Assortment Optimization Lead
Farmer’s Fridge makes fruits and vegetables accessible and approachable for everyone. We offer a variety of fresh, healthy, ready-to-eat meals and snacks through our fresh food vending machines, wholesale partners, and our office pantry solution — providing chef-curated meals to customers within seconds. Today, we operate a network of Fridges and partner with clients nationwide in high-foot-traffic areas, such as airports, hospitals, universities, and large office buildings — where there is limited accessibility to fresh, healthy, grab-n-go options.
We care deeply about what we’re creating and aspire to make sure our customers feel that through every touchpoint. This shows up in many ways across the business. We are committed to prioritizing food safety, we are passionate about product quality, we value our employees, we champion the best idea no matter where it comes from, and we’re committed to making an overall positive impact as we scale.
About this Role: We're seeking an analytical, commercially minded, and execution-obsessed Assortment Optimization Lead to join our growing Channel Strategy team. In this role, you will turn our menu strategy into the best possible performance in every fridge: what goes in each fridge, how it's laid out, and when it changes. Your mandate is to optimize net product margin per slot across our network of more than 2,000 smart fridges while also supporting assortment strategy at our retail locations.
This is a high-ownership role. The Channel Strategy leadership team sets the menu strategy: what earns a spot on the menu, the job each product plays, how many slots each category gets, and what we charge. You will own how that strategy plays out fridge by fridge and at each retail account, making assortment and merchandising decisions within those guardrails and telling us when the guardrails need to change. The bulk of the work sits in our fridge channel: because we own the fridge end to end, you'll make the call, measure it, and adjust as needed.
This role requires someone who cares as much about a single slot as about the model behind it. You'll run and improve slot optimization models that decide what goes in every slot, project the impact of a change before we make it, and find the slots that aren't earning their place. Our food is fresh, so a slot that doesn't sell costs us twice: in lost sales and in waste.
What You’ll Do…
- Decide what goes on the shelf. This is the heart of the role. You will run and continuously improve the optimization models that decide which products enter each fridge and how many slots each one earns, maximizing net product margin within the menu strategy. That includes deciding which fridges and slots a new item launches into and what it replaces. Before any assortment change goes live, you will model its projected margin, sales, and waste impact; afterward, you will measure results against the projection, explain the gap, and improve the model.
- Own fridge merchandising. From product placement, facings, and adjacencies across our fridge configurations, including digital (website, app) and physical environments. You will build our point of view on how layout shapes what customers buy, and turn it into planogram rules that scale across the network.
- Recommend when changes happen. Own the execution of our rotation calendar and planogram reset waves: which slots swap in each wave, when rotational/LTO products enter and exit, and how changes are sequenced so we can read their impact. You will partner with Procurement, Operations and Demand Planning teams so every reset lands cleanly in the market.
- Find the slots that aren't earning, and fix them. Partner with Demand Planning to establish sell-through and waste targets across the assortment, then track performance across the network. When a slot misses, diagnose why: the wrong product, the wrong placement, stockouts, waste, or local demand. Then act on what you find through cross-functional collaboration with our Marketing, Ops, Demand Planning, and Menu teams.
- Know the customer behind the purchase. Dig into consumer-level purchase data to understand who buys what, how often they come back, and what they buy instead when their usual item isn’t there. Partner closely with Marketing to build a shared view of our customers, and use it to strengthen assortment planning and menu decisions.
- Shape the menu strategy from the ground up. You will be the first to see where the menu strategy and point-of-sale reality diverge. When the data shows a category earning more than its slots allow (for example, breakfast items outperforming other categories in airports), you will bring the evidence to the team and work together to adjust the strategy and guardrails.
- Diagnose how assortment drives performance. Partner with our Revenue Growth Management and Fridge Lifecycle teams to build a more complete picture of how assortment affects sales and margin, and feed those insights into how we manage underperforming fridges and retail locations.
- Build a scalable toolkit. Own and improve the assortment models, slot-level scorecards, and planogram rules that power decisions across thousands of fridges. Then document them into repeatable playbooks.
Who You Are…
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Economics, Statistics, Marketing, or a related quantitative field
- 5–7 years of professional experience with at least 2 years of direct experience in assortment planning, space planning, merchandising analytics, commercial analytics, or a comparable role, ideally in a business with a physical, space-constrained footprint.
- Demonstrated experience making store-, cluster-, or location-level assortment decisions from large, granular transaction or point-of-sale data, and measuring the results.
- Strong data analytics skills and experience building optimization or decision models in Python, R, SQL or advanced spreadsheet tools.
- Working knowledge of space productivity: facings, adjacencies, and sales and margin per unit of space.
- Experience working with AI tools to build analyses faster – and knowing how to manage AI as a tool rather than the primary thinker, checking its output for accuracy.
- Strong financial acumen, with fluency in product margin, waste, and the trade-offs between sales, margin, and sell-through.
- High ownership and a bias toward action; comfortable rolling up your sleeves, iterating quickly, and driving to answers in a lean, fast-moving environment.
Bonus Points:
- Experience with fresh or short-shelf-life products, where waste is part of every assortment decision
- Experience in unattended retail, micro-markets, vending, or convenience
- Experience with localized or cluster-based assortment strategies
- Experience designing and reading in-market tests of assortment or layout changes
- Experience with space-planning or planograms
The base salary range for this role is $110,000 - $120,000. The base pay offered will be determined by factors such as experience, skills, training, certifications, education, and any applicable minimum wage requirements.
In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for company performance-based bonuses and equity.
We provide a comprehensive benefits package, including:
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans available)
- 401(k) with immediate employer match vesting
- Paid time off (including vacation, sick leave, and holidays)
- Paid sabbatical after 5 years of service
- Employee discounts
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Benefits at Farmer's Fridge:
In This Together - We stay connected, whether in person or virtually. We encourage business transparency through monthly town hall meetings and weekly financial updates. We set out to make the best product on the market, and we believe we’ve done it. We value your input in the new menu creation process. From regular tasting panels, where employees provide new menu feedback.
Happier Workdays - Each day at work should fill you with joy. We're a fun and passionate group, and we don't take ourselves too seriously. Bring your unique self to work, dress comfortably, and always feel free to share your thoughts and opinions. We encourage curiosity; there's no hierarchy here when we're all swapping ideas.
Never run on empty - Daily Farmer's Fridge meal and office snacks are just some of the offerings to make sure you aren't distracted by a growling stomach. Recharge with our paid sabbatical program after five years of service.
Innovate & Elevate - We're all teachers and learners. You'll grow and help grow the company through cross-functional collaboration, open access to leadership, and regular business updates. You have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line. You can also impact your bottom line by participating in our 401(k) plan that includes a company match with immediate vesting.
Farmer’s Fridge Diversity Statement:
"Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Farmer’s Fridge, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.”
Farmer’s Fridge is an equal-opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all employment practices, including hiring, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. View our disclosures related to External Agencies and Applicants below: https://www.farmersfridge.com/careerdisclosures