Seafood Manager Job 2026 at Jetro Restaurant Depot Needham MA
Jetro/Restaurant Depot is hiring a Seafood Manager in Needham, MA with hourly pay ranging from $19.50 to $20.15. This supervisory position oversees all seafood department operations including product management, staff supervision, customer service, and compliance with health and safety regulations.
What makes this opportunity interesting is managing an entire department in a wholesale food distribution environment serving restaurants and food service businesses. You’re not just stocking shelves but running a specialized operation requiring knowledge of seafood handling, perishable inventory management, and building relationships with professional customers who depend on quality products for their businesses.
Understanding the Seafood Manager Role
As Seafood Manager, you’re responsible for receiving product and ensuring aisles, freezers, and refrigerators are properly stocked, labeled, and clean. This involves checking incoming deliveries for quality and accuracy, organizing storage to maximize freshness and accessibility, and maintaining sanitation standards critical for seafood safety.
You’ll ensure proper customer service and work to develop relationships with large customers. In wholesale environments serving restaurants, these relationships matter enormously since chefs and food service managers need reliable suppliers who understand their specific needs and timing requirements.
Departmental Supervision
Supervising all activities in the Seafood Department includes product placement, rotation, signage, and displays. Proper rotation ensures older stock sells before expiration while strategic placement and attractive displays encourage sales of various products from fresh fish to frozen seafood.
You’re responsible for overall department appearance, cleanliness, and adherence to both government and corporate ordinances. Seafood departments face strict health regulations given the perishable nature and food safety risks, making compliance essential for legal operations and customer safety.
You must maintain records as required, including temperature logs, inventory tracking, waste documentation, and sanitation schedules that demonstrate compliance with food safety regulations and corporate standards.
Team Leadership and Management
In your role, you’ll oversee Assistant Seafood Managers if applicable, Seafood Supervisors if applicable, and Stockers to ensure the department operates according to company standards. This supervisory responsibility includes developing schedules, monitoring performance, and recommending appropriate discipline when necessary.
Training employees in job responsibilities and safe operating procedures ensures your team handles seafood properly, follows safety protocols, and provides good customer service. You’ll also interview candidates and recommend hires, building your team with capable people who can maintain departmental standards.
The Available Position
Jetro/Restaurant Depot is hiring one Seafood Manager for their Needham, MA location. This full-time supervisory position requires managing the entire seafood department operation in their wholesale food distribution warehouse.
Who Can Apply for This Position
The requirements balance educational credentials, professional experience, and significant physical capabilities essential for seafood department work.
Educational Requirements
A Bachelor’s degree, high school diploma, or GED qualifies educationally. The flexibility reflects that practical experience and customer service skills matter more than advanced education for retail food management. However, combining education with relevant experience strengthens candidacy.
Experience Requirements
At least four years of experience in customer service or any appropriate combination of education and experience is required. This substantial experience requirement suggests they want proven professionals who understand customer dynamics, can handle service challenges, and have developed the maturity necessary for supervisory roles.
While seafood experience isn’t explicitly required, background in food retail, grocery management, restaurant operations, or related food service provides relevant context for this role.
Physical Requirements
The position involves significant physical demands reflecting the nature of seafood department work. You must lift and carry 50 pounds regularly, with frequent lifting more than 12 times per hour and constant lifting of 20 pounds more than 30 times hourly. This reflects the reality of moving seafood cases, ice, supplies, and stock throughout shifts.
Physical aptitudes including agility, dynamic balance, finger dexterity, and manual dexterity at 80-119% levels mean you need good coordination, balance while moving, and fine motor skills for tasks like handling delicate seafood products or operating equipment safely.
Posture tolerance involves standing, bending, reaching, and working in cold environments (freezers and refrigerated areas) for extended periods. If you have back problems, joint issues, or cannot tolerate cold temperatures, this work will be physically challenging.
How to Apply for This Position
Applications go through Chattr’s recruitment platform.
Visit the Jetro/Restaurant Depot application page where you’ll find the complete job description and application system.
Review the full position details carefully, paying particular attention to physical requirements and supervisory responsibilities to ensure you’re comfortable with all aspects of the role.
Prepare your resume emphasizing customer service experience, any supervisory or management background, food retail or restaurant experience if applicable, and your ability to handle the physical demands of the position.
Highlight specific achievements in previous roles such as improving customer satisfaction, reducing waste, training successful team members, or meeting sales targets. Quantifiable accomplishments strengthen applications significantly.
If you have food safety certifications like ServSafe Manager or similar credentials, include these prominently as they demonstrate relevant knowledge for managing a seafood department.
Complete the online application through Chattr’s platform, ensuring all information is accurate and all required fields are completed.
In your application, emphasize your customer service orientation, understanding of food safety importance, physical capability for the demanding work, and interest in developing relationships with professional food service customers.
Important Details to Consider
The hourly pay of $19.50 to $20.15 equals approximately $40,560 to $41,912 annually for full-time work, which is moderate for supervisory retail positions. Your exact rate depends on your experience level and qualifications. For the Boston area, this wage requires careful budgeting given Massachusetts’ relatively high cost of living.
Working in seafood departments involves cold temperatures from refrigerated areas and freezers, seafood odors, wet floors, and fast-paced environments especially during peak delivery and customer hours. The work environment differs significantly from climate-controlled office settings.
Managing wholesale customers serving restaurants differs from typical retail customer service. Restaurant buyers and chefs have specific quality expectations, timing requirements, and product knowledge, requiring you to be knowledgeable and professional in ways that earn their continued business.
The physical demands are genuine and continuous throughout shifts. If you cannot comfortably lift 50 pounds repeatedly or work in cold environments for extended periods, this position will be extremely difficult regardless of your customer service or management skills.
Application Timeline
No specific deadline is mentioned, suggesting rolling applications until the position fills. Retail management positions often fill relatively quickly when strong candidates emerge, so applying promptly makes sense if you’re interested and qualified.
Additional Career Opportunities
While exploring this opportunity, check out other positions like courier independent contractor jobs if you’re interested in various career paths with different physical and operational requirements.
Common Questions About This Role
Do I need specific seafood knowledge or can I learn on the job?
Specific seafood expertise isn’t explicitly required, suggesting they’ll train the right candidate on product knowledge, handling procedures, and quality assessment. However, general food safety knowledge and retail management experience provide strong foundations for learning seafood specifics. During interviews, demonstrate willingness to learn about different seafood varieties, proper storage temperatures, rotation procedures, and quality indicators. If you have any seafood experience from restaurants, grocery stores, or personal interest in cooking seafood, mention it. The combination of strong customer service background, supervisory capabilities, and willingness to become a seafood expert makes you competitive even without current specialized knowledge.
What does managing wholesale customers in a restaurant supply environment involve?
Managing wholesale customers serving restaurants differs significantly from typical retail. Restaurant customers buy larger quantities, have specific quality standards, need reliable delivery timing for their business operations, often order the same products regularly, and develop long-term relationships with suppliers they trust. You’ll work with chefs, restaurant owners, and food service managers who are knowledgeable about seafood and have high expectations. Building these relationships involves understanding their specific needs, ensuring consistent quality, accommodating special requests when possible, and being their reliable seafood source. You become a business partner rather than just a vendor, which requires professionalism, product knowledge, and reliability that keeps restaurants choosing your department over competitors.
How physically demanding is this job really, and can someone without warehouse experience handle it?
The job is genuinely physically demanding with continuous lifting, carrying, standing, and working in cold environments throughout shifts. Lifting 50 pounds more than 12 times hourly isn’t occasional heavy lifting but constant physical work moving seafood cases, ice, supplies, and products. You’ll spend significant time in walk-in freezers and refrigerated areas, work on potentially wet or slippery floors, and remain standing most of the shift. People without warehouse or physical retail experience can succeed if they’re physically fit, but it requires honest assessment of your physical capabilities. If you’ve worked desk jobs or light retail, the adjustment will be significant. However, if you’re active, physically capable, and build stamina gradually, the work becomes manageable. The key is realistic expectations about the physical demands rather than discovering after hiring that your body can’t handle the continuous physical requirements.
Final Assessment
The Seafood Manager position at Jetro/Restaurant Depot offers solid supervisory opportunity for experienced customer service professionals comfortable with physically demanding retail food work. The hourly pay of $19.50 to $20.15 provides reasonable compensation for supervisory retail positions, though budgeting carefully in the Boston area is necessary.
The four-year customer service experience requirement combined with supervisory responsibilities makes this suitable for mid-level retail professionals ready for department management roles. The significant physical requirements mean only candidates truly capable of sustained physical work should apply.
If you have substantial customer service experience, supervisory capabilities or readiness, physical fitness for demanding work, comfort working in cold environments, and interest in wholesale food service, this position deserves consideration. Just ensure you honestly assess your physical capabilities against the stated requirements and understand the difference between typical retail and wholesale restaurant supply environments. Prepare strong application materials emphasizing your customer service achievements, leadership experience, and physical capability, then apply promptly to this opportunity for retail food management in the greater Boston area.
