Fresh Merchandising Produce Training Lead

Join our team as a Produce Training Lead and help shape the future of freshness at Coborn's. In this role, you'll play a key part in supporting our stores by inspiring and developing the leaders who keep our produce departments thriving. You'll work side-by-side with the Director of Operations, Store Directors, and Training Store Department Managers to bring our produce vision to life through hands-on coaching, engaging training, and strong operational support.

You'll guide leaders on everything from merchandising standards and seasonal programs to food safety, rotation, and creating the vibrant displays our guests love. You'll also help build and certify the Training Store Department Managers who mentor new leaders across the company, ensuring every training store reflects the best of Coborn's: fresh product, friendly service, and a consistent guest experience.

As a field-based extension of our Support Center, you'll help translate company strategies into day-to-day success in our stores. Your ability to collaborate, communicate, and lead through influence will help strengthen produce operations, improve readiness, and support our teams in delivering the remarkable shopping experience our guests count on.

If you're passionate about fresh food, love developing people, and enjoy making an impact across multiple locations, this role is a great fit for you. Apply today and help us grow something amazing - we think you'll be a pretty big dill.

Additional Duties Include:

Operations Partnership & Influence:

• Build strong, trust-based relationships with Directors of Operations and Store Directors to drive execution, training, and readiness priorities for the assigned category.
• Influence leaders to prioritize compliance, freshness, and merchandising standards without direct supervisory authority.
• Serve as the primary field liaison between Support Center Merchandising and Operations leadership - clarifying expectations, facilitating communication, and ensuring consistent understanding of Fresh program objectives.
• Present performance insights, field trends, and improvement recommendations to Operations leadership to shape priorities and action plans.

Program Education & Leadership Alignment:

• Educate Operations and Store leadership on new Fresh merchandising programs, initiatives, and standards.
• Conduct regional and district-level briefings to ensure alignment on program intent, timelines, and expectations.
• Partner with Operations to reinforce leadership capability to coach and assess store teams on execution performance.

Field Training Delivery & Oversight:

• Train and coach Store Directors and Training Store Department Managers to deliver high-quality, standardized training for department managers and teams on merchandising standards, presentation, and food safety practices.
• Conduct periodic audits to verify merchandising quality, compliance, and readiness.
• Partner with Directors of Operations to maintain qualified Training Stores that exemplify operational excellence.
• Ensure the Training Store network remains aligned with current merchandising standards and operational expectations.

Operational Readiness & Continuous Support:

• Monitor operational consistency across assigned department and partner with Operations leaders to resolve recurring performance or compliance gaps.
• Provide proactive coaching to maintain execution readiness - ensuring daily adherence to rotation, presentation, and food safety standards.
• Deliver practical, actionable insights from the field to the Operations Lead and Operations Manager to improve tools, processes, and training content.

Food Safety & Fresh Standards Reinforcement:

• Reinforce food safety, sanitation, and freshness practices through training and coaching.
• Partner with Store Directors and Operations to ensure standards are sustained daily in the field.
• Support corrective actions and ensure accountability for improvement when gaps are identified.

Collaboration & Training Content Alignment:

• Partner with the Fresh Merchandising Operations Manager and Leads to ensure training materials accurately reflect execution playbooks and operational requirements.
• Provide data-driven and field feedback to the Fresh Merchandising Operations and Training teams on training effectiveness and field challenges to improve content clarity, visuals, and communication tools.
• Identify trends in training gaps and recommend updates to processes or resources.

What's In It For Me?

Our remarkable employees are at the heart of everything we do. At Coborn's, we're committed to creating a supportive and rewarding workplace-one that offers a vibrant, team-oriented environment, ongoing career growth, and meaningful benefits. As an employee-owned company, we believe in investing in our people and their futures.

We're proud to offer a variety of benefits to both our full-time and part-time employees, including:

• 10% employee discount on grocery items, with additional franchise-specific discounts available at company owned Ace Hardware, Caribou Coffee, Erbert and Gerbert's, and Pet Supplies Plus locations.
• Get Paid Daily with DailyPay - for employees who would like access to their pay before payday, we offer this great benefit!
• Paid Time Off (PTO/Vacation)
• Paid Floating Holidays & time and a half (1 ) paid for hours worked on a company-recognized holiday!
• Sunday Premium Pay - an extra $1 per hour for hours worked on Sundays (some exclusions apply)
• Paid Military Leave
• Employee recognition programs with monetary rewards including in-store vouchers, years of service, and employee of the month
• Employee Health & Wellness Programs, Challenges and Resources - to assist our team members in living a life of wellbeing!
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) - unlimited phone access to legal, financial, and work-life services and up to five free in-person counseling sessions, per situation/issue, per year
• Access to a national discount marketplace for travel, electronics, auto/home insurance , entertainment and more!
• Tools, resources and opportunities for career growth and development
• 401(k) plan options - we also match up to 20% of the first 5% contributed
• Participation in our Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) - yes, we're employee-owned! Our team members benefit from the success of the company through this company-sponsored benefit!
• Education benefits including tuition discount and scholarship programs
• Additional Voluntary Benefits - such as vision, accident and critical illness insurances

If you're hired or promoted into a full-time position with our company, you will also be eligible for: Medical & Dental Insurance, Health Savings Account (HSA), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Tuition Reimbursement, Adoption Reimbursement, Paid Family Caregiver Leave, as well as company-sponsored Term Life Insurance, Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance, and Short-Term & Long-Term Disability Insurance!

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Merchandising, Education or related field preferred.
• Certification or coursework in Adult Learning, Instructional Design, or Food Safety preferred.
• 3-5 years of experience in grocery retail operations, merchandising, or store management within Fresh departments (Produce, Meat, Deli, Bakery, Floral).
• Proven success delivering in-person and virtual training or coaching in a retail environment.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with and influence Operations leadership to drive consistency and accountability.

Are you friendly, dependable, and passionate about working with people? At Coborn's, Inc., we love serving our guests, supporting our communities, and helping our team members grow their careers. If you're looking for a place where you can build a future while making a positive impact every day, we'd love to talk to you about joining our team!

Coborn's, Inc. is a fast-growing, employee-owned grocery retailer proudly serving communities across the Midwest. Our family of grocery stores includes Coborn's, Cash Wise Foods, Marketplace Foods, Hornbacher's, Tadych's Marketplace Foods, Sullivan's Foods, and Kessler's. We offer our guests an elevated shopping experience-both in-store and online-focused on freshness, value, and convenience. Guided by our company vision to inspire happiness, healthy living, and simplicity, this principle has fueled our growth for more than 100 years and is at the heart of everything we do.

Coborn's, Inc. also owns and operates liquor stores under the Coborn's Liquor, Cash Wise Liquor, Andy's Liquor, and Captain Jack's brands. In addition, we operate fuel kiosks and convenience store locations under the Little Dukes and Coborn's Express names. Many of our grocery stores also feature full-service pharmacies to support the health and wellness of our guests. We manage a variety of other retail businesses in markets where the fit is right, including Ace Hardware, Country Floral Gifts & Greenhouse, Caribou Coffee, Dunn Brothers Coffee, Erbert and Gerbert's, Godfather's Pizza, and Pet Supplies Plus. To support our diverse retail operations, we operate our own central bakery, fresh foods commissary, and grocery warehouse and distribution center.