Director of Distribution Operations

Position Summary

The Director, Distribution Center Operations provides strategic and operational leadership for all distribution center activities, including receiving, storage, inventory control, order fulfillment, shipping, transportation coordination, quality, safety, security, and facility operations.

As the site leader, this position is accountable for transforming the distribution center’s operating capabilities to support significant planned growth in annual product flow. The Director establishes the site operating strategy, builds organizational capability, improves service and productivity, and ensures the distribution center can scale safely, reliably, and cost-effectively while meeting evolving customer and business requirements.

The Director leads an organization of approximately 200 employees through 8 direct reports across 2 shifts in a 600,000-square-foot distribution facility.

Key Responsibilities

Distribution Center Strategy and Capacity Growth

•        Develop and execute the distribution center operating strategy required to support business growth through 2030.

•        Translate demand forecasts, customer requirements, product complexity, and service expectations into capacity, labor, technology, facility, and capital plans.

•        Lead long-range planning for throughput expansion, storage utilization, material flow, automation, equipment, systems, and organizational capability.

•        Identify operational constraints and ensure actions are implemented before they affect customer service, cost, or growth.

•        Provide clear business requirements and recommendations for capital investment, facility changes, automation, and technology implementation.

Operational Leadership and Customer Execution

•        Direct receiving, storage, inventory control, order fulfillment, shipping, transportation coordination, and related distribution activities across multiple shifts.

•        Provide direct leadership for distribution center and Postponement operations, ensuring production scheduling, material availability, quality, productivity, and customer requirements are coordinated with site priorities and executed with clear accountability.

•        Establish clear performance expectations, operating standards, decision rights, escalation paths, and accountability across the organization.

•        Ensure customer orders are processed accurately, completely, and within required service timelines.

•        Balance labor, equipment, space, and resources across operating areas based on demand, backlog, staffing, and service priorities.

•        Lead recovery planning and execution when operational performance, customer service, or shipment commitments are at risk.

•        Accountability for carrier performance, trailer availability and turn time, detention, freight claims, and transportation-cost performance.

Performance Management and Operating Discipline

•        Establish daily, weekly, and monthly operating routines supported by clear targets, visual controls, ownership, and timely escalation of missed results.

•        Monitor service, throughput, backlog, labor productivity, order-cycle time, inventory and order accuracy, quality, safety, and cost performance.

•        Use operational data to identify trends, prioritize actions, determine root causes, and verify corrective-action effectiveness.

•        Maintain standard work and consistent execution across shifts, departments, and leadership teams.

•        Communicate site performance, risks, recovery plans, capacity constraints, resource needs, and business impacts to senior leadership.

Operational Excellence and Transformation

•        Build and sustain a continuous-improvement operating system that improves throughput, process stability, labor productivity, inventory accuracy, space utilization, quality, and cost.

•        Apply Company Production System and Lean methods, including value-stream mapping, standard work, visual management, 6S, PDCA, point-CIP, 8D, and structured root-cause analysis.

•        Sponsor complex improvement initiatives involving process redesign, automation, digital tools, warehouse systems, equipment, or organizational change.

•        Ensure improvements are incorporated into procedures, training, controls, and leader routines so that results are sustained.

•        Validate that operational and technology investments deliver the expected service, capacity, productivity, and financial benefits.

•        Ensure warehouse systems, AutoStore, equipment, and supporting technology are effectively governed, maintained, utilized, and improved to support reliable operations.

•        Ownership of the transformation roadmap, milestones, risks, resources, benefit realization, and executive steering updates.

People and Organizational Leadership

•        Build a capable, accountable, and engaged organization able to support current requirements and future growth.

•        Select, develop, coach, and retain managers, supervisors, specialists, and hourly associates.

•        Establish clear goals, decision rights, leadership routines, succession plans, development priorities, and performance expectations.

•        Strengthen leadership capability in operational management, problem solving, safety, quality, customer focus, and change leadership.

•        Create an inclusive environment that supports engagement, collaboration, retention, open communication, and timely issue resolution.

•        Ensure training, qualification, and cross-training plans support stable operations, peak requirements, and future capability needs.

Financial and Resource Management

•        Develop and manage the annual operating budget, business plan, workforce plan, productivity commitments, and capital priorities.

•        Monitor financial and resource performance and take timely corrective action when results vary from plan.

•        Manage headcount, overtime, temporary labor, operating expense, and productivity in alignment with service and growth requirements.

•        Evaluate operational investments through business cases that consider capacity, service, labor, safety, quality, risk, scalability, and financial return.

•        Balance immediate operating needs with the longer-term investments required to support sustainable growth.

Safety, Quality, Compliance, and Risk Management

•        Ensure distribution center operations comply with applicable safety, environmental, security, quality, regulatory, customer, and company requirements.

•        Establish visible leadership expectations for safe work and ensure operational risks are identified, escalated, and corrected.

•        Maintain effective controls for inventory, product handling, site access, equipment, business continuity, emergency response, and asset protection.

•        Maintain readiness for ISO, internal corporate, customer, safety, and compliance audits and ensure timely closure and sustainment of corrective actions.

•        Ensure effective governance and compliance for the site’s U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone operations, including inventory controls, recordkeeping, customs requirements, audits, and corrective actions.

•        Partner with EHS, Quality, Security, Human Resources, and other functions to maintain a safe, secure, compliant, and resilient operation.

Cross-Functional and Stakeholder Leadership

•        Partner with business units and functional leaders to align distribution capabilities with customer requirements, commercial priorities, product plans, and supply-chain strategy.

•        Lead resolution of cross-functional issues affecting service, cost, quality, capacity, inventory, and customer satisfaction.

•        Build alignment across Logistics, Supply Chain, Finance, Human Resources, EHS, Quality, IT, engineering, transportation, planning, and customer-facing teams.

•        Establish performance expectations and manage relationships with carriers, temporary-labor providers, contractors, equipment suppliers, and other third-party service partners.

•        Represent the distribution center in leadership reviews, planning processes, investment decisions, and major business initiatives.

Required Qualifications

•        Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, logistics, operations management, engineering, business, technology, finance, or a related discipline.

•        A defined combination of significant, directly relevant distribution-center leadership experience may be considered in place of the degree requirement.

•        Significant progressive leadership experience in distribution, warehousing, fulfillment, logistics, manufacturing operations, or supply-chain management.

•        Demonstrated experience leading a large, complex, multi-function and multi-shift operation through subordinate managers and supervisors.

•        Demonstrated success improving service, throughput, productivity, quality, safety, inventory accuracy, or operating cost.

•        Experience managing operating budgets, labor plans, headcount, overtime, temporary labor, productivity commitments, and capital requirements.

•        Experience leading significant organizational, process, technology, automation, systems, or capacity-related change.

•        Working knowledge of warehouse-management systems such as SAP EWM, JDA/Blue Yonder, or comparable platforms.

•        Experience using operational data, KPIs, structured problem solving, and corrective-action methods to manage results.

•        Strong written, verbal, interpersonal, and executive-presentation skills, with the ability to influence across organizational levels.

•        Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and related reporting or analytical tools.

Preferred Qualifications

•        Advanced degree in business administration, supply chain, engineering, logistics, or operations management.

•        Lean, Six Sigma, Company Production System, or comparable operational-excellence training or certification.

•        Experience with distribution center expansion, automation, network change, or major warehouse-management-system implementation.

•        Knowledge of ISO-based management systems, customer compliance requirements, and domestic and international shipping operations.

•        Experience leading operations within a U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ), including knowledge of applicable inventory-control, recordkeeping, customs, and compliance requirements.