Associate Director of Operations (USA)

Wild Cosmetics•New York, NY

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Wild is seeking a highly skilled, proactive Associate Director of Operations to lead fulfilment operations across the United States. This role owns operational performance across DTC, Amazon, and major US retail channels, including Walmart and Target, and serves as the senior operational partner to the US 3PL and logistics network. The position combines strategic planning with hands-on leadership to deliver excellent customer experience, retail service performance, and cost efficiency as the business scales. It leads a team of two and helps shape the growth of Operations in a key market. The role is based at Wild’s new Manhattan, NYC office, with three days per week in the office. The successful candidate will be an employee of Unilever; hiring is managed by Unilever’s Talent Acquisition team. Compensation and benefits details are available through the Unilever careers site.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in US Operations or fulfilment leadership roles.
Deep Walmart and Target fulfilment experience, including vendor compliance.
Proven track record leading 3PL relationships and logistics performance.
Strong financial acumen and experience with P&L accountability.
Experience in high-growth, omnichannel consumer brands; beauty or personal care experience is ideal.
Proven experience managing relationships and performance for large US retailers.
Ability to work strategically and hands-on in a scaling environment.
Strong partner management skills and clear executive-level communication skills.
Strong people leadership skills, including the ability to coach, motivate, and develop teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience in beauty or personal care consumer brands.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end US fulfilment and logistics execution across DTC, Amazon, and retail channels.
Deliver performance across OTIF, dispatch SLAs, carrier delivery, and DTC inventory accuracy; ensure timely retail display builds and pipefills, reduce chargebacks, and improve on-shelf availability.
Define regional customer experience strategy and lead systemic improvements to customer experience.
Set performance standards and conduct regular business reviews with the Operations team and 3PL partners.
Run structured SLA reviews and quarterly business reviews, holding partners accountable to performance expectations and contractual commitments.
Drive continuous improvement across partners by setting KPIs and action plans.
Act as the primary escalation point and strategic relationship owner for US suppliers and logistics partners.
Own US fulfilment KPIs across the P&L and balance sheet.
Lead logistics partner negotiations and identify and execute margin improvement opportunities across the value chain.
Build scalable operational processes, automation, and efficiency with the wider Operations team.
Implement tooling upgrades to improve performance visibility and decision-making, and simplify operations by reducing reliance on manual processes.
Lead cross-functional projects, including retailer expansion, new channels, and retail pipefill or display initiatives, ensuring strong launch execution and service performance.
Manage project risks, communications, dependencies, and delivery plans; align operational and supply chain readiness with commercial priorities.
Coordinate the local US rollout of global strategic initiatives and manage dependencies across Supply Chain, Retail, Tech, Finance, and CX.
Coordinate with global supply planning teams to minimize out-of-stocks and maintain stock availability and inventory health.
Ensure replenishment planning meets demand across sales channels and lead procurement in line with the global procurement strategy.
Work with the global Quality team on product quality and production process issues involving US suppliers.
Lead and develop the US Operations team, identified as an Ops Manager and Ops Executive.
Build a high-performance team culture focused on continuous improvement, proactive problem solving, and commercial awareness.
Support organizational growth through hiring, coaching, and capability building; establish accountability, coaching, and development plans.