Social Media Manager

Job Description

Our first store opened on January 2nd, 1980 in Anaheim, CA and since then we have grown to over 50 stores in four counties: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Riverside. We offer our customers a full-service supermarket with a large meat department, bakery, tortilleria and prepared foods in addition to a sizeable section of domestic and imported Latin American grocery goods to provide a Mexican homeland experience. We are always looking for great people to join as a member of the Northgate Family. We look for enthusiastic people with the potential and desire to grow with us. We strive to create a great work environment that is positive and fun; where people have meaningful work, where individuals have a sense of belonging and feel appreciated, valued and secure. If you are passionate about food, are customer focused, team oriented, and want to be a part of our family, we invite you to apply! We offer opportunities for growth, 10% discount for you and one other family member in your household for most purchases made at Northgate and flexible schedules. To learn more, please visit www.northgatemarket.com.

JOB SUMMARY:

The Social Media Manager owns Northgate's always-on social presence-the day-to-day content, community management, and channel growth that keep the brand culturally relevant between campaigns. This role is being rebuilt from the ground up following a team transition, with a clear focus on growing and evolving Northgate's social channels while partnering closely with Brand, Digital, and agency teams.

This is a hands-on role that blends strategy, creativity, and execution. The Social Media Manager is responsible for planning and publishing the content calendar, developing social-first content ideas, capturing and editing content, managing the community, coordinating influencer initiatives, and collaborating with agency partners to bring campaigns to life. The Director of Brand Marketing sets the overall brand and platform strategy, while this role is responsible for translating that vision into engaging, culturally relevant content that performs across all social platforms.

The ideal candidate is equal parts strategist, creator, and community builder-someone who understands how the bicultural Latino/a audience engages on social and knows how to create content that earns attention. This person brings ideas to the table, produces compelling social-first content, collaborates with agency partners to shape creative, manages influencer relationships, analyzes performance, and continuously identifies opportunities to grow the brand's presence through trends, innovation, and best practices.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Own and manage the always-on social content calendar across all Northgate & Mercado social channels, aligned to the brand's campaign calendar and cultural moments relevant to the audience.
• Develop social-first content strategies, concepts, and content calendars that support brand campaigns, business priorities, and always-on storytelling.
• Capture, create, edit, and publish engaging photo and video content optimized for each social platform, balancing professionally produced assets with quick-turn, real-time content.
• Partner closely with the Brand team and agency partners to develop social strategies, creative concepts, influencer campaigns, and platform-specific content that aligns with brand objectives and current social trends.
• Manage day-to-day community engagement by responding to comments and messages, monitoring sentiment, and escalating issues requiring brand or PR judgment.
• Coordinate content capture at stores, events, community activations, and campaign shoots to ensure a continuous pipeline of authentic social content.
• Manage creator and influencer relationships, including outreach, briefing, scheduling, approvals, content collection, and campaign execution within established strategy and budgets.
• Review agency creative and provide feedback to ensure all content reflects platform best practices, social trends, and Northgate's brand voice.
• Track social performance, including engagement, reach, audience growth, video performance, and content effectiveness, translating insights into recommendations for future content and campaigns.
• Stay ahead of platform updates, emerging trends, creator best practices, and new content formats, proactively bringing recommendations to the Brand team.
• Coordinate with the Digital & Data Manager to integrate social insights into broader marketing analytics and reporting.
• Partner with Brand Managers to ensure social content remains visually and tonally consistent across Northgate & Mercado.
• Support crisis communications and reactive social moments by escalating issues quickly and following established response protocols.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS AND CONDITIONS:

Education / Experience / Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Digital Media, or related field preferred.
• 4+ years of experience managing social media for a consumer-facing brand, retailer, restaurant, or agency.
• Demonstrated success growing engaged social communities and executing high-performing content strategies.
• Experience developing social-first content ideas and translating brand campaigns into engaging platform-specific content.
• Experience coordinating influencer and creator partnerships from planning through execution.
• Strong understanding of social media analytics and the ability to turn performance data into actionable recommendations.
• Proficiency with content creation and editing tools, including Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Lightroom, CapCut, Canva, or similar software.
• Experience shooting and editing high-quality photo and video content using both mobile devices and professional equipment.
• Strong understanding of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube Shorts, and emerging social platforms, including best practices and platform algorithms.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with external creative, social, PR, and media agencies while providing constructive creative feedback.
• Excellent project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Bilingual in English and Spanish (written and verbal).
• Genuine cultural fluency with the bicultural Latino/a consumer and an understanding of culturally relevant storytelling

Salary Range: $95,316 to $121,528

CAREER PATH AND GROWTH:

This is a foundational hire for a function being rebuilt intentionally. The first 90 days are about establishing a strong content cadence, re-engaging the community, and proving out the always-on calendar.

As the channel grows in scope and performance, there is a clear path to Senior Social Media Manager, with the potential to build out a small content or community support team as the brands social footprint expands.

Physical Demands and Conditions

The physical demands described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Some requirements may be modified to accommodate individuals with disabilities:

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; stand; and use the hands to handle, finger, or feel objects, tools or controls;
• The employee must frequently walk, talk or hear, and reach with the hands and arms; occasionally, the employee must crouch or kneel;
• The employee must occasionally exert or lift up to 25 pounds carrying boxes of records and forms and frequently exert or lift moderate amounts of weight;
• Successful performance requires specific vision abilities that include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.
• This role requires the ability to travel regularly to store locations, external events, agency offices and partner venues.
• The work environment is that typical of an office and retail store. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER NOTICE

The job duties, elements, responsibilities, skills, functions, experience, educational factors, and the requirements and conditions listed in this job description are representative only and not exhaustive of the tasks that an employee may be required to perform. The Employer reserves the right to revise this job description at any time and to require employees to perform other tasks as circumstances or conditions of its business or the work environment change.

Northgate Markets is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Your Right to Work - In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.

Northgate Markets will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (Ban the Box Law).

Equal Opportunity Employer

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.