Director Distribution Operations (Burlington, NC)

About the role

We're looking for an inspiring, strategically minded leader to oversee all operations across a highly automated distribution and transportation campus supporting grocery, fresh, frozen, and break pack product movement.

Responsibilities

• Build and communicate a clear, forward-looking strategic vision for a Distribution, Reclamation/GM, and Transportation campus operating within a highly automated environment.
• Align campus operations with broader regional and network objectives to strengthen supply chain capability, scalability, and automation ROI.
• Serve as the senior site leader for automation adoption, stability, and evolution, ensuring readiness for future technology investments.
• Oversee all day-to-day campus operations, ensuring excellence in safety, quality, shrink management, transportation, service delivery, and automation system performance.
• Optimize distribution operations by balancing labor, automation throughput, system uptime, and cost discipline.
• Partner closely with maintenance, engineering, and technology teams to ensure high availability and reliability of automated material handling and robotics systems.
• Maintain strong, results-focused relationships with third-party labor and automation vendors, ensuring operational alignment, uptime, and performance.
• Act as the campus leader partnering with Retail leadership, ensuring service levels and customer expectations are consistently met.
• Collaborate with IT, Engineering, and external integrators on system enhancements, upgrades, and issue resolution.
• Develop long-term strategies that improve product flow, maximize automation utilization, and drive facility efficiency.
• Own the campus operating and capital budgets, including automation-related capital investment and lifecycle planning.
• Meet or exceed key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure campus, network, and automation performance outcomes (throughput, utilization, downtime, cost per unit).
• Drive continuous improvement across financial, technical, and cultural systems, leveraging automation data, system analytics, and engineering insights.
• Lead and contribute to network-wide CI projects, supply chain planning initiatives, and automation optimization efforts.
• Champion organizational change, building high-performing teams that effectively operate alongside advanced technology.
• Foster a culture of safety, accountability, and technology-enabled problem solving.

Requirements

• 8-10 years of supply chain operations leadership experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading operations within highly automated or semi-automated distribution facilities (e.g., AS/RS, goods-to-person, robotics, conveyor systems, automated storage and sortation).
• Experience supervising 100+ associates across multi-functional teams in complex operational environments.
• Bachelor's degree in a related field or 10+ years of progressive supply chain experience.
• Proven history of driving operational performance in high-volume, technology-driven distribution centers.