Senior Director Supply Chain

Our client is the Canadian headquarters of a large, global industrial distributor. With a national footprint, the company is on a journey of transformation and growth. Fueled by a mission to become a leader in the industrial distribution space, the company is committed to providing high quality service and to creating an empowered and engaged high performance work environment.

Propelled by a focused and ambitious growth agenda, the Canadian subsidiary requires a constructive, humanistic, commercially astute supply chain leader who can work collaboratively to enhance effectiveness of the function.

The Position

Senior Director, Supply Chain

Position Mandate

In this newly created role, reporting to the CEO of the Canadian subsidiary, the Senior Director, Supply Chain is a member of the leadership team with a mandate to transform supply chain performance to significantly impact margins and profitability in a rapidly growing company. The role leads and directs a team across two state-of-the-art warehouses to support a vibrant e-commerce business, a network of sales representatives across the country, and bricks and mortar locations. As a subsidiary of a large company, the role will have access to the supply chain expertise and experience of a global team.

Location

This is primarily an in-office position located in the Canadian head office in the west GTA.

Position Contributions and Impact

• Provide direction to resolve personnel issues in a way consistent with the company’s culture and values.
• Streamline supply chain processes and points of interconnection across the company
• Lead initiatives to create an efficient and productive supply chain workforce
• Optimize inventory, ensure the right products are on the shelves at the right time, reduce surplus and remain laser focused on inventory turns, value and velocity
• Lead culture and business transformation to support the company’s vision. Demonstrate strong leadership by example, develop talent through coaching and role modelling the company’s values and key attributes- achievement, collaboration, trust.
• Manage budgets and forecasting
• Ensure the company maintains a safe workplace environment for all employees
• Lead supply chain strategic planning in conjunction with the CEO and executive team to align strategy with business goals; bring a forward focus and vision to supply chain, anticipating market changes that will impact supply chain capability at the company
• Optimize working capital and staff productivity
• Create an engaged and empowered work environment built on strong teamwork and collaboration across the Supply Chain team.

The Candidate Profile

Experience

• Led change including culture and business transformation within the supply chain function
• Led strategic planning for supply chain operations
• Created budgets and reported regularly on KPI’s
• Implemented efficiencies, streamlined processes to create high performing supply chain capability
• Experience with automated warehouse management and inventory systems
• Leadership experience as a supply chain professional in a large, complex organization within supply chain or industrial organizations, ideally with exposure to managing logistics and warehouse supervisors and first line employees

Skills and Knowledge

• Process improvement mindset, ideally with Six Sigma/Black Belt certified
• Strong health and safety orientation
• Can view supply chain from the customer’s perspective
• Lives and breathes the science of supply chain, with a strong strategic mindset coupled with robust operational skills and experience
• Analytical, can see the big picture and the details
• Proven strong coaching skills and ability to spot, assess and develop talent
• Prior experience with business transformation and proven ability to lead change in a collaborative manner effectively engaging all stakeholders

Cultural Add

• Low ego leader who can deconstruct the dynamics of human communication to create and implement effective solutions with care, while maintaining focus on business goals and objectives