Warehouse Transportation Manager

Qualifications

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead warehouse operations standards across all operating locations.
• Directly manage the central warehouse operation, including labor, safety, storage, receiving, staging, picking, shipping, dock flow, and daily execution.
• Provide dotted-line leadership to site-level warehouse and WMS leads.
• Establish consistent expectations for receiving, put-away, inventory movement, transfers, staging, shipping, cycle counting, and warehouse documentation.
• Manage warehouse layout, capacity, slotting, staging areas, traffic flow, equipment needs, and storage utilization.
• Ensure warehouse activity supports production schedules, customer orders, quality release status, and inventory availability.
• Identify and resolve issues related to space, labor, dock congestion, inventory accuracy, shipment readiness, and process compliance.
• Oversee transportation coordination between production facilities, the central warehouse, 3PL providers, carriers, customers, and suppliers.
• Manage inter-site transfers of raw materials, packaging, WIP, and finished goods.
• Cook off shipment planning, carrier scheduling, dock appointments, load planning, and freight issue resolution.
• Ensure BOLs, packing lists, transfer documents, shipment records, and ERP transactions are accurate and complete.
• Maintain on-time pickup, on-time delivery, trailer utilization, carrier reliability, detention, accessorial charges, and transportation cost trends.
• Improve logistics execution through better load consolidation, reduced unnecessary transfers, improved shipment visibility, and stronger carrier discipline.
• Own inventory accuracy expectations across all sites and inventory categories.
• Lead the cycle count program, including count cadence, procedures, variance review, reconciliation, and corrective action.
• Ensure inventory transactions are completed accurately for receipts, transfers, production staging, goods issue, adjustments, finished goods receipts, and shipments.
• Monitor raw materials, packaging, WIP, finished goods, quality holds, damaged inventory, obsolete inventory, slow-moving inventory, and customer-owned inventory.
• Partner with Finance to ensure inventory records support valuation, reconciliation, and month-end.
• Partner with Quality and Food Safety to ensure warehouse practices support GMPs, FEFO, lot traceability, allergen control, organic handling, quality holds, audits, and mock recalls.
• Serve as the warehouse and logistics subject matter expert for the ERP and WMS implementation.
• Support process design for receiving, put-away, inventory moves, picking, staging, shipping, transfers, cycle counting, lot control, and inventory adjustments.
• Participate in testing, training, go-live preparation, user support, and post-go-live stabilization.
• Lead creation and implementation of centralized warehouse and logistics SOPs.
• Train warehouse teams and audit compliance to SOPs, WMS transactions, inventory control expectations, and shipping documentation standards.

Skills & Qualifications:

• Experience in food and beverage, CPG, ingredients, packaging, or regulated inventory environments.
• Experience leading warehouse teams, logistics teams, inventory control personnel, or multi-site warehouse resources.
• Strong understanding of inventory accuracy, cycle counting, FIFO, FEFO, lot traceability, WMS transactions, warehouse layout, slotting, receiving, picking, staging, shipping, and dock operations.
• Strong knowledge of transportation coordination, carrier scheduling, shipment documentation, internal transfers, and freight execution.
• Ability to lead through influence across multiple sites and functions.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, decision-making, and organizational skills.
• Ability to build SOPs, train teams, audit compliance, and drive process discipline.
• Strong Microsoft Excel and operational reporting skills.
• Experience with Aptean F&B, Dynamics, SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Catalyst, or similar ERP systems.
• Experience with WMS implementation, WMS configuration, user acceptance testing.
• Experience managing warehouse and logistics processes across multiple production facilities.
• Experience with centralized warehousing, 3PL warehouses, and intercompany transfers.
• Experience supporting food safety audits, customer audits, mock recalls, and regulated traceability requirements.
• Experience developing warehouse KPIs, logistics dashboards, and inventory accuracy reporting.
• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, operations, logistics, business, or related field preferred.
• 5 or more years of experience in warehouse operations, logistics, inventory management, transportation, distribution, or supply chain operations.
• CPIM, CSCP, CLTD, Lean, Six Sigma, or related certification preferred.