Director, Supply Chain Automation

Role overview Direct the planning, delivery, and ongoing performance of automation across a distribution network. This hands-on leadership role turns a multi-year strategy into operational results, guiding projects from business case and design through commissioning, go-live, and continuous improvement while building a capable engineering and project team.

Responsibilities - Shape the automation roadmap and translate it into prioritized programs, capacity plans, budgets, and resource requirements across operated and third-party sites. - Lead distribution center design and assess technologies such as automated storage, goods-to-person systems, mobile robots, robotics, sortation, conveyance, packaging, and vision systems. - Own project delivery from requirements and vendor selection through testing, commissioning, launch, and stabilization. - Coordinate automation integration with warehouse and distribution platforms, controls, and labor systems. - Establish operational readiness through testing, procedures, training, maintenance plans, spare parts, and contingency planning. - Track throughput, uptime, accuracy, safety, and unit cost; lead root-cause analysis and continuous improvement with vendors and operations teams.

Requirements - Bachelor’s degree in engineering, supply chain, operations, or a related field; a master’s degree or MBA is a plus. - At least 10 years in distribution, fulfillment engineering, automation, or material handling, including 5 or more years leading automation projects and teams. - Experience delivering automation projects from concept and financial case through design, commissioning, launch, and stabilization. - Strong knowledge of distribution automation, material handling, warehouse systems, controls, integration, process design, and capacity modeling. - Experience managing vendors and integrators on complex capital projects and delivering programs on time and within budget. - Financial and analytical skills, including ROI and total-cost-of-ownership analysis, plus clear communication and team leadership.

Nice to have - Background in direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, retail, or apparel distribution, especially in a high-growth setting.

Benefits and work setup The role involves approximately 30–40% travel.