Director of Operations & Planning

About The Role:

The melin Director of Operations will lead the planning and operations functions, supporting all business channels in a high-growth environment. The Director of Operations will work closely with internal team members, third party logistics providers, & suppliers to deliver operational excellence with a high degree of collaboration, process-orientation and a customer-first mentality.

The role is tasked with developing and maintaining strong cross functional partnerships, collaborating closely with Sales, Product, Production, & Marketing teams. This is a leadership role requiring the ability to translate strategy into business results.

In summary, the Director of Operations is directly responsible for the central planning functions (Demand & Supply), will lead purchasing and inventory management including developing & reporting key metrics, order execution ensuring products are efficiently delivered to our customers, & optimizing organization systems to ensure effective business processes can be maintained.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Planning Functions:

-Demand Planning & Forecasting: Own the end-to-end demand planning function: establish processes for demand signal capture and demand aggregation across all channels and products.  Maintain forecasting tools aware of bookings, forecast demand, promotional demand, stock levels, and internal budgets/forecasts.  Lead the monthly procurement cycle culminating in purchase order placement after executive buy-in and sign-off.  Develop & maintain mechanisms to ensure each channel owner provides appropriate inputs into monthly planning cycles, proactively engaging channel leads for these forecasts.

-Procurement: Translate Demand plans into efficient requisitions; place orders in-line with production lead times, aware of seasonality, business opportunities and risks, and product launch calendars.  Develop mechanisms to manage & monitor inventory positions in alignment with sales forecasts, budgets & cash flow requirements for the business as set by executive management.

-Supply Planning and Inventory Management: Manage supply-side planning and execution tasks for the organization. Collaborate with Product & Production teams to ensure orders are placed with suppliers on time, and dates & costs are confirmed and accurate.  Manage system data throughout the production lead-time, ensuring WIP dates are accurate, and ERP reflects expected supply chain realities. Build and maintain inventory reporting tools to support real time on-demand query of stock positions, order book positions, & availability.  Determine and communicate optimal inbound routing instructions for hand-off to logistics. Develop & communicate plans for Phase-in/Phase-out, proactively monitoring long inventory positions & leading the initiation of action plans. Ensure inventory status flags within systems are coded to support organizational alignment & ease of reporting (“merch code” assignment and maintenance).

Operations Functions:

-Distribution Management: Oversee staff managing the distribution function (3PL). Review monthly expenses & address inefficiencies, to meet or beat budget targets.  Develop continual improvement mechanisms across partners & processes to realize cost efficiencies, execute reliably over time, and enhance capabilities within our distribution operations. Act as the central point for expedited requests & addressing challenges. Work to establish & maintain strong and collaborative partnerships with our key supply chain partners.

-Freight and Logistics: Oversee staff managing the movement of goods from factory source to end customers, across all regions/lanes. Provide strategic direction to balance costs with service levels & company budgeted expense targets, as well as customer satisfaction metrics. Establish and/or enhance key partnerships with forwarders, brokers, & parcel carriers to ensure service levels are met at costs within expectations, while minimizing risk within the supply chain.

-Systems & Project Management: Act as internal technology lead for all core systems for the melin organization, including: ERP, B2B, various BI tools, etc.  Ensure company systems are in good working order and address deficiencies.  Work with shared services team members to identify & resolve deficiencies, scope/request/test enhancements, and drive the technology roadmap.  Hold peers & shared services teams accountable (manage “due by” dates) for new development and fixes. Work with leadership to optimize and become internal lead for project management solutions (Asana). Audit existing utilization of project management tools & methodologies.

Departmental Budgeting:

-Budgeting: Manage operational budget lines.  Develop annual budgets in support of company revenue and growth plans, and ensure monthly execution aligns to plans.  Prepare formal monthly budget variance analysis/commentary and develop action plans to optimize the business or to address trends.  Report weekly and monthly to management team within expected timelines.

Freight and Logistics Management:

-Freight Management: Provide leadership to reports managing the freight and logistics functions (inbound from factory and outbound to customer).  Stay abreast of industry trends relevant to our operations.  Evaluate key partners (parcel, forwarding, brokerage) and ensure partnerships are aligned with business velocity and roadmap.

-Freight Spend Management: Lead monthly cross-functional freight review meetings to ensure Wholesale and Ecommerce freight programs are executing as expected, within budget and service level targets.  Collaborate with accounting and finance team to ensure validity of expected results.

Team Leadership and Performance Management:

-Team Leadership: Develop appropriate team structure, standard operating procedures and training protocols to drive operational excellence. 

-Performance Management: Set goals, perform mid-year and annual reviews, and manage performance of direct reports. Identify opportunities for team development, create improvement plans as required, and assist with the onboarding of new resources.  Create runways for growth for those managed.

Cross-Functional Responsibilities:

-Growth Support: Bring the voice and perspective of Operations to further brand growth efforts around the globe. This may include working collaboratively to establish operations in new geographies, integrating new service providers, and working internally to develop processes to support expansions.

-Launch and Availability Control Tower: Lead internal collaboration efforts to drive alignment across the organization.  Establish weekly and monthly review mechanisms to ensure customer commitments are met, inventory allocation challenges are addressed, and capacities are in line with revenue and production targets.  Highlight potential issues, risks, and constraints and develop plans to address.  Hold peers accountable for demand planning inputs.

-Reporting Standardization: Develop, maintain and socialize key operational metrics. 

-Process Standardization: Work cross-functionally with peers to establish and improve processes supporting the business. 

-Partner with key functions (Accounting, Finance, Distribution, Technology) to assist with business-critical efforts: MBOs, audit support, process improvement initiatives, etc.

Maintain and socialize operational metrics to include:

-Order Fulfillment to SLA

-Inbound processing to Start Dates

-PO’s placement vs Planned Buy Date

-Freight net expense to target by channel (% net sale)

-Distribution costs as a % sales

-Order work flow completed per period

-Open order review metrics (End of Month landing)

-Future forecasting

-Returns processing metrics

-Systems functionality status

-Turn Ratios (30, 60, 90 trailing)

-Merch Code metrics (% rev by code, long/aged inventory by code by channel)

Qualifications, Skills, Experience:

Education:

-Bachelor's or Master's degree in a business or engineering discipline.

Experience:

-Demonstrated career progression and leadership roles for the last 10+ years.

-Demonstrated supervisory and leadership experience a must.

-Formal direct experience within both Demand and Supply planning domains, 3PL management, DTC fulfillment and shipping, and sales operations a must

-Knowledge of Order to Cash process flows.

Skills:

-Excellent verbal, written and presentation communication skills, including leading and facilitating meetings with an executive audience.

-Excellent interpersonal, collaboration and organizational skills a must.

-Ability to analyze data, share information in a variety of mediums, and ability to incorporate information in decision making and communications.

-Strong systems aptitude, including ERP, WMS, etc.

-Proficiency in MS Office, Full Circle, DOMO is preferred.

-Enjoy working in a fast paced, high growth environment.

-Ability to work independently and as part of team.

Location & Office Structure: This full-time position is in office but as a leadership role expected as necessary in San Clemente, CA and subject to change based on business needs.  This position will require you to travel domestically and internationally from time to time.

Compensation: The salary range for this position is $140,000 to $170,000 plus opportunity for annual bonus (12-24%) ; salary is based on the experience that you bring to the position.

Benefits and Perks:

• Generous product gift program & all brand discounts
• 5 year and 10 year Anniversary gifts and travel to desirable destinations, in accordance with plan guidelines
• Wellness program
• Medical, Dental, Vision insurance in accordance with plan guidelines
• Company paid life insurance
• 401k with employer match in accordance with plan guidelines
• 15 Days of PTO plus one additional day of PTO every year on your anniversary and 3 Floating Holidays per year
• Paid beach & giveback days, bi annual team building events and other in person celebrations
• Work with talented & great people who share a love of melin
• Dog friendly office