Program Manager II, Automation & Vendor Ops, OTS-GSP-TOPS

Technical Operations & Partner Services (TOPS) supports 549 Whole Foods Market stores through 12+ technology vendor partners, managing thousands of service operations monthly. Much of this work is still manual - and that"s where you come in.

As Program Manager for Automation & Vendor Operations, you"ll own the strategy and delivery of automation solutions that eliminate manual touchpoints across vendor management and service delivery. Starting with ServiceNow workflow optimization, you"ll design automated ticket routing, SLA monitoring, escalation triggers, and reporting pipelines - then expand into AI-enabled operations like anomaly detection and predictive escalation. You"ll partner closely with Service Delivery and Vendor Programs to free Program Managers from operational mechanics so they can focus on strategic vendor accountability.

This is a build-from-scratch opportunity with high visibility to leadership and a direct line to vendor operations impact across the network.

Key job responsibilities

• Own the TOPS Automation Roadmap - maintain a prioritized backlog of automation opportunities ranked by effort vs. impact, and deliver against it
• Map current-state ServiceNow workflows (ticket routing, SLA management, escalation paths, vendor dispatch) and design automated replacements
• Build automated SLA monitoring and escalation triggers that alert Program Managers to at-risk tickets before breach
• Develop automated reporting pipelines that pull ServiceNow data into standardized weekly/monthly outputs without manual intervention
• Extend AI-assisted analysis into vendor management workflows - anomaly detection, predictive escalation, and ticket pattern analysis
• Explore and pilot generative AI applications for vendor communications, QBR preparation, and performance narrative generation
• Define success metrics for each automation initiative (hours saved, error reduction, speed improvement) and track delivery against targets
• Document manual processes with sufficient detail to enable automation design - process maps, decision trees, exception handling
• Build solutions that are maintainable by the TOPS team, not dependent on specialized engineering support
• Coordinate with Vendor Performance Analyst to ensure automated data collection feeds the analytics layer accurately
• Communicate automation progress and ROI to leadership through monthly updates and quarterly business reviews

A day in the life

Your morning starts reviewing the automated overnight SLA monitoring report - three vendors flagged for resolution time drift. The system sent vendor notifications and escalated to the assigned PM. You check the automation dashboard for support process audit confidence and by Mid-morning, you"re in a working session with the ServiceNow platform team, configuring a new Flow Designer workflow that will auto-generate weekly vendor compliance summaries - eliminating 4 hours of manual PM work per week. After lunch, you partner with the Vendor Performance Analyst to validate that your automated data feeds are populating the scorecard accurately. You close the day updating the automation roadmap: the QBR auto-preparation pilot showed promising results, and you"re drafting the business case to scale it across all 7 vendor programs. Every automation you ship gives a PM back hours they can invest in holding vendors accountable rather than chasing data.

About the team

TOPS is the team that keeps technology running across 549 Whole Foods Market stores - managing 12+ vendor partners and driving accountability through data, not assumptions. Our core tenets say it best: we deep dive with data until it reveals clear insights, we"re steamrollers with smiles, and we win as one team. This is a builder"s environment - we"re actively transforming reactive vendor management into a proactive, predictive operation. If you want ownership from Day 1, high visibility to leadership, and a team that has a little fun while delivering results, you"ll fit right in.