Director of Fulfillment Operations for a U.S. DTC Apparel Brand

About the Role

We're hiring a Director of Fulfillment Operations to lead Cove's in-house warehouse, fulfillment, and shipping operations end to end. The role involves ensuring products move through the operation quickly, accurately, cost-effectively, and at the highest quality standards, while partnering closely with leadership to optimize inventory management, vendor relationships, and overall operational performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Own Cove's in-house fulfillment operation end to end — receiving, putaway, inventory, pick/pack/ship, and returns — with direct accountability for getting every order out accurately and on time.
• Lead our facility move this fall and design the layout, slotting, and workflows for the next stage of scale.
• Select and implement a WMS and the systems discipline that take us off manual workflows — directly attacking picking as our primary bottleneck.
• Negotiate pricing, lead times, capacity, and terms with parcel carriers, packaging/materials suppliers, and equipment vendors.
• Build and own the KPI and scorecard framework — on-time ship, order accuracy, inventory accuracy, units-per-hour, cost per order, labor productivity, and safety.
• Manage inventory and operational risk and peak/Q4 readiness in partnership with Merchandising and Finance.
• Identify and eliminate operational bottlenecks, single-point-of-failure risks, and margin leakage.
• Build and maintain operating dashboards for fulfillment, cost, labor, and vendor performance.
• Drive continuous improvement across pick/pack, packaging, labor models, and right-sized automation.
• Build and lead Cove's warehouse team — shift managers, inventory control, and zone leads beneath you, so the operation scales on systems and people, not on you alone.

Requirements

• A seasoned operator with 7-12+ years in fulfillment, warehouse, or DTC operations — ideally in a high-growth DTC or apparel brand.
• Someone who has run an owned distribution center bigger than ours and taken an operation through a step-change in daily order volume.
• Data-driven and financially literate — you live in dashboards and manage cost, margin, and service-level KPIs.
• Low ego, high ownership — the most organized person in the room and the one grabbing a scanner or unloading a container when the moment calls for it.
• Comfortable in a fast-moving, founder-led environment with minimal bureaucracy.
• All other requirements align with Cove's tone: bold, purpose-driven, no corporate fluff.