Senior Manager, DC Operations

About Vision

Fueled by innovation at the intersection of biology and technology, we’re developing the next generation of smarter, less invasive, more personalized treatments.

Are you passionate about improving and expanding on the possibilities of vision treatments? Ready to join a team that’s reimagining how vision is improved? Our Vision team solves the toughest health challenges. Help combine cutting-edge insights, science, technology, and people to encourage eye care professionals and patients to proactively protect, correct and enhance healthy sight for life. Our products and services address these needs – from the pediatric to aging eye – in a patient’s lifetime.

Your unique talents will help patients on their journey to wellness. Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/medtech

Job Summary

The Senior Manager, Distribution Center Operations serves as the site leader for a large‑scale distribution center and is accountable for end‑to‑end operational performance within the four walls of the facility. This role owns service, cost, safety, inventory integrity, and customer experience, while acting as the primary operational integrator across internal teams, cross‑functional partners, and third‑party logistics (3PL) providers.

This position requires demonstrated experience leading complex operational transitions, including overseeing cross‑functional teams through periods of significant change, and then assuming full ownership of steady‑state operations. The role operates with a strong bias toward governance, decision‑making, and risk management, rather than hands‑on execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the distribution center through major operational transitions, including changes to systems, processes, organizational structure, or operating model.
• Provide direct leadership to cross‑functional operational teams during transition periods to ensure continuity of service, safety, and inventory integrity.
• Act as the single accountable leader for operational readiness, execution discipline, and risk mitigation, ensuring transitions are absorbed into stable, auditable, steady‑state operations.
• Own daily, weekly, and monthly performance of the distribution center, including OTIF, throughput, cost, safety, and inventory accuracy.
• Lead and develop all internal DC operations teams across inbound, receiving, returns, destructions, order management, and administrative workflows.
• Balance internal execution with 3PL throughput to ensure customer commitments and carrier cutoffs are consistently met.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for operational disruptions, service risks, and execution issues originating within the DC.
• Partner closely with Inventory Management to ensure inventory accuracy, quarantine discipline, release readiness, and new product stabilization are consistently maintained.
• Protect the customer promise by enforcing disciplined execution during peak periods, operational changes, and system transitions.
• Lead, coach, and develop a multi‑layer leadership team including managers, supervisors, team leads, and professional contributors.
• Establish a strong performance culture grounded in safety, accountability, standard work, and continuous improvement.
• Chair Tier 2 / Tier 3 daily management routines and enforce root‑cause problem‑solving discipline.
• Act as the primary operational interface across Inventory, Transportation, Operational Excellence, EH&S, Technology, and 3PL leadership.
• Ensure clear decision rights and disciplined handoffs between governance functions and execution teams.
• Provide operational leadership during technology deployments, process changes, and network transitions.
• Own operating cost performance for internal DC operations, including labor, consumables, and operating expense control.
• Ensure compliance with safety, regulatory, and quality requirements, maintaining audit readiness at all times.
• Identify and mitigate operational risks that could impact service, cost, safety, or compliance.

Key Outputs / Success Measures

• Stable operational performance through periods of change
• Sustained on‑time, in‑full (OTIF) performance
• Predictable, steady‑state operations across multiple shifts
• High inventory accuracy with clean audit outcomes
• Strong safety performance with minimal incidents

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Logistics, Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering, or related field
• 8-10 years of progressively responsible distribution/warehouse operations experience, including senior‑level leadership of large, multi‑shift distribution centers with significant labor and throughput complexity.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, enterprise-scale operational transitions, (e.g., operating model changes, network changes, major system implementations) and then owning steady‑state performance.
• Proven ability to lead large, multi‑layer organizations through change, including managers, supervisors, and front‑line teams.
• Strong operational, financial, and safety leadership capability with accountability for service, cost, and compliance outcomes
• Strong understanding of WMS‑enabled operations, inventory control, and order management flows.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience operating in hybrid models where internal teams govern execution performed by 3PL partners.
• Experience leading operations through system or process transformations with minimal service disruption
• Lean / Continuous Improvement leadership experience in a distribution environment.
• Experience operating with formal tiered management systems (e.g., daily management, escalation routines, performance cadence).
• Experience partnering closely with IT, inventory, and transportation teams during periods of operational change