Director of Distribution Operations
SCM Talent GroupPosition 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
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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, dig