Distribution and Logistics Director

Director, Distribution & Logistics – US / Canada

What You Will Do

The Director, Distribution & Logistics is responsible for leading a multi-site domestic distribution and logistics network, ensuring safe, reliable, cost-effective movement and delivery of products to customers and internal operations.

This leader has overall accountability for the performance of multiple distribution centers and warehouse operations, domestic transportation, inventory accuracy, reverse logistics, productivity, and customer delivery performance. The Director will establish and execute the operating strategy for the domestic distribution network while building consistent operating standards, management systems, and continuous improvement capabilities across all locations.

The position requires a highly visible, hands-on leader who can operate strategically while driving disciplined execution at the site level. The successful candidate will develop strong site leadership teams, establish accountability through meaningful KPIs, optimize the distribution network, and partner across Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Planning, Procurement, Sales, Customer Service, Finance, IT, and Product Business Units.

The Director will serve as the senior escalation point for domestic distribution and logistics performance and will be accountable for delivering improvements in safety, customer service, on-time delivery, cost, productivity, inventory accuracy, quality, and working capital.

How You Will Do It

Multi-Site Distribution Leadership

• Provide direct leadership and operational oversight for a multi-site domestic distribution and warehouse network.
• Establish a consistent operating model, management cadence, performance standards, and accountability across all distribution locations.
• Lead and develop Distribution Center and Logistics leaders, building a strong succession pipeline and high-performance culture.
• Ensure site operations achieve established targets for safety, quality, service, productivity, inventory, and cost.
• Balance enterprise-wide standardization with the specific operational needs of individual sites and businesses.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for significant distribution, transportation, capacity, inventory, and customer-service issues.

Customer Delivery & Service

• Own distribution execution supporting customer-requested delivery and overall service performance.
• Drive improvements in On-Time Delivery, order cycle time, shipment reliability, fill rate, and perfect-order performance.
• Partner with Planning, Manufacturing, Customer Service, and Commercial teams to identify and resolve systemic service issues.
• Establish effective root-cause and corrective-action processes for missed shipments, warehouse constraints, transportation failures, and recurring customer issues.

Domestic Transportation

• Provide leadership for domestic inbound, outbound, intercompany, and customer transportation.
• Optimize transportation modes, routing, consolidation, carrier utilization, and shipment planning.
• Partner with Procurement to establish carrier strategies, service expectations, contracts, and performance management processes.
• Manage transportation performance through metrics such as cost per shipment, cost per pound, freight as a percentage of sales, tender acceptance, claims, and on-time pickup/delivery.
• Drive reduction of premium freight and other avoidable logistics costs.

Network Strategy & Optimization

• Develop and execute the long-term strategy for the domestic distribution network.
• Evaluate warehouse footprint, capacity, customer proximity, transportation flows, service requirements, and total delivered cost.
• Develop business cases supporting facility investments, automation, consolidation, expansion, outsourcing, or network redesign.
• Lead distribution network optimization initiatives with minimal disruption to customers.
• Determine appropriate use of internal operations versus third-party logistics providers (3PLs).

Inventory & Warehouse Management

• Drive strong inventory control disciplines throughout the distribution network.
• Improve inventory accuracy, cycle count effectiveness, dock-to-stock time, order picking accuracy, space utilization, and inventory velocity.
• Partner with Supply Planning and Inventory Management teams to improve product positioning throughout the distribution network.
• Establish effective controls for excess, obsolete, damaged, quarantined, and returned inventory.
• Ensure appropriate processes for reverse logistics and returns.

Operational Excellence

• Build a continuous improvement culture across the distribution network using Lean, Daily Management, Standard Work, Visual Management, Kaizen, problem solving, and value-stream improvement.
• Establish standardized processes and operating procedures across sites where practical.
• Use data and operational analytics to identify productivity, service, capacity, and cost opportunities.
• Drive warehouse productivity through labor planning, process redesign, slotting, material flow, technology, and automation.
• Lead transformational initiatives that improve both customer experience and operating cost.

Financial Management

• Own the operating budget and financial performance for the domestic distribution and logistics organization.
• Develop annual operating plans, productivity commitments, capital requirements, and cost-reduction roadmaps.
• Manage warehouse, labor, transportation, 3PL, packaging, and related logistics expenses.
• Identify structural productivity opportunities and deliver sustainable year-over-year cost improvements.
• Partner with Finance to establish transparent cost reporting and appropriate operational controls.

Safety, Quality & Compliance

• Establish a culture where employee safety is a core operating principle across every distribution location.
• Ensure compliance with applicable company policies and federal, state, and local requirements governing warehouse and transportation operations.
• Drive corrective actions associated with safety incidents, quality issues, freight damage, and process failures.
• Partner with EHS, Quality, Trade Compliance, Legal, and Procurement organizations as required.
• Ensure third-party logistics partners and transportation providers meet company safety, quality, security, and operational standards.

People Leadership

• Build, coach, and develop a high-performing team of distribution and logistics professionals.
• Establish clear accountability and performance expectations for site leaders.
• Develop succession plans for critical leadership positions and build a sustainable logistics talent pipeline.
• Create an environment of accountability, inclusion, continuous learning, problem solving, and employee engagement.
• Lead through influence across businesses, functions, and sites to drive enterprise-level change.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

The Director will establish and drive performance across a balanced scorecard including:

People & Safety

• Recordable and lost-time incidents
• Employee engagement
• Leadership development
• Succession coverage
• Turnover

Customer

• On-Time Delivery to customer-requested delivery date
• Order cycle time
• Perfect order / shipment accuracy
• Customer complaints

Inventory

• Inventory accuracy
• Cycle count performance
• Inventory turns
• Excess and obsolete inventory
• Damage and shrinkage

Operations

• Warehouse productivity
• Lines/orders per labor hour
• Dock-to-stock time
• Picking and shipping accuracy
• Distribution center capacity utilization

Transportation

• Freight cost
• Premium freight
• On-time pickup/delivery
• Carrier performance
• Freight claims/damage

Financial

• Labor productivity
• Year-over-year productivity savings

What We Look For

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Operations, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of progressive supply chain, distribution, warehousing, or logistics experience, with significant leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience leading multiple distribution centers, warehouses, or logistics operations.
• Strong experience managing domestic transportation and carrier performance.
• Proven experience improving customer delivery, distribution cost, productivity, and inventory performance.
• Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale operational change across multiple locations.
• Strong understanding of warehouse management processes, inventory control, transportation management, and distribution operations.
• Strong financial and business acumen with experience managing significant operating budgets.
• Proven ability to develop leaders and build high-performing teams.
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to collaborate and influence across Supply Chain, Operations, Commercial, Finance, Procurement, IT, and functional leadership.
• Ability to travel regularly across the domestic distribution network.

Preferred

• Master’s degree or MBA.
• Experience with Lean / continuous improvement operating systems.
• Experience with warehouse automation, WMS/TMS platforms, data analytics, and digital logistics tools.
• Experience leading distribution network optimization, warehouse start-ups, consolidations, or significant operational transformations.
• Experience managing third-party logistics providers and outsourced warehouse operations.
• Experience within a complex, multi-business industrial or manufacturing organization.

Leadership Profile

The ideal candidate is:

• Enterprise-minded: Makes decisions based on what is best for the overall business and customer.
• Customer-focused: Connects distribution performance directly to customer experience.
• Data-driven: Uses operational and financial data to identify root causes and make decisions.
• Results-oriented: Creates clear accountability and consistently delivers measurable results.
• Change-oriented: Comfortable transforming processes, organizations, networks, and technology.
• Talent-focused: Builds strong leaders rather than personally solving every operational problem.
• Operationally credible: Can move comfortably between executive strategy discussions and the distribution center floor.

#LI-Onsite

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $163,000-222,000 (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, location and alignment with market data.) This position includes a competitive benefits package. For details, please visit the About Us tab on the Johnson Controls Careers site at https://jobs.johnsoncontrols.com/about-us

Johnson Controls International plc. is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a qualified individual with a disability or any other characteristic protected by law. To view more information about your equal opportunity and non-discrimination rights as a candidate, visit EEO is the Law. If you are an individual with a disability and you require an accommodation during the application process, please visit here.