Director of Warehouse Operations & Leadership

Job Description

Job Description

Director of Warehouse Operations & Leadership

NYC Metropolitan Area | Onsite | Full-Time

Estimated Salary: $200,000 - $300,000 (Compensation commensurate with experience)

 

Position Overview

The company has built a large, high-volume warehouse and distribution operation and is seeking an exceptional operational leader to elevate the organization through leadership, accountability, planning, and execution.

This role is not about personally solving warehouse problems.

It is about building leaders, systems, and processes that solve warehouse problems long after you've delegated them.

The Director of Warehouse Operations & Leadership will be responsible for developing a high-performing leadership team, strengthening operational discipline, improving financial and warehouse performance, and building scalable operating systems that support the company's continued growth.

The ideal candidate has led large, complex warehouse or distribution operations through multiple layers of management, owns operational and financial performance, develops future leaders, and creates organizations capable of consistently delivering results with minimal executive intervention.

This is a highly visible leadership position for someone who enjoys building organizations, not simply managing daily operations.

Key Responsibilities

Executive Leadership

• Lead the warehouse organization through managers and supervisors rather than direct oversight of frontline employees.
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and operational excellence throughout the leadership team.
• Coach, mentor, and develop managers into stronger leaders capable of making sound operational decisions.
• Establish clear expectations, performance standards, and accountability across all levels of the organization.
• Build leadership succession plans that strengthen long-term organizational capability.
• Address performance issues promptly, including coaching underperforming leaders and making difficult personnel decisions when necessary.

Warehouse Operations

• Own end-to-end warehouse performance across receiving, inventory control, storage, replenishment, fulfillment, shipping, and outbound logistics.
• Ensure safe, efficient, and consistent warehouse execution while maintaining exceptional customer service levels.
• Improve inventory accuracy, throughput, labor productivity, and operational efficiency.
• Remove operational bottlenecks through structured process improvements rather than reactive problem-solving.
• Maintain a highly organized, disciplined warehouse environment focused on execution.

Strategic Planning & Scalability

• Develop structured 30-, 60-, 90-day, quarterly, and annual operating plans.
• Forecast labor requirements, equipment needs, warehouse capacity, and inventory flow based on business demand.
• Build workforce plans that allow operations to scale efficiently without sacrificing productivity, quality, or service.
• Anticipate operational challenges before they occur and proactively implement solutions.

Financial Leadership

• Own warehouse operating budgets, labor planning, productivity, and cost performance.
• Drive measurable financial improvements through operational excellence, workforce optimization, and continuous improvement.
• Utilize operational and financial metrics to support business decisions.
• Partner with executive leadership to improve profitability while supporting continued growth.

Continuous Improvement

• Foster a culture of continuous improvement throughout the warehouse organization.
• Implement sustainable operating systems that continue delivering results independent of any one individual.
• Lead structured root-cause analysis to eliminate recurring operational issues.
• Improve warehouse flow, slotting, inventory accuracy, labor utilization, productivity, safety, and overall operational performance.
• Apply Lean principles and data-driven decision-making to improve efficiency and reduce waste.

Leadership Development

• Build managers who solve problems rather than escalate them.
• Conduct regular one-on-one coaching sessions, performance reviews, and leadership development planning.
• Create measurable leadership scorecards and accountability systems.
• Develop future leaders capable of supporting continued organizational growth.

Success in This Role

Success will be measured by your ability to build an organization that consistently delivers outstanding results through leadership rather than personal involvement.

Key indicators include:

• Leadership team consistently delivering results with minimal executive intervention.
• Strong bench of capable managers and future leaders.
• Improved inventory accuracy.
• Improved warehouse throughput.
• Increased labor productivity.
• Reduced operating costs.
• Improved on-time fulfillment.
• Improved safety performance.
• Effective workforce planning aligned with business demand.
• Sustainable operating systems that continue performing over time.
• Permanent resolution of recurring operational issues through structured root-cause analysis.
• Scalable warehouse infrastructure capable of supporting continued company growth.

Required Experience

• Executive leadership experience within large-scale warehouse, distribution, logistics, manufacturing, or similarly complex operational environments.
• Proven success leading multi-layer organizations through managers and supervisors.
• Strong operational leadership across receiving, inventory management, fulfillment, shipping, labor planning, and warehouse execution.
• Experience managing warehouse budgets, labor productivity, and operational financial performance.
• Demonstrated ability to build high-performing leadership teams.
• Strong planning, forecasting, and organizational development capabilities.
• Experience implementing sustainable operational systems and accountability processes.
• Strong analytical, financial, and operational decision-making skills.
• Excellent communication, coaching, and leadership abilities.

Must-Haves

• Proven experience leading managers who lead other managers within a multi-layer organization.
• Experience overseeing large warehouse, distribution, manufacturing, or logistics operations.
• Demonstrated ownership of departmental budgets or P&L with measurable business results.
• Proven ability to improve operational performance through leadership rather than individual contribution.
• Experience building management systems that continued producing results after implementation.
• Demonstrated success scaling warehouse operations through planning, leadership, and process improvement rather than simply increasing headcount.
• Strong workforce planning, forecasting, and capacity planning experience.
• Experience coaching, developing, and promoting leaders while holding underperforming managers accountable.
• Strong KPI development, scorecard management, and data-driven operational leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to solve root causes rather than repeatedly addressing symptoms.
• Good understanding of Lean principles and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Strong inventory management, warehouse flow, labor productivity, and operational planning expertise.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment.

Ideal Background

We welcome candidates from large-scale:

• Warehouse Operations
• Distribution Centers
• Consumer Products
• Manufacturing
• Building Materials
• Retail Distribution
• Industrial Distribution
• Food Distribution
• E-Commerce Fulfillment
• Third-Party Logistics (3PL)

The strongest candidates will have successfully built leadership teams, scaled warehouse operations, improved financial and operational performance, and created organizations that continue to perform through disciplined systems and strong leadership.

Final Invitation to Apply

If you're the type of leader who builds organizations that perform without depending on you, develops managers into exceptional leaders, drives measurable operational and financial results, and thrives in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment, we'd welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

Email Resume: View email address on us.fitly.work

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