Senior Director Distribution Operations

Ken's Foods; Marlborough (MA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Ken’s Foods seeks a Sr. Director of Distribution Operations to provide enterprise leadership for warehouse operations, WMS governance, and inventory control across production and distribution sites.

You will standardize processes, drive inventory integrity, and improve labor productivity while ensuring safety and food-safety standards. The role oversees KPI visibility, continuous improvement, and yields service levels to support company growth.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree preferred with 8-10 years of progressive transportation/logistics management.
• Experience leading warehouse operations, inventory control, and safety/compliance programs (OSHA, SQF, GMP).
• Ability to drive standardization, governance, audits, and continuous improvement across facilities.

Responsibilities

• Own Syspro WMS governance and warehouse operating discipline.
• Define and enforce warehouse standards, KPI goals, and action plans.
• Lead inventory control teams and drive cycle counting, reconciliations, and root-cause investigations.
• Oversee yard operations, trailer management, and dock-to-stock processes across locations.
• Develop warehouse leadership talent and succession planning; foster a culture of safety.

Skills

Warehouse leadership

KPI reporting

WMS governance

Inventory control

Safety culture

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Syspro WMS

YMS

Job description

Summary

The Sr. Director of Distribution Operations provides enterprise leadership for warehouse operations, WMS governance, automated warehouse performance, inventory control execution, national co-pack production support, and warehouse oversight across production and distribution locations. This role is accountable for standardizing warehouse processes, strengthening inventory integrity, improving labor productivity, ensuring AS/RS reliability, advancing safety and food safety performance, and delivering service levels that support company growth. The position serves as the corporate owner for WMS process adherence, warehouse operating discipline, KPI visibility, and continuous improvement across all facilities.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Include The Following

Warehouse Operations Leadership

• Leadership scope includes direct and dotted-line influence across warehouse leaders, inventory control teams, WMS users, automated warehouse operations, and third-party warehouse partners.
• Executive leadership owner of the company's Warehouse Management System (Syspro WMS).
• Define and enforce warehouse transaction standards, build KPI goal, measure performance and set action plans in place to improve.
• Warehouse staffing development and defining performance standards across automated buildings and traditional shipment buildings.
• Corporate lead for inventory control teams at each plant.
• Lead WMS enhancements, upgrades, and optimization initiatives, partnering with IT and software vendors to improve functionality and user adoption.
• National co-pack operation oversight for Ken’s Foods, and both in our own building and lines under 3rd party site operations, responsibilities include fulfilling production plans, planning manual builds, twin pack conversion, line set-up, shrink wrap, output target adherence, storage of materials and finished goods
• Oversight of trailer yards, trailer storage, staging, plant to DC shuttle operations for unloading and loading of equipment.
• Tracking and utilization of all yard activities through the Yard Management System (YMS)
• Warehouse labor and equipment utilization, ensuring data integrity across all warehouse transactions is accurate.
• Establish reporting and dashboard visibility for operational performance.
• Ensure sites are audit ready (OSHA, SQF, GMP, food safety) and company policies are adhered too.
• Develop warehouse leadership talent and retention strategies and build succession plans.
• Commitment to safety begins with leadership. Creating and maintaining a culture of safety and assuring a safe work environment is a must for this role.

Inventory Control Leadership

• Enterprise-wide inventory accuracy and dotted line staff across operational warehouse teams.
• Co-Lead Inventory Control Managers and Inventory Control teams.
• Drive core functionality of WMS program i.e. cycle-count programs, reconciliation processes, and root-cause investigations. Review and approve inventory adjustments and corrective actions.
• Ensure FIFO, lot control, allergen segregation, and storage compliance standards are maintained.

Warehouse Tasks and KPI’s

• Management of Forklift fleets at all facilities and working cross functionally to maintain and procure assets as needed.
• Management of all pallet purchases and returns at all facilities.
• Management of all rack purchases at all facilities.
• Performance Metrics KPI’s monitored and needed to succeed in warehouse leadership:
• Inventory accuracy
• Equipment Utilization/ ASRS optimization
• Service level attainment.
• Labor productivity and optimization standards
• Dock-to-stock cycle time
• Order-to-ship cycle time.
• Inventory Accuracy %
• Case Pick Accuracy %
• Cost per Case
• WMS Transaction Compliance %
• Cycle Count Compliance %
• Safety Incident Rate
• Inventory Adjustment Dollars
• Other projects/duties as assigned.

Education And/or Experience

Bachelor’s Degree (B.A.) from a four-year college or university is preferred with 8-10 years of progressive transportation/logistics management or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

Work Authorization Notice:

Please note that we do not provide visa sponsorship or immigration support for this position. Applicants must already be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time, permanent basis without the need for current or future sponsorship.

The salary for this position is determined by a combination of experience, skills, and education level. The base compensation range is $175k-195k annually.

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