Vice President Operations

About the role

We’re partnering with a rapidly growing, private equity-backed global company to identify an exceptional Vice President of Operations.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Operations Department, fostering a highly-engaged, high-performing team that collaborates closely with the commercial side of the business
• Oversee global procurement and supplier management with contract manufacturers and component suppliers, ensuring products meet future forecasts with competitive pricing, optimal delivery terms, and zero-defect quality within specifications
• Enhance supplier quality assurance and quality control processes, preventing damaged, defective, or mislabeled products while maintaining audit-ready documentation and procedures
• Build long-term vendor relationships to ensure agile responses to new product developments, reformulations, redesigns, acquisitions, consolidations, and risk mitigation across the supply base
• Partner with New Product Development to source new suppliers
• Manage a network of 3PL partners to guarantee outstanding inbound goods handling, order fulfillment, special kitting, and efficient outbound customer delivery
• Foster a business partnership with 3PL providers to drive continuous improvement, increase operational efficiency, and lead initiatives involving provider changes or additions as business needs evolve
• Oversee demand planning, including further developing the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process to achieve accurate, bias-free forecasts, optimize product availability, reduce out-of-stocks, and minimize costs associated with excess inventory and write-offs; implement new demand planning tools to improve automation and accuracy
• Develop and optimize international freight and logistics activities to ensure goods are moved efficiently at competitive rates
• Establish and monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), leading continuous improvement initiatives to enhance supply chain effectiveness
• Collaborate across functions to promote engagement with and enhance the value of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software
• Develop strategies to identify and mitigate supply chain risks and disruptions
• Support due diligence on future acquisitions from the Operations perspective and provide strategic direction for optimizing shareholder returns
• Lead the execution of high-impact strategic projects in line with the company’s long-term goals, including network optimizations, organizational restructuring, systems improvements, and business integrations
• Develop and optimize international freight and logistics activities to ensure goods are moved efficiently at competitive rates
• Develop strategies to identify and mitigate supply chain risks and disruptions
• Support due diligence on future acquisitions from the Operations perspective and provide strategic direction for optimizing shareholder returns
• Lead the execution of high-impact strategic projects in line with the company’s long-term goals, including network optimizations, organizational restructuring, systems improvements, and business integrations
• Define clear project objectives, KPIs, and success metrics; create comprehensive project plans addressing timelines, budgets, resource needs, and risk assessments
• Serve as Project Manager, executing projects on-time and in-budget while managing communication among all key stakeholders
• Track project progress, identify risks and challenges, and implement effective mitigation strategies
• Lead change management initiatives to ensure smooth implementation and adoption of new processes and technologies

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business or Operations Management, or related field, or equivalent demonstrated work experience; MBA is considered a plus
• 10+ years in beauty or personal care
• 15 or more years of work experience in supply chain management, with deep expertise in procurement, contract manufacturing management, logistics, warehousing, and demand planning
• Proven record of developing and implementing successful supply chain strategies
• Demonstrated leadership experience, motivating and managing geographically dispersed teams
• Strategic mindset, willing and able to be hands-on in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment; skilled at handling difficult Board-level conversations
• Highly collaborative, cross-functional approach with strong self-motivation and the ability to transform broad strategic directions into actionable, high-impact results with limited oversight
• Adaptable, thrives in dynamic and evolving environments, embraces change as an opportunity, and manages multiple priorities and deadlines effectively in a high-growth, fast-paced setting
• High level of integrity, professionalism, and discretion
• Willingness to work across global time zones and outside of standard business hours as required