Job Title:  Senior Distribution Center Manager

Job Purpose

The Senior Distribution Center Manager is the chief people leader for the distribution center. This role exists first and foremost to build, inspire, develop, and hold accountable a high‑performing, multi‑shift team responsible for VAC and DC operations. The manager sets the cultural tone, creates a strong leadership pipeline, ensures operational discipline, and drives engagement across all levels of the workforce.
While responsible for operational results, the primary lever to deliver those results is exceptional leadership of people.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide clear, consistent leadership for employees across multiple shifts, including supervisors, leads, and hourly associates.
• Shape the leadership capabilities of frontline supervisors through coaching, training, structured feedback, and expectations setting.
• Ensure every team member understands their role, daily priorities, performance goals, and how their work contributes to customer satisfaction and business success.
• Maintain strong presence on the floor, modeling desired behaviors and reinforcing expectations through daily interaction.
• Establish a culture rooted in accountability, ownership, teamwork, safety, and continuous improvement.
• Lead daily shift huddles, weekly staff meetings, and monthly performance reviews to keep the entire team informed and aligned.
• Encourage open communication, employee involvement, and idea sharing across all levels of the distribution center.
• Lead recruiting and selection efforts to hire high‑quality DC team members and supervisors.
• Oversee onboarding and training to ensure new hires become safe, productive, and confident contributors quickly.
• Implement cross‑training strategies and development plans to grow skill depth, labor flexibility, and bench strength.
• Identify high‑potential employees and prepare them for advanced roles, ensuring a consistent leadership pipeline.
• Set performance expectations tied to OTD, accuracy, labor productivity, safety compliance, attendance, and behavior.
• Conduct regular, structured coaching with supervisors and team leads to strengthen their ability to manage their teams.
• Hold team members accountable through fair application of policies, corrective actions, and follow‑through.
• Review and validate supervisor‑level performance evaluations, work records, production reporting, and disciplinary acts.
• Ensure supervisors create balanced, efficient schedules that maximize labor productivity and meet operational demands.
• Oversee staffing plans for peak periods, vacations, absenteeism, and multi‑shift coverage.
• Lead cross‑training strategies so coverage is maintained even when key employees are unavailable.
• Promote a safety‑first culture through constant reinforcement, training, behavior modeling, and recognition.
• Ensure every team member adheres to company safety policies.
• Investigate incidents with supervisors and ensure corrective actions address root causes and reinforce proper behaviors.
• Champion the upkeep of a clean, organized workspace that reflects pride and professionalism.
• Guide the workforce through process changes, technology adoption, organizational transitions, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Use LEAN principles and the EnerSys Operating System (EOS) to train and inspire employees to identify problems, improve work methods, and reduce waste.
• Encourage involvement in Kaizen, 5S, and team‑driven improvement events.Represent the distribution center and its team with professionalism and clarity in meetings with Supply Chain, Quality, Procurement, Customer Service, and Leadership.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree required
• 10+ years of distribution or operations experience with increasing leadership responsibility.
• Proven success leading multi‑shift teams and supervisors.
• Strong coaching, communication, and conflict‑resolution skills.
• Demonstrated ability to inspire teams, uplift performance, and shape culture.
• Experience developing talent pipelines and improving team capability.

Preferred

• Experience implementing LEAN, EOS, or similar systems.
• Strong proficiency with ERP systems.
•  Master's degree preferred.

General Job Requirements

• Must demonstrate resilience, emotional intelligence, and the ability to motivate teams under pressure.
• Must maintain a highly visible leadership presence across all shifts and all areas of the DC.
• Travel as required.

General Job Requirements