Supply Operations Manager - Toronto - Forum Ventures

Description

Join to apply for the Supply Operations Manager – Calico AI role at Forum Ventures

Location: Toronto (Hybrid)

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer (Canada HQ)

Experience Level: 8–10 years

About Calico AI

Calico AI is transforming how consumer brands bring products to life— we are the agentic AI copilot for sourcing, production, and global supply‑chain orchestration.

Calico serves as the intelligence layer for global manufacturing, automating design‑to‑delivery decisions for leading apparel and accessories brands. Our multi‑agent AI system connects brands with a vetted network of factories across Vietnam, Mexico, Turkey, India, China, and beyond.

We're building a global supply engine with strong foundations: diversified capacity, rigorous compliance, and data‑driven decisioning. This role sits at the center of that engine—turning factory, order, and performance data into strategy, process, and action.

About The Role

Calico AI is seeking a Supply Operations Manager to own the performance, capacity, and risk profile of our global factory network.

This role is equal parts data analysis and real‑world execution. You'll synthesize complex data across suppliers, regions, and categories to identify where we should grow, optimize, or de‑risk. You'll build the operating playbook for how Calico allocates volume, manages constraints, and upholds compliance standards across a diverse international network.

You'll work closely with Commercial, Customer Success, and Product/Engineering to make sure that as we onboard new brands and launch new categories, our network has the right capacity, at the right quality and risk level—all orchestrated through our AI platform.

What You'll Do

Network Strategy & Capacity Planning

• Own the health and performance view of Calico's global supplier network across regions, categories, and capabilities.
• Build and maintain capacity models that account for MOQs, lead times, seasonal peaks, and factory line availability.
• Work with Commercial and Customer teams to translate brand demand forecasts into capacity plans, allocation decisions, and sourcing strategies.
• Recommend where to scale up, rebalance, or pause suppliers based on data (OTD, quality, responsiveness, cost, risk).

Performance Analytics & Insight Generation

• Design and maintain dashboards that track key supply KPIs: on‑time delivery, defect rates, quote turnaround, win/loss on RFQs, utilization, and margin contribution.
• Analyze trends across factories, countries, and product types to identify gaps, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Run deep dives on underperforming suppliers, categories, or lanes and recommend corrective actions.
• Partner with Product/Engineering to embed these metrics and triggers into Calico's internal tools and AI agents.

Compliance, Risk & Governance

• Maintain an up‑to‑date view of compliance status across the network (social, environmental, quality, security, certifications).
• Work with factories to ensure adherence to customer‑specific and region‑specific compliance requirements.
• Develop and refine a risk framework for country, factory, and category exposure (e.g. geopolitical, capacity, quality, logistics).
• Proactively flag and manage risk scenarios, recommending alternative capacity, dual‑sourcing plans, or factory rotations when needed.

Process Design & Operational Excellence

• Define and document SOPs for supply operations: onboarding, capacity updates, performance reviews, remediation plans.
• Create scalable, repeatable processes for collecting and validating factory data (capacity, pricing, compliance, capabilities).
• Collaborate with internal teams to streamline RFQ flows, allocation logic, and exception handling (e.g. rush orders, reallocations, escalations).
• Continuously refine how we work with factories—from communication cadences to scorecards and quarterly business reviews.

Systems, Data & Tooling

• Partner with Product and Data teams to shape how supply‑side data flows into Calico's platform and AI agents.
• Help define data schemas, standards, and tags for factories, capabilities, and orders to ensure accurate matching and analytics.
• Identify and implement tools or integrations (BI, workflow, data quality) that improve visibility and reduce manual work.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration & Supplier Relationships

• Serve as the internal point person for all questions related to network capacity, fit, and risk.
• Work with Commercial teams to match brands with the right factories based on capabilities, price, and risk tolerance.
• Support customer conversations with clear, data‑backed perspectives on network strategy and contingency plans.
• Build strong working relationships with strategic factories, focusing on continuous improvement and long‑term growth.

What You Bring

• 8–10 years of experience in apparel or apparel‑adjacent supply chain, sourcing, production, or vendor management roles.
• Proven experience managing or optimizing a diverse, international supplier network (multiple regions, factory types, product categories).
• Strong analytical toolkit—comfortable working with large datasets, building dashboards, and using tools like Excel/Sheets, BI tools (Looker, Power BI, Tableau), or SQL.
• Deep understanding of apparel production fundamentals: lead times, critical paths, MOQs, capacity planning, costing, Incoterms, quality control, and compliance.
• Familiarity with social and environmental compliance standards (BSCI, WRAP, GOTS, Fair Trade) and how brands evaluate factory risk.
• Track record of designing and improving processes, not just operating within them— you can build systems that scale with growth.
• Strong communication skills, able to translate complex data and tradeoffs into clear narratives for both internal teams and external partners.
• Highly organized, detail‑oriented, and comfortable operating in a fast‑moving, high‑growth startup environment.
• Based in Canada, with flexibility to occasionally travel to visit key suppliers or attend industry events as needed.

Nice to Have

• Experience working with or alongside technology/data teams (product managers, data analysts, engineers).
• Background in working with brand‑side and factory‑side stakeholders, with empathy for both perspectives.
• Experience in nearshore and offshore manufacturing networks (Mexico, Central America, Asia, Turkey, Eastern Europe).

Application Closing Date

January 7

Seniority Level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment Type

Full‑time

Job Function

Management and Manufacturing

Industries

Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals