Director of Digital Merchandising

About RYZE:

At RYZE, we believe daily rituals create the foundation for living your greatest life. Our mushroom coffee and superfood products fuel the body and clarify the mind—helping people everywhere unlock their highest potential. We’re a fast-growing, mission-driven team passionate about wellness, innovation, and building a brighter future together.

The Role:

We’re seeking a highly strategic and creative Director of Visual Merchandising & DTC Packaging Strategy + Production to define how RYZE shows up in the physical world—across retail environments, wholesale partners, experiential activations, and direct-to-consumer packaging.

In this role, you’ll architect the visual presentation strategy for RYZE and lead execution across merchandising systems, in-store marketing, and packaging design. You’ll serve as the bridge between brand vision and operational excellence—translating creative intent into scalable, high-impact brand experiences that drive conversion and deepen customer love.

This role requires a unique balance of creative direction, operational rigor, and strategic leadership, with deep experience in retail merchandising, packaging innovation, and cross-functional program management.

What You’ll Do

Strategy & Leadership

• Build and own RYZE’s visual merchandising and packaging vision, grounded in premium experience, operational scalability, and retail excellence.  
• Translate brand positioning into world-class retail merchandising frameworks, shopper journeys, and physical brand environments.  
• Develop a multi-year roadmap for in-store expansion, retail toolkit evolution, and packaging innovation.  
• Partner with Retail Marketing, Brand, Creative, Sales, Operations, and Executive Leadership to align physical brand strategy with business and revenue goals.  
• Establish KPI dashboards to measure velocity impact, execution quality, cost efficiency, sustainability performance, and ROI.

Retail Merchandising & Market Activation

• Develop visual merchandising standards and playbooks for national retail partners, including Target and future expansion accounts.  
• Oversee creation and production of in-store signage, endcaps, shippers, shelf trays, PDQs, and secondary placements.  
• Architect scalable field merchandising systems, from setup guidelines to execution auditing.  
• Support experiential activations and brand events, including physical builds and environmental storytelling.  
• Partner with Sales and Field Marketing teams to ensure compliance, audit quality, and installation excellence.  
• Conduct competitive and innovation audits to maintain a category-leading brand presence.

DTC & Omnichannel Packaging

• Own the end-to-end packaging strategy for RYZE’s DTC channel, including shipper boxes, inserts, storytelling cards, promotional kits, and sampling programs.  
• Improve unboxing experience, shareability, and cost per package while maintaining premium presentation standards.  
• Collaborate with Operations on structural design, sustainability, printing, and fulfillment optimization.  
• Build a packaging roadmap for innovation formats such as single-serve sachets, seasonal kits, and limited-edition releases.  
• Partner with Creative to ensure brand consistency and visual storytelling across packaging touchpoints.

Production & Program Management

• Lead vendor sourcing, negotiation, and management across printing, fabrication, packaging, and fulfillment partners.  
• Oversee budgets, timelines, prototypes, and production calendars, ensuring flawless execution.  
• Manage logistics planning for delivery windows, partner coordination, and installation timing.  
• Conduct post-mortem reviews to evaluate cost savings, efficiency gains, and creative performance.  
• Champion process improvements that balance innovation, speed, and scalability.

Team, Culture & Collaboration

• Build and manage a best-in-class vendor and agency ecosystem, with potential to scale an internal team over time.  
• Serve as the bridge between creative vision and operational execution, ensuring speed, quality, and alignment.  
• Partner with Legal and Procurement on contracts, compliance, and supplier standards.  
• Foster a collaborative culture of creative ambition and operational excellence.

What We’re Looking For

• 7+ years of experience in merchandising, packaging strategy, or brand production leadership within CPG, retail, beauty, wellness, or lifestyle brands.  
• Proven success launching national retail visual programs (Target, Whole Foods, Costco, Walmart, Sprouts, Erewhon, etc.).  
• Strong portfolio showcasing packaging and merchandising systems that scale across retail and DTC channels.  
• Deep knowledge of vendor management, print production, materials, sustainability, and cost optimization.  
• Experience building retail playbooks, shopper journeys, and in-store execution systems.  
• Strong project management, budgeting, and negotiation skills.  
• Highly cross-functional, with demonstrated ability to collaborate across Creative, Sales, Operations, and Brand teams.  
• Data-driven mindset and experience creating reporting dashboards and KPIs to measure success.  
• Excellent communication, leadership, and presentation skills.

Success Measures

• Consistent, best-in-class shelf presentation across all retail partners.  
• Measurable lift in retail velocity, brand visibility, and in-store conversion.  
• Enhanced unboxing and packaging experience driving customer retention, loyalty, and UGC.  
• Sustainable, cost-efficient production systems that scale with brand growth.  
• A cohesive, premium physical brand experience that reinforces RYZE’s market-leading positioning.

What We Offer:

• Performance bonus eligibility  
• Equity opportunity as the company scales  
• Benefits: health, dental, vision, 401(k) with match, flexible PTO  
• A fully remote work environment and the opportunity to shape how RYZE comes to life across retail and physical brand experiences