Founding Operations Manager Full Time

About Orka: Orka makes highly caffeinated water or ‘energy water’— a clean, great-tasting replacement for energy drinks and coffee. Seed-funded, growing fast, and hiring the early team that will scale the brand.

The Role

We’re hiring our first operational hire to run the day-to-day of the business alongside the founders. You’ll own the operational backbone: supply chain, production runs, inventory, freight, vendor relationships, accounting workflows, and the systems we need to scale from where we are now to many multiples of that. This is hands-on, in-the-weeds work.

There is no existing playbook. You’ll build the processes, then rebuild them when we outgrow them six months later. The scope is wide and the pace is fast.

What You’ll Do

• Manage production runs end to end: coordinating with our co-manufacturer, scheduling, ordering and tracking ingredients, tracking yields, and flagging issues before they hit inventory
• Oversee inventory management: stock levels across raw materials and finished goods, reorder points, safety stock, SKU tracking, and minimizing stockouts and overstocks
• Coordinate freight and logistics: inbound raw materials, outbound shipments to 3PLs and retailers, carrier selection, rate negotiation, and resolving delivery issues
• Own supply chain: raw materials, supplier relationships, lead times, and 3PL coordination
• Manage vendor relationships across the board: co-mans, suppliers, freight brokers, 3PLs, agencies — negotiating, managing, and holding them accountable
• Run the accounting workflow day-to-day: AP/AR, invoicing, expense tracking, and coordinating with our bookkeeper and CPA
• Build the operational systems and SOPs that let us scale — inventory tracking, production planning, vendor onboarding
• Track operational KPIs
• Support retail and DTC operations as we expand distribution

What We’re Looking For

• Based in Los Angeles, willing to work in person
• A strong work ethic — you’re motivated by building something real, not by 9-to-5 comfort
• High agency: you see a problem, you fix it, you don’t wait to be told
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Resourceful — you’d rather Google or ask Claude than wait to be told how to do something
• Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change
• Genuinely interested in business and operations

Bonus Points

• Internship or work experience in operations, consulting, finance, or at a startup. Any experience in CPG
• You ran something in college (a club, a team, a side hustle, an event)

What We Offer

• Meaningful equity in a company you’re helping build
• Outsized responsibility and real ownership from day one
• A career trajectory that compresses 5 years of learning into 1

How to Apply Send a resume and a short note (3–5 sentences) on why this role, why us, and one thing you’ve built or run that you’re proud of. Bonus for a 60-second Loom intro. Email: hello@orkabeveragecompany.com