The Role:

Reporting to the Director of Logistics you will have full responsibility of our Port Union Distribution Center (CDC) and Plant Receiving Team.

At Kao, we offer amazing benefits that are available to you on your first day of employment (healthcare, 401(k) plus company match), 36 total days off (vacation + holidays + sick) and a reasonable salary range of $110,000 - $130,000.

What you will do:

Strategic Planning and Direction/Oversight for Central Distribution Center (CDC).
- Develop and implement medium to long-term strategies for CDC in alignment with Director of Logistics.
- Develop strategies for people, processes and technology management. Oversee the entire distribution center.
- Create strategic plans to harmonize and consolidate processes under the one-Kao umbrella. Coordinating with other departments & teams, such as transportation, facilities, quality, HR and customer logistics.
Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement.
- Focus on operational excellence within the distribution center, through people, processes and technology management.
- Understand how to apply Kaizen and Six Sigma methodologies, coaches team in these techniques. Initiate and support projects to improve operational processes, reduce errors, and increase productivity.
Budgeting and Cost Management.
- Full cost center responsibility including budgeting and cost control. Establish cost KPIs. Drive cost-saving plans for CDC.
- Ensure definition and monitoring of performance standards for all departments in the warehouse.
Leadership, Metrics and Team Management.
- Manage the entire CDC team, Consumer Care (CC), Salon and Plant Receiving Team. Direct the PU leadership team. Develop team members to highest performance levels.
- Focus on operational metrics like order accuracy, on-time shipping, inventory accuracy, warehouse capacity utilization, and workforce productivity.
Internal Customer Interaction - Vendor and Contract Management.
- Be the main point of contact for Kao team members using PU, ensuring that their needs are met and expectations are managed.
- Negotiate contracts with vendors delivering services to PU, e.g. equipment and maintenance vendors.
Safety, Compliance and Risk Management.
- Ensure a safe working environment and compliance with regulatory requirements, such as OSHA, EPA and FDA regulations. Identify and mitigate risk relative to PU.
Order Fulfillment, Distribution and Factory/Production Support.
- Oversight and direction in daily operations CC and Salon. Addresses any issues related to product damages, order inaccuracies, or delays in fulfillment.
- Collaborate with factory management to ensure high service level in production.

What you will need:

Bachelor's Degree.
Minimum 10 years of experience in warehousing.
Minimum 5 years in distribution center management (minimum 150,000 SF facility) with increasing responsibility.
Proven track record as a leader in a warehouse management system (WMS) implementation project — from design through go-live and stabilization. Experience collaborating across IT, process design, and operations to deliver measurable improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and scalability. This is a critical requirement for the role
Minimum 3 years in operational excellence experience with proven track record of continuous improvement implementations using methodologies such as Kaizen and 6 Sigma.
Knowledge of warehouse operations, including receiving, storage, picking, packing, and shipping processes. Familiarity with different material handling equipment.

How we work: Having been selected among the World's Most Ethical Companies for 18 consecutive years, we are a company with a purpose and strong corporate values. We never compromise on quality and create our products with care for the consumer and the environment. At Kao, each employee can actively shape their job and their career. We work collaboratively to achieve our common goals, always aiming to deliver the best for our customers.

What we offer: A friendly and flexible work environment with great compensation packages, benefits package, ongoing development and the opportunity to enhance your skills and deliver tangible results. At Kao your voice will be heard. Your opinion really counts. We believe that change comes from taking opportunities into your own hands, so we value and reward thinking and new ideas.

Hiring Process: Kao embraces the diversity and the individual personalities of its people because we believe it is diversity that makes us strong. This is why we welcome applications from all areas of the global community.

Want to learn more: If you feel you are as unique as our products and want to find out why 33,000 people across the globe opted for a career with us please visit our Americas website (https://www.kao.com/americas/en/).

Kao USA is an equal opportunity employer, including disability/ vets.

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Distribution Center Manager