Head of Inventory

HR Duo, Ltd.; Dublin; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Conaty Food and Catering Supplies in Blanchardstown is seeking an ambitious Head of Inventory to own and optimise the company’s stock across multiple depots. You will lead an established team of 15–20 people, use data, technology and AI to improve inventory management and drive best-practice across functions.

The role focuses on control, accuracy, stock-turn and working capital, with accountability for €3m+ of stock, and you'll build real-time dashboards, modernise processes, and set KPIs to

Qualifications

• Significant experience in inventory and stock management in a large organisation.
• Experience managing multi-million-euro inventory.
• Strong experience leading and developing teams.
• Experience in a multi-site, high-volume environment.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving capability.

Responsibilities

• Own and optimise inventory across the business, managing €3m+ stock across multiple depots.
• Develop robust inventory controls, policies and procedures.
• Lead cycle counting programme and improve accuracy.
• Develop real-time dashboards and analytics; push automation and AI use.
• Work cross-functionally with Purchasing, Operations and Finance to improve stock availability while controlling working capital.

Skills

Inventory management

Team leadership

Data analytics

ERP / WMS

Automation mindset

Stakeholder management

Tools

ERP / WMS

Job description

Conaty Food and Catering Supplies is one of Ireland's leading catering suppliers into the hospitality industry. Established in 1970, Conaty Food and Catering Supplies delivers more than 18,000 catering, food and equipment products into our customer base of over 2,000 hotels, bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Our Blanchardstown depot hosts Ireland's largest hospitality showrooms.

We are seeking an ambitious, commercially minded and forward-thinking Head of Inventory to join our team. With more than three million euro held in stock across multiple depots, this new hire will take complete ownership of inventory management across the business and will be fully accountable for ensuring that inventory is rigorously controlled, well managed and continually optimised.

The successful candidate will lead an established inventory team comprising an Inventory Manager, Stock Analyst and Cycle Counting Team. We are looking for a candidate who will challenge how we currently operate, bring fresh thinking into the business, and use data, technology and AI to fundamentally improve how inventory is managed.

The Head of Inventory will strive to continuously develop the team and its processes.

Key Responsibilities and Duties

1. Inventory Ownership & Control

• Take complete ownership and accountability for €3m+ of inventory across all company locations.
• Ensure the integrity and accuracy of inventory throughout the business.
• Develop and maintain robust inventory controls, policies and procedures.
• Ensure stock movements, transfers, adjustments, write-offs and returns are accurately controlled.
• Identify inventory risks and ensure appropriate preventative controls are implemented.
• Take ownership of significant inventory discrepancies and ensure root causes are identified and permanently addressed.
• Maintain clear visibility of inventory performance across every depot, category and product range.

Move the business beyond counting and controlling stock towards actively optimising inventory. This will include:

• Analysing inventory levels and challenging unnecessary stockholding.
• Identifying excess, obsolete and slow-moving inventory.
• Improving stock turn and working-capital efficiency.
• Analysing stock cover by product and category.
• Identifying opportunities to reduce inventory without negatively impacting customer service.
• Working with Purchasing, Operations and Sales to improve stock availability while controlling overall inventory investment.
• Developing appropriate inventory segmentation and ABC analysis.
• Identifying recurring stock shortages and addressing their underlying causes.

3. Cycle Counting & Inventory Accuracy

• Own and continuously improve the company's cycle-counting programme.
• Develop risk-based and ABC cycle-counting strategies.
• Ensure cycle counts are completed accurately and on schedule.
• Analyse variances and identify recurring trends.
• Move the business away from simply correcting discrepancies towards identifying and eliminating their root causes.
• Establish clear inventory accuracy targets across all depots.
• Own the supplier returns process across the business.
• Ensure damaged, rejected, obsolete and returnable stock is identified quickly.
• Minimise the value of stock awaiting supplier return or credit.
• Establish clear accountability and reporting around outstanding supplier returns.
• Work closely with Purchasing and Finance to ensure credits are received and reconciled.

A major part of this role will be identifying opportunities to modernise the inventory function.

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Challenge existing manual processes.
• Identify opportunities for automation.
• Develop real-time inventory dashboards and exception reporting.
• Improve utilisation of the ERP/WMS and other business systems.
• Use data analytics to identify inventory trends and risks.
• Explore practical applications of AI and emerging technology within inventory management.
• Reduce repetitive administrative work through better systems and processes.
• Build an inventory function increasingly driven by data and exceptions rather than manual intervention.

The Head of Inventory will lead a team of approximately 15-20 people, structured through an Inventory Manager, Stock Analyst and Cycle Counting / Inventory Team. The successful candidate will:

• Lead through the management structure rather than personally managing every operational issue.
• Set clear objectives and accountability throughout the department.
• Develop the Inventory Manager and Stock Analyst into strong leaders within the function.
• Build a high-performance and continuous-improvement culture.
• Ensure responsibilities are appropriately delegated.
• Introduce clear departmental KPIs and performance reviews.
• Identify training and development requirements.
• Build succession and resilience within the department.
• Create a function capable of operating effectively without dependency on one individual.

The Head of Inventory will be expected to challenge established ways of working. They will:

• Identify inefficient or outdated inventory processes.
• Lead inventory improvement projects from concept through implementation.
• Use Lean / continuous-improvement principles where appropriate.
• Measure the financial impact of improvements.
• Work cross-functionally with Operations, Purchasing, Finance, Sales and IT.
• Benchmark inventory processes against best practice.
• Create a structured improvement roadmap for the inventory function.

Key Performance Indicators

Performance will be measured through a clear inventory scorecard, which may include:

• Inventory accuracy (%)
• Total inventory value
• Inventory turn
• Stock adjustments - € and %
• Unexplained inventory losses
• Slow-moving and obsolete inventory (€)
• Supplier returns outstanding (€)
• Cycle-count completion and accuracy (%)
• Stock availability / service level
• Inventory reduction achieved without impacting service
• Process improvements and automation delivered

Key Skills and Competencies

• Significant experience in inventory and stock management in a large organisation.
• Demonstrable experience managing multi-million-euro inventory.
• Strong experience leading and developing teams.
• Experience operating within a multi-site, high-volume environment.
• Strong understanding of inventory control and cycle-counting methodologies.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving capability.
• Proven ability to identify and resolve the root causes of inventory discrepancies.
• Strong commercial awareness and understanding of the impact inventory has on working capital and profitability.
• Demonstrable experience delivering measurable operational improvements.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• Strong commercial and strategic thinking
• High level of analytical capability
• Data-driven and technology-focused mindset
• Decisive, hands-on leadership style
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management
• Leadership and team development ability
• Continuous-improvement and process-optimisation focus
• High integrity and professional judgement