Reach Out & Read National Books Operations Manager

The Opportunity

Reach Out and Read (ROR) seeks a detail-oriented, organized problem-solver to join the National Books Team as a National Books Operations Manager. In this role, you will own the full-cycle book order management process—from placement through delivery and reconciliation—that keeps books flowing to our 6,500 clinic sites and reaching 4.6 million children annually.

This is not a books editorial role. You won't select titles, work with literary agents, or curate collections. Instead, you'll be the backbone of our operations, managing a large number of orders per month (with seasonal peaks reaching higher volumes), tracking shipments, reconciling invoices, and coordinating with our vendor operations teams to ensure everything stays on schedule and in balance. You'll work primarily with vendors' accounts payable and operations staff—the people managing logistics, not literature.

If you excel at managing complex data systems, have a strong eye for accuracy, think systematically through operational challenges, and are motivated by contributing to a mission-driven organization, this role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact.

Your Key Responsibilities Will Include:

• Book Ordering Processing & Management (75%): You will be the operational engine of our book ordering system:
• Place and process book orders on approved vendor websites for Reach Out and Read National programs, affiliate sites receiving National funding, and new geography affiliates—following detailed direction from your manager.
• Own the full order-to-delivery cycle: Monitor vendor order confirmations, track shipments from warehouse to destination, pull delivery/tracking information from vendor emails, and forward that information to clinic sites on time so they know when books are arriving.
• Manage high volume efficiently: Handle fluctuating order volumes across seasons while maintaining regular coordination with vendors and internal stakeholders via email and direct communication.
• Monitor inventory and vendor relationships: Ensure vendor inventory is sufficient to cover planned orders; flag shortages and coordinate with vendors as needed. Be prepared to attend vendor meetings as a key member of the Books Team.
• Manage the Books Team email account: Monitor for vendor communications, shipping notifications, and delivery confirmations; distribute information to the right people so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Support grant-funded orders: When directed by your manager, coordinate book orders tied to specific grant deliverables, ensuring quantities and timing align with grant requirements.
• Invoice Reconciliation & Administration (25%): You will keep our financial records accurate and complete:
• Reconcile invoices monthly: Pull incoming invoices from the books team email, match them against purchase orders in our master Excel sheet, and ensure every dollar is accounted for.
• Flag and investigate variances: When invoices don't match orders or quantities don't align, investigate, report findings to stakeholders, and follow up with order requestors to resolve discrepancies and ensure grant deliverables are met.
• Maintain accurate records: Update and manage our year-to-date master Excel sheet with all book orders and purchase orders, ensuring data integrity and easy reference.
• Post monthly reports to finance: Compile reconciliation totals and submit to the finance department so leadership has visibility into spending and commitments.
• Support continuous improvement: Assist in implementing, updating, and creating book processing documentation; look for opportunities to streamline workflows within the Books Team.
• Support additional projects and activities as requested by the National Senior Director of Books Strategy and Partnerships.

Qualifications and Experience:

There are innumerable ways to learn, grow and excel professionally. We respect this when we review applications and take a broad look at the experience of each applicant. We want to get to know you and the unique strengths you will bring to work. We’ll honor your lived and professional experience as key aspects of your candidacy for the role and prioritize applicants with experience dismantling the structural inequities that disproportionately impact children and families with traditionally marginalized identities. We are most likely to be interested in your candidacy if you can demonstrate the majority of the qualifications and experiences listed below

• At least 3 years of order processing, procurement, or purchasing experience in any industry (books/publishing, warehouse, or supply chain backgrounds preferred but not required)
• Advanced MS Excel proficiency--formulas, functions, VLOOKUP, pivot tables, data tables; comfortable inheriting and troubleshooting complex existing spreadsheets
• Meticulous attention to detail with a natural drive to spot errors and make numbers match; questions discrepancies until resolved
• Solution-oriented, proactive mindset where you see problems and immediately think through solutions
• Strong communication skills (written and verbal) to coordinate clearly with vendors, internal colleagues, affiliate staff, and leadership
• Logical thinker who can analyze problems, communicate findings, and propose options
• Positive attitude and can-do energy where you bring optimism to fast-paced, high-volume work and adapt flexibly when priorities shift
• Comfortable being the sole person managing this function, owning your work, and independently problem-solving with minimal oversight
• Commitment to Reach Out and Read's mission of serving children from marginalized backgrounds; ability to work collaboratively in a creative, mission-driven environment
• Experience with vendor management, invoice reconciliation, or similar back-office operations is a plus

Position Specifications:

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), fully remote, exempt position. The role requires occasional travel for team retreats and for one to two national meetings each year. Some overnight travel will be necessary to accommodate these events.

Compensation and Benefits:

The salary range for this position is $68,000-73,000, commensurate with experience. Reach Out and Read offers a robust benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) retirement plan with match, paid time off, and more.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit their applications through our online portal. The interview process will include a preliminary questionnaire followed by a hiring manager interview with the National Senior Director of Books Strategy and Partnerships in January. Advancing candidates will have a virtual final interview with other members of the Reach Out and Read team. The anticipated start date for this role is late February/early March 2026.

Commitment to Diversity:

Reach Out and Read is committed to building an organization that embraces diversity, pursues equity, and fosters an environment of inclusion. Reach Out and Read sits at the intersection of health and education, uniquely positioned to play a critical role in addressing systemic disparities and inequities in the public health framework. Reach Out and Read strives to be an antiracist organization, using its influence to fight against social injustice by supporting a culture of learning, empowerment, equity, and a deep appreciation for the unique experiences that we each bring to our communities. And, we believe that changing the world begins with holding ourselves and our workplace to that same standard.

About Reach Out and Read:

Reach Out and Read gives young children a foundation for success and reaches 4.6 million children across the country – half of whom identify as BIPOC and two thirds of whom come from low-income families. The nonprofit recently set a strategic goal to double its impact by 2030, to serve 10 million young children — 50 percent of all U.S. children from birth to 5.

In deep partnership with a network of clinicians, Reach Out and Read leverages the near-universal reach of the pediatric well-child visit. It uses children’s books and shared reading to support parents and caregivers in strengthening healthy relationships with their infants and young children from birth through 5 years old.

Reach Out and Read works directly with pediatric care providers to share the lifelong benefits of parents reading aloud with their children daily. Nurturing, language-rich interactions like shared reading give young children a foundation for success — building early language and literacy skills; teaching curiosity, patience, and empathy; and creating deep bonds between parents and their children. By integrating our evidence-based model into pediatric care and providing the tools and encouragement families need to read aloud together, we can transform pediatric care practices, foster healthy families and communities, and give children of all backgrounds and means a better start to life.

The Impact:

• Reach Out and Read program sites are located in 6,500 clinics, safety net hospitals, medical systems, and other healthcare settings in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
• Reach Out and Read serves 4.6 million children and their families annually.
• More than 7.7 million new, developmentally appropriate books are integrated into well-child visits with families annually.
• 39,000 clinicians currently participate in Reach Out and Read
• Our peer-reviewed body of evidence demonstrates that Reach Out and Read parents are two-and-a-half times more likely to read regularly to their children, and that children experiencing Reach Out and Read show enhanced language development.

To learn more about Reach Out and Read, visit www.reachoutandread.org.

Reach Out and Read is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Reach Out and Read is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, cultural heritage, ancestry, political belief, age, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability or veteran status. Reach Out and Read is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and we are committed to making special accommodations for your interview or work as a member of our team. If specific accommodations are needed, please email HR @ reachoutandread.org and our HR team will work to accommodate your needs.