesses.
· Create standardized presentation templates, sales tools, competitive analyses, and customer-specific selling stories.
Commercialization Leadership
· Partner with Product Development, Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, and Customer Service to ensure flawless commercialization of new products.
· Coordinate launch calendars, customer setup requirements, item creation, inventory readiness, onboarding, and launch execution across all channels.
· Establish pre-book processes, understand retailer launch calendars and ensure the team is presenting the programs in advance of due dates to secure the business.
· Manage the team to lead the development of business through customer vendor portals – Markettime, Retail Link, Vendor Portals, etc.
Customer Service Operations
· Own the customer experience strategy across every customer touchpoint.
· Lead the customer service organization with the objective of becoming the most responsive, knowledgeable, and customer-centric supplier in the gift, stationery, and baby industries.
· Establish service standards, KPIs, and SLAs that differentiate Whimsocal Studios from competitors.
· Monitor customer satisfaction, response times, issue resolution, fill rates, and service metrics to drive continuous improvement.
Gorgias Customer Experience Platform
· Serve as the business owner and administrator of Gorgias as the centralized customer service platform.
· Configure and optimize workflows, automations, macros, routing rules, AI Agents, knowledge base integration, and customer communication templates.
· Utilize Gorgias AI to automate repetitive inquiries while ensuring a premium customer experience.
· Analyze customer inquiries and trends to identify recurring issues, product opportunities, operational improvements, and training needs.
· Integrate Gorgias with Shopify, HubSpot, Markettime, SAP, Faire, and other commercial systems to create a seamless customer experience.
· Develop dashboards providing executive visibility into response times, satisfaction scores, ticket trends, and team productivity.
Commercial Systems Leadership
Serve as the business owner and continuous improvement leader for SAP, MarketTime, HubSpot, Shopify, Faire, Klaviyo, Markettime, Gorgias, Box, e-commerce applications, sales reporting platforms, BI dashboards, and AI-enabled productivity tools.
· Ensure all systems communicate effectively, eliminate duplicate work, improve data quality, and provide actionable business insights.
Customer Insights & Business Intelligence
· Transform customer data into actionable commercial insights.
· Build dashboards measuring sales performance, inventory health, customer profitability, promotional effectiveness, retailer scorecards, inventory turns, service levels, and operational KPIs.
· Utilize AI and business intelligence tools to identify trends, predict opportunities, and proactively solve customer challenges.
Data Governance
· Maintain the integrity of all commercial data across systems.
· Establish standardized processes for customer information, pricing, product data, inventory reporting, promotional calendars, and sales analytics.
Artificial Intelligence & Process Automation
· Champion the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the commercial organization to improve productivity, decision-making, and customer responsiveness.
· Evaluate, implement, and optimize AI-powered tools for customer service, sales enablement, forecasting, reporting, content generation, and workflow automation.
· Develop AI prompts, knowledge bases, and best practices that improve efficiency while maintaining Whimsocal Studios’ brand voice and customer experience.
· Continuously identify repetitive manual processes that can be automated through AI and technology solutions.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of progressive experience in commercial operations, sales enablement, customer experience, or a related field, including team leadership. Proven success owning and optimizing commercial systems such as SAP, HubSpot, Shopify, Gorgias, Faire, Klaviyo, MarketTime, and BI/reporting platforms. Demonstrated experience deploying Artificial Intelligence and automation tools to improve productivity, customer service, and decision-making. Track record building customer service organizations, service standards, KPIs, and SLAs, ideally within the gift, stationery, baby, or consumer products industries. Strong analytical skills, with the ability to translate data into actionable insights through dashboards and business intelligence. Excellent project management skills and a history of driving cross-functional accountability and on-time
execution. Exceptional communication, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills. Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree a plus.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in the gift, stationery, greeting card, or baby/juvenile products industry. Hands-on experience managing customer and vendor portals such as MarketTime, Retail Link, Faire, and major retailer vendor portals. Experience leading a team through systems implementations, process automation, or AI adoption initiatives. Proven ability to manage inventory to minimize out-of-stocks, markdowns, and end-of-season write-offs. Experience owning delivery of annual sales and profit goals for a business or product portfolio. MBA or advanced degree.
Measures of Success
- Achievement of the company’s annual sales and profit goals. Improved fill rates with minimal out-of-stocks on core and national-account products. Reduced end-of-season markdowns and write-offs through disciplined inventory management. Faster response times and higher customer satisfaction scores across all service channels. On-time, accurate execution of product launches and customer commitments. Measurable productivity gains from AI adoption and process automation.
Benefits
- Competitive salary Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance Flexible Spending Account 401(k) Paid Vacation, Sick Time & Holidays Employer-paid Long-Term Disability Employee Product Discounts Career Growth Opportunities
If you're passionate about people, thrive in a fast-paced environment, and want to help build a company that creates joy every day, we'd love to hear from you.
Whimsocal Studios is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
How to Apply
Please apply through our Indeed posting, or submit your resume directly to [email protected]. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basi
Whimsocal Studios is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
Whimsocal Studios provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in the application process and in the performance of essential job functions. To request an accommodation, please contact [email protected].
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the California Fair Chance Act.
Pay: $90,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
