[Hiring] Head of Brand Launches @AJMedia

Role Description

The Brand Launch Manager is a high-ownership, execution-focused role responsible for taking AJ Media's consumer brands from zero to fully operational. This person consolidates responsibilities around:

• Administrative and merchant setup work
• Website QA and launch coordination
• Brand portfolio risk monitoring

The goal is a single accountable owner who can run brand launches end-to-end. The ideal person for this role is an exceptionally detail-oriented project manager with eCommerce experience — someone with a high sense of common sense, strong administrative instincts, and the ability to manage many moving parts simultaneously without dropping anything.

What You'll Own

1 — Brand Administration & Merchant Setup

• This is the most operationally critical pillar. Errors here can permanently damage a brand entity's relationship with payment processors. Precision is non-negotiable.
• Purchase domains and create all brand-level email addresses (support, owner/signer) and phone numbers via AirCall.
• Prepare and submit merchant account applications to payment processors — ensuring all documents are correct on the first attempt.
• Act as the central coordinator between internal teams and our vendors, ensuring all required documentation is gathered, signed, and submitted on time.
• Prepare and maintain the brand setup and compliance checklist — ticking off every requirement before any application is submitted.
• Create helpdesk/ticketing infrastructure for each new brand (Gorgias or equivalent): categories, auto-responses, escalation rules.
• Coordinate 3PL agreements and returns documentation in partnership with the Supply Chain Manager — you are responsible for the paperwork, not the relationship.

2 — Shopify/Legal for Compliance Site Build, QA & Launch Coordination

• You are the project manager of every site launch — not the developer. You will work with our developers and the existing graphic designer to ensure every brand site goes live on time and looks legitimate.
• Coordinate and oversee Shopify/Legal store setup: theme configuration, product listings, pricing, collections, and checkout configuration.
• Brief and manage resources; clearly communicate what needs to be built and hold developers accountable to deadlines.
• Ensure all platform integrations are connected and tested pre-launch: payment gateways, email/SMS (Klaviyo), review apps, analytics, and fulfillment.
• Own pre-launch QA end-to-end using a structured checklist — checkout flows, order confirmation triggers, mobile performance, fulfillment webhooks, pixel/analytics firing.
• Coordinate go-live across all parties; nothing goes live without your sign-off.
• Build and maintain launch SOPs that make each subsequent brand launch faster and more reliable than the last.

3 — Brand Portfolio Risk Monitoring

• Maintain and uphold the current risk framework and built. Your job is to read it, monitor it, and flag anything that needs action.
• Monitor brand portfolio health on a regular basis.
• Flag brands that are over-concentrated in volume or approaching risk thresholds.
• Recommend when a brand should be retired and replaced, based on defined criteria in the framework.
• Act as the portfolio 'load balancer' — working with the Production Manager to decide which brand new products should launch under based on current volume and capacity.
• Contribute to ongoing brand diversification — ensuring AJ Media is never over-concentrated in a single brand entity.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of experience in project management, or eCommerce operations — with direct accountability for getting things done.
• Demonstrated obsession with detail and accuracy — you are the person who catches what others miss, and you have specific examples to prove it.
• Intermediate Shopify experience — you understand the platform well enough to brief a developer, troubleshoot basic issues, and know when something needs to go to CheckoutChamp (knowledge on CheckoutChamp is a nice to have).
• Experience submitting business applications or documentation with external parties (merchant accounts, payment processors, compliance documents, or similar).
• Strong organisational systems — you build your own checklists, trackers, and SOPs without being asked.
• Comfort working with numbers at an analytical level — reading dashboards, monitoring spreadsheets, flagging threshold breaches.
• Excellent written communication for coordinating with vendors, IBO reps, developers, and internal team members.
• Fully remote and self-directed — no hand-holding after transition.

Preferred

• Background as an eCommerce Project Manager — this is the closest archetype to this role.
• Experience working with multiple brands or entities simultaneously.
• Understanding of payment processor requirements, chargebacks, and merchant account health.
• Basic eye for design — you know what a legitimate, professional DTC store looks like and can give clear direction.
• Familiarity with tools in our stack: Shopify, CheckoutChamp, Klaviyo, Gorgias, AirCall.

Benefits

• Direct ownership — you run it, you own it, you see the results.
• High-leverage role — a key bottleneck to AJ Media's growth is the speed and reliability of brand launches. You remove that bottleneck.
• No red tape — decisions move fast, execution is what matters.
• Shared resources available from day one (developer, graphic designer).
• Path to building your own small team as the portfolio scales.
• Remote-first, results-driven culture — flexible work, high accountability.
• Competitive Salary, Paid leaves, HMO, and allowances.
• Performance incentives tied to the successful launches you made.