Director of Warehouse Operations

Director, Warehouse Operations - Food Distribution Location: Mississauga

Industry: Food & Beverage / Consumer Packaged Goods
Reports To: Senior Vice President, Operations
Compensation band: $150k - $180k + 15% bonus

Our client is an established Canadian food and beverage organization representing a diverse portfolio of consumer brands. They are seeking an experienced Director, Logistics & Warehouse Operations to lead a sizeable, multi-site Canadian warehousing and distribution operation.

This is a senior operational leadership role with responsibility for warehouse operations, outbound transportation, 3PL management, inventory integrity, safety, food safety, facilities and continuous improvement.

The Opportunity The Director will oversee a network that includes three warehouses totalling approximately 400,000 sq. ft., outsourced 3PL facilities and 125+ warehouse employees, including a unionized operation. The position directly manages three Warehouse Managers while providing leadership across supervisors and hourly teams.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead multi-site warehouse and distribution operations, ensuring service, productivity, safety and cost objectives are consistently achieved.
• Provide leadership, coaching and development to Warehouse Managers, supervisors and frontline teams, including recruitment, performance management and succession development.
• Manage outbound transportation and third-party freight carriers, ensuring effective service to customers across Canada.
• Oversee external 3PL warehousing partners, including ambient and temperature-controlled storage operations.
• Own warehouse operating budgets, expense forecasting and variance management while identifying opportunities to reduce operating costs.
• Maintain strong inventory accuracy, receiving, storage, slotting and product-flow disciplines.
• Lead employee safety and GFSI/SQF food-safety compliance, ensuring facilities operate to applicable regulatory and audit standards.
• Drive continuous improvement across labour productivity, workflow, warehouse layout, space utilization, equipment and material handling.
• Evaluate and implement improvements to receiving, inventory management, shipping and transportation processes.
• Partner cross-functionally to resolve operational issues affecting customers, vendors and service performance.
• Develop and present operational plans, budgets and capital improvement opportunities to senior leadership.

What We're Looking For

The successful candidate will bring significant progressive leadership experience across warehouse operations, distribution and logistics, ideally within food, grocery, CPG or a similarly complex, high-volume distribution environment.

Experience with temperature-controlled products, domestic retail and foodservice customers, multi-site operations, 3PL partners, operating budgets and capital projects will be particularly valuable.

We're looking for a leader who has demonstrated the ability to develop people and improve operations, rather than simply maintain them. Strong candidates will be comfortable identifying operational bottlenecks, using KPIs to drive accountability, implementing process improvements and leading teams through change.

A strong understanding of employee safety, food-safety regulations, warehouse systems and internal controls is required, along with the communication skills to work effectively across Operations, Supply Chain, Sales and other business functions.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

This is a substantial Canadian operations mandate with meaningful scale, direct access to senior leadership and the opportunity to influence the performance of a national distribution network.

For an accomplished warehouse and logistics leader, the position offers the opportunity to take ownership of people, service, cost, safety and continuous improvement across a complex food and beverage distribution operation.