Business Development Operations Manager (Franchise & Wholesale)

About us

Love, Bonito is Southeast Asia’s leading womenswear brand, built with a mission to empower women to find confidence through style. Incorporated in 2010 in Singapore, we’ve since grown from a humble online startup into a multi-channel business with over 20 stores and counting across Asia and a thriving online presence.

For the next decade, we are looking to expand through new categories, markets, wholesale partnerships, and brand acquisitions. We are evolving into a next-generation regional consumer group — one that blends heart with performance, and creativity with technology.

At our core, we’re a team of builders, dreamers, and doers who believe culture is more than words on a wall — it’s how we show up every day. We move fast, stay curious, and take bold bets on ideas and people we believe in. Here, you’ll find a community that challenges you to grow, trusts you to lead, and celebrates you for being you. Together, we’re shaping the future of Asian brands — from right here in Southeast Asia, to the world.

Why join us?

At Love, Bonito, you’ll do more than just a job — you’ll help build a movement. We’re creating an organization that’s lean, bold, and full of heart — where every person has the space to make an impact. Here’s what you can expect:

• Purpose with performance: We’re building a world-class Asian brand that competes globally. We hold ourselves to high standards and operate with purpose, integrity, grit and excellence. Join us if you take customer service excellence seriously and are passionate about creating real impact!
• Growth that’s real: We are known to be incredibly dynamic and fast-paced. You’ll be expected to learn fast, stretch beyond your comfort zone, and work alongside people who challenge and support you in equal measure. Don’t join us if you’re looking for a comfortable, fully structured setup, but do join us if you’re excited to build, shape, and make an impact together!
• Culture at our core: If you’re looking for a no-corporate-BS environment, you’ll fit right in. We lead with empathy, celebrate individuality, and believe that great work comes from trust, not titles. We believe in teamwork and effective collaboration - because when we run together, we go further. If this speaks to your values, come join us and be part of #TeamLB!

Join us as we redefine what it means to build an enduring global consumer group.

About the role

As the Business Development Operations Manager, you will own the operational and merchandising engine behind Love, Bonito's franchise and wholesale business — from full day-to-day ownership of partner accounts to quarterly buying, onboarding, SOPs, and performance reporting. Reporting to the VP of Business Development, you'll bring strong retail/merchandising judgment to partner buying sessions, coordinate closely with Marketing to ensure campaigns and activations land on the ground, and build the scalable systems that let the business expand across markets. This role is built for someone who leads with operational and merchandising expertise first, and who wants to grow into broader strategic ownership as the franchise network scales

Main responsibilities

1. Partner Relationship & Enablement and Operational Support

• Act as day-to-day point of contact for partners: order queries, operations, marketing
• Support partners in executing agreed marketing plans, coordinating with internal Marketing on asset delivery, global campaign plans and timing
• Lead quarterly buying sessions with partners, curating styles (balancing brand vision, partner appetite and sell-through potential), preparing the buy sheet, ensuring order placements.
• Review with internal Merchandising and VM teams the assortment planning recommendations for partners securing their support especially for new store and online channels launch needs.
• Ensure franchise partners have the operational tools and training to uphold LB's global standards on brand, customer experience and retail ops
• Coordinate with internal teams (IT, Ops) to brief and guide partners on LB website operations

2. Strategic & Growth Planning

• Build yearly growth plans (marketing, expansion), sell-in/sell-out and inventory targets
• Lead monthly business reviews with performance dashboards and data-driven insights
• Own partner P&Ls: annual budgets, quarterly sales plans

3. New Partners Onboarding & New projects Execution Support

• Oversee onboarding end-to-end: account setup, store launch, post-launch support
• Manage store opening timelines (capex, store design coordination, first-buy ordering) and new online channels to launch (E.g. Tik Tok Shop, LB local website)
• Coordinate with Retail Design (store build/design execution), acting as the commercial liaison to ensure partner requirements and timelines are met.
• Build cross-functional project briefings to align stakeholders on new store/market opportunities
• Run market-entry pilots to test and operationalize new or unproven markets

4. SOP Optimization and Reporting

• Manage master timeline for seasonal collection launches (line sheet, buying, campaign sharing, product education, shipping, launch)
• Develop, document, and implement SOPs across departments
• Build/maintain the operations manual for cohesive execution across markets
• Build/maintain consolidated performance dashboards; utilizing data-driven insights to identify operational bottlenecks and efficiency opportunities
• Manage admin processes: P&Ls, invoicing, contract milestones

Requirements

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in retail/wholesale operations, buying, merchandising, or franchise/partner management in a fast-paced environment
• Strong merchandising instinct — hands-on experience curating assortments, running buying sessions, and balancing brand vision with partner appetite and sell-through potential
• Process-oriented mindset with demonstrated ability to build SOPs, operations manuals, and scalable systems from scratch
• Experience with inventory management, retail supply chain, or partner/franchise enablement
• Comfortable owning P&Ls, budgets, and quarterly sales plans; data-driven decision-making
• Excellent cross-functional stakeholder management — able to align Merchandising, VM, Marketing, PMO/Retail Design, and IT/Ops around shared timelines and priorities
• Familiarity with reporting/dashboarding tools; interest in using AI to streamline reporting is a plus
• Growth-oriented: comfortable operating with hands-on operational and merchandising ownership today, with appetite to take on broader strategic planning as the role and franchise network scale
• Willingness to travel up to 20% for market visits, partner meetings, and store openings
• Self-starter with high ownership, structured thinking, integrity, and strong follow-through
• A collaborative, humble teammate who thrives on building efficient systems and is eager to learn