Director, Inventory – Planning & Replenishment

Genuine Parts Company•Jacksonville, FL

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Genuine Parts Company (GPC) is seeking a Director of Inventory Planning & Replenishment to lead the technology strategy, engineering delivery and operational health of its inventory planning, assortment decisioning and replenishment platforms. These include the Pulse.ai assortment planning application, the APS / RELEX platform and the Manhattan Demand Forecasting & Inventory Optimization (DFIO) platform during its transition and retirement. The Director will lead a multi-year shift from legacy, distribution-center-centric planning to integrated, multi-echelon planning across stores, flow centers, distribution centers and suppliers. The position is accountable for scalable forecasting, inventory optimization, assortment recommendations and automated replenishment, while sustaining business continuity and migrating capabilities to the target platform. This leader will translate merchandising, inventory and supply chain objectives into a product and platform roadmap, combining package implementation expertise with cloud, data and AI engineering leadership, operational discipline and business partnership. The role is based at either the Duluth or Atlanta office. GPC’s Flexible Work Policy permits eligible employees to work a hybrid remote schedule.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, supply chain, operations research, analytics, business or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
12+ years of relevant technology, product, engineering or supply chain systems experience, including significant leadership responsibility across multiple teams or platforms.
Experience implementing and operating enterprise supply chain planning solutions such as RELEX, Manhattan Associates, Blue Yonder, SAP IBP, Kinaxis or comparable APS platforms in a large retail, wholesale or distribution environment.
Deep knowledge of demand forecasting, inventory optimization, safety stock, service levels, replenishment, assortment planning, multi-echelon inventory optimization, allocation and supplier collaboration.
Experience leading a major package implementation and migration from a legacy planning platform while sustaining business-critical operations.
Experience with AI/ML-enabled decision products, model lifecycle management, feature and data pipelines, explainability, experimentation and production monitoring.
Strong technical understanding of cloud platforms, modern data architectures, APIs, event-driven integration, DevSecOps, automated testing, observability and platform resiliency.
Ability to connect business outcomes to product roadmaps and measurable KPIs, and communicate investment decisions, risks and progress to executive audiences.
Ability to lead in a fast-paced, fluid environment where priorities shift and delivery requires cross-functional alignment across technology and business organizations.
Experience recruiting, managing, coaching and retaining managers, engineers, architects, data scientists and product professionals in a blended employee, contractor and partner model.
Strong vendor, contract, financial and delivery management capabilities, including CapEx / OpEx planning, benefits tracking and total-cost-of-ownership management.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree.
Google Cloud Platform experience.
Industry recognition, significant domain expertise or a record of thought leadership within supply chain planning, inventory management or retail technology.

Responsibilities

Own the technology strategy, target architecture and multi-year roadmap for Inventory Planning & Replenishment, including Pulse.ai, APS / RELEX, DFIO, and supporting integrations, data products and analytics.
Lead implementation and scaled rollout of APS / RELEX for forecasting, inventory optimization, automated replenishment, multi-echelon planning, scenario simulation and supplier collaboration.
Maintain DFIO’s reliability, scalability and business continuity during transition; prioritize enhancements, integrations and controls, and execute its retirement plan as APS capabilities are deployed.
Advance Pulse.ai as an AI-guided assortment and inventory decision platform, including inventory health scoring, Best-In / Worst-Out recommendations, matching parts, space and budget scenarios, explainability and enterprise planning integration.
Establish an integrated operating model connecting assortment planning, demand forecasting, inventory placement, replenishment and allocation from supplier through store.
Partner with Inventory, Merchandising, Store Operations, Network Transformation, Finance, Product Management, Data & Analytics and enterprise architecture leaders to define outcomes, prioritize capabilities and drive adoption.
Build and lead engineering, data science, product and platform teams; recruit, coach and develop managers and technical leaders and establish accountability across employees, contractors and implementation partners.
Provide engineering accountability for platform design, configuration, custom development, data pipelines, APIs, testing, release management, observability, security, resiliency and production support.
Ensure data quality and model governance for forecasts, inventory signals, item and location masters, supplier data, order recommendations and downstream execution feeds; establish monitoring, reconciliation and scorecards.
Drive planner adoption and process change toward exception-based management; partner with business leaders on training, standard operating procedures and benefit realization.
Define and manage platform and business outcomes, including in-stock performance, forecast accuracy and bias, inventory dollars and days of supply, replenishment automation, planner productivity, recommendation adoption, supplier OTIF, platform availability and incident recovery.
Simplify the application landscape, reduce technical debt and total cost of ownership, and decommission legacy platforms, interfaces and infrastructure at appropriate cutover points.
Lead vendor and systems-integrator relationships, covering delivery performance, architecture quality, commercial adherence, knowledge transfer, support readiness and long-term sustainability.
Own annual CapEx and OpEx planning for the domain, manage delivery and run spending within approved budgets, and communicate trade-offs, risks and benefits to senior leadership.
Promote agile product delivery and DevSecOps practices that support incremental business value, automated quality, predictable releases and rapid learning.
Perform other duties as assigned.