Distribution Center Manager

This role can be located at the following locations:

Columbus, OH

St Louis, MO

Minneapolis, MN

Position Summary

The On-Site Distribution Center Manager serves as Circle K’s dedicated operational representative within an assigned McLane distribution center. This position acts as the primary connection between Circle K, McLane, transportation operations, and Circle K stores.

The role is responsible for ensuring McLane consistently delivers against Circle K’s expectations for on-time delivery, order accuracy, product availability, transportation performance, cost control, inventory integrity, and store service.

This is a highly visible, hands-on operational position. The Manager will spend significant time on the DC floor, in transportation operations, reviewing routes and loads, analyzing performance data, and identifying issues before they impact Circle K stores.

The Manager does not directly manage McLane associates. Instead, the position drives performance through data, operational visibility, relationships, accountability, escalation, and structured follow-up. The successful candidate must be comfortable challenging performance constructively while maintaining a strong working partnership with McLane leadership.

1. Daily Operational Oversight

• Serve as Circle K's on-site representative within the McLane DC and maintain daily visibility into operations supporting Circle K.
• Monitor receiving, inventory, picking, loading, dispatch, transportation, and delivery performance.
• Review daily Circle K volume, route plans, staffing levels, driver coverage, equipment availability, and operational constraints.
• Identify potential service failures before they impact stores and work with McLane leadership to develop immediate recovery plans.
• Maintain regular floor presence rather than managing solely through reports and meetings.

2. On-Time Delivery Performance

• Own the daily review of Circle K delivery performance from the customer perspective.
• Track on-time delivery percentage, late deliveries, dispatch delays, route duration, driver dwell, DC departure performance, store arrival performance, routes exceeding planned hours, and repeated problem routes.
• Conduct root-cause analysis on service failures and distinguish between issues caused by DC operations, transportation, driver staffing, route design, store conditions, weather, or other factors.
• Ensure corrective actions have clear owners and completion dates.

3. Driver Staffing & Travel Driver Management

• Maintain visibility into permanent driver staffing levels supporting Circle K.
• Monitor driver vacancies, recruiting pipeline, new driver starts, training completion, driver turnover, 30/60/90-day retention, overtime, travel-driver utilization, routes covered by travel drivers, and excessive driver hours.
• Challenge recurring dependence on travel drivers and ensure McLane maintains a documented plan for transitioning to a sustainable permanent-driver workforce.

4. Transportation & Travel Driver Expense

• Review transportation expenses associated with supporting Circle K, with particular attention to premium and non-standard costs.
• Monitor travel-driver expenses including hotels, airfare, rental vehicles, mileage, per diem, overtime, travel time, and other premium driver expenses.
• Compare travel-driver cost per route against permanently assigned driver cost.
• Identify opportunities to reduce transportation cost without negatively affecting store service.
• Escalate recurring expenses that appear to result from structural staffing, routing, or operational issues.

5. Route Optimization

• Partner with McLane transportation and Circle K leadership to evaluate route design and delivery schedules.
• Analyze miles per route, stops per route, planned versus actual route hours, store delivery windows, driver utilization, route consistency, equipment utilization, cost per delivery, and cost per route.
• Identify routes that are operationally unrealistic or consistently create service failures.
• Recommend changes to improve service, driver quality of life, productivity, and cost-to-serve.

6. Store Experience

• Maintain direct visibility into how DC and transportation performance impacts Circle K stores.
• Periodically visit stores and speak directly with store leadership regarding delivery reliability, delivery timing, mis-ships, shorts, damages, driver consistency, order accuracy, product availability, and delivery execution.
• Use store feedback alongside McLane performance data to identify systemic issues.
• Represent the voice of the Circle K store inside the distribution center.

7. Inventory & Order Accuracy

• Monitor inventory accuracy and service issues impacting Circle K.
• Track shorts, mis-picks, mis-ships, damages, out-of-stocks, substitutions, claims, inventory adjustments, and repeat SKU issues.
• Partner with McLane to identify root causes and establish corrective actions for recurring problems.

8. Financial & Cost-to-Serve Management

• Develop visibility into the true cost of servicing Circle K through the assigned DC.
• Monitor transportation cost, premium freight, travel-driver expense, overtime, route cost, cost per case, cost per stop, claims and damages, re-deliveries, and service recovery costs.
• Identify opportunities to remove unnecessary cost while protecting service.

9. Performance Management & Accountability

• Maintain a structured Circle K/McLane performance scorecard covering service, transportation, operations, and financial performance.
• Key measures should include On-Time Delivery %, Order Accuracy %, Fill Rate, store service issues, planned vs. actual route hours, late routes, driver staffing %, travel drivers used, travel-driver expense, driver overtime, routes exceeding target hours, picking/loading accuracy, damages, shorts, mis-ships, cost per case, cost per stop, cost per route, and premium transportation expense.
• Ensure significant performance gaps have documented Root Cause → Corrective Action → Owner → Due Date → Result.

10. Communication & Escalation

• Provide Circle K leadership with clear, fact-based visibility into McLane performance.
• Escalate issues based on business impact rather than simply forwarding problems.
• When escalating an issue, provide: What happened; why it happened; store/business impact; immediate containment; long-term corrective action; owner; and expected resolution date.
• Develop strong relationships with McLane DC leadership, transportation leadership, operations teams, drivers, and Circle K field/store leadership.

Weekly Deliverables to Circle K Director

• Overall DC Health – Green / Yellow / Red assessment.
• Service Performance – On-time delivery, fill rate, order accuracy and major service failures.
• Transportation – Driver staffing, travel drivers, overtime, route performance and transportation constraints.
• Cost – Travel-driver expense, premium transportation expenses and unusual cost activity.
• Store Feedback – Major recurring store concerns or trends.
• Top 5 Risks – Issues that could materially impact Circle K service or cost.
• Corrective Actions – Open actions, responsible owners and due dates.
• Decisions Needed – Issues requiring Circle K leadership involvement.

Qualifications – Required

• 3-7+ years of distribution, transportation, logistics, supply chain, or 3PL operations experience.
• 3+ years of leadership or operational management experience.
• Strong understanding of high-volume distribution center operations and transportation/route delivery.
• Experience working with 3PL providers or outsourced logistics operations.
• Strong analytical and financial skills with the ability to interpret operational KPIs and identify root causes.
• Strong Excel/data-analysis capability and excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to influence partners without direct authority.
• Willingness to work on-site and maintain significant operational floor presence.

Qualifications – Preferred

• Convenience-store, grocery, foodservice, retail, or consumer-products distribution experience.
• Experience managing or overseeing dedicated contract carriage or private-fleet operations.
• Experience with driver recruiting and retention, route optimization, 3PL performance and contractual KPIs.
• Continuous-improvement / Lean experience.

Leadership Profile

• Operationally curious – does not accept surface-level explanations.
• Data driven – uses facts to separate symptoms from root causes.
• Visible – spends time where the work actually happens.
• Diplomatic but firm – protects the partnership while holding McLane accountable.
• Financially minded – understands that service and cost must be managed together.
• Store focused – recognizes that the ultimate customer is the Circle K store.
• Proactive – identifies tomorrow's problem today.
• Independent – knows when to solve an issue locally and when Circle K leadership needs to become involved.

Measures of Success

• Sustainable 95%+ On-Time Delivery.
• Improved order accuracy and fill rate.
• Reduced store complaints.
• Reduced travel-driver dependency and premium transportation expense.
• Improved permanent-driver staffing and retention.
• Improved route consistency and reduced excessive driver hours.
• Improved cost per case, stop, and route.
• Faster closure of corrective actions.
• Stronger operational partnership between Circle K and McLane.

Core Purpose of the Role

Compensation range 80-90k

Protect Circle K's stores by ensuring that every case, every route, every delivery, and every dollar spent through the McLane partnership receives the operational visibility and accountability expected of a Circle K-owned distribution operation.

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Circle K is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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