Summary of the Brand Manager job at tires-easy.com

ABOUT US:  

Tire Capital is an investment company focused on bringing new technology and business model innovation to the $60bn US replacement tire market. Since 2020 we have acquired or built a number of tire-related e-commerce, trading, and wholesale businesses and are poised for rapid expansion in 2024. Our principals are all ivy-league educated and bring outside technology and operational expertise from the hedge fund, consulting, private equity, and healthcare industries. We act and look more like a technology startup than a private equity firm.

SUMMARY:

The Brand Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day management of our brand and manufacturer partnerships, and for owning the recurring pricing, cost, and pricing-policy compliance work that sits underneath them. You will support the SVP of Strategic Partnerships across our largest manufacturer relationships — preparing materials, handling day-to-day communication, and driving negotiated commitments to closure — while directly owning our online marketplace brand representation and our co-op program administration.

A significant part of this role is operational and recurring: you will own the monthly pricing and cost update cycles for our secondary supply program, the monthly minimum advertised price (MAP) update process, and the end-to-end MAP violation and enforcement process. This work is highly cross-functional — you will partner closely with our Data, Finance, and Marketing teams, and act as the primary point of contact for brand partners on pricing policy matters.

This role is unique in that it requires skill sets spanning relationship management, pricing operations, and data analysis. You will work in an entrepreneurial environment where we are constantly looking to learn what our customers and suppliers need and to develop better ways to serve them.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS: 

• Bachelor's Degree is preferred
• At least 3 years of working experience in partnerships, category or vendor management, pricing operations, or merchandising operations
• Demonstrated experience owning a recurring operational cycle with external dependencies — file intake, validation, reconciliation, and exception handling
• Proficient with Excel and Powerpoint, as well as Microsoft Power BI (or the ability to become proficient with guidance)
• Must be able to work with large spreadsheets to analyze data, reconcile pricing and cost files, and derive actionable insights
• Comfortable defining requirements for and working alongside a data team; you do not need to build the pipeline, but you must be able to specify what it should do and validate what it produces
• Must be fluent (written and verbal) in English
• Must be able to work EST, CST, or PST US-based hours
• High-speed Wifi internet connection
• Must not have had any disciplinary actions regarding attendance, conduct and/or performance in the past 90 days, and must not be approaching such action

RESPONSIBILITIES WILL INCLUDE:

• Support our major brand and manufacturer relationships:
• Draft communications, proposals, and briefing materials for the SVP of Partnerships ahead of manufacturer and major-brand conversations
• Handle day-to-day calls and email with manufacturer and brand partners, escalating to the SVP for key moments and pitches
• Track all open commitments and action items once terms are set and drive to closure
• Maintain current commercial, marketing, and compliance contacts across our brand and supplier base
• Own online marketplace brand representation:
• Own the relationship and performance-monitoring side of online marketplace brand representation, including brand registry programs
• Coordinate with Marketing Operations, who own on-site listing execution
• Administer co-op marketing programs:
• Own day-to-day co-op relationship management, including standing meeting cadence and partner responses
• Own recurring co-op reporting, coordinating with Marketing Operations on execution and Finance on fund acquisition and reconciliation
• Own minimum advertised price (MAP) compliance tracking:
• Manage the MAP violation process end-to-end: intake, triage, evidence capture, brand notification, resolution, and case closure
• Serve as the primary operational owner of our MAP violation workflow, keeping the case queue current and resolved within policy timelines
• Partner with the Data Team on detection logic, false-positive reduction, and reporting outputs
• Prepare recurring violation reporting for internal leadership and brand partners: volume by brand, repeat offenders, resolution rate, and case aging
• Maintain MAP process documentation and training materials; onboard new internal and cross-functional participants to the workflow

• Own the monthly MAP price update cycle:
• Manage intake of brand MAP files, validate against current published pricing, and identify exceptions before submission
• Work with the Data Team to load approved pricing changes, then reconcile post-load results and resolve discrepancies before the cycle closes
• Track brand-specific effective dates, promotional windows, and exclusions so updates land on time and in the correct sequence
• Surface pricing conflicts — policy versus cost, competitive position, or marketplace channel constraints — with a recommendation, not just an exception list
• Maintain a clean audit trail of what changed, when, on whose authority, and against which brand document
• Own monthly secondary supply pricing and cost updates:
• Collect and validate updated manufacturer cost files
• Process approved changes with the Data Team and reconcile results
• Investigate and explain cost variances; escalate unexplained movement to Partnerships leadership and Finance
• Maintain the monthly pricing and cost calendar so supplier deadlines, internal load windows, and downstream reporting dependencies are visible and met
• Produce a monthly cost movement summary by supplier and brand with margin implications called out for Finance review
• Own manufacturer-facing follow-up on missing, late, or malformed cost files

ATTRIBUTES TO SUCCESS:

• Tenacity and follow up
• Organization and extreme attention to detail — this role owns recurring cycles where a missed file or an unreconciled variance is visible to partners and to Finance
• Data-based decision making capabilities, and ability to present and defend your position to Senior Leaders and External Stakeholders
• Comfort operating as the operational owner behind a senior relationship holder — driving the work forward without owning the relationship
• Willingness to hold external partners accountable to pricing policy in a way that protects the relationship
• The ability to adjust your tone and approach to different people
• The ability to break down and articulate complex information in simple terms
• Proven success in building relationships and trust
• Escalates early rather than late
• Thrive in fast paced, startup culture with a high bar for performance
• Adaptability; processes and workflows may change as we look to improve both the customer experience and your experience as a member of the team