Director Workflow Optimization & Capacity Planning

Shoppers Drug Mart•Toronto, ON

3d•CA$128,000 - CA$176,000•Onsite

About The Position

Shoppers Drug Mart is looking for a business analytics leader to help improve how pharmacy work is planned, measured, and executed across a national store network. This role leads a team with different skill sets across workflow analysis, capacity planning, labour modelling, and data analytics. The mandate is to turn operational data into better planning, forecasting tools, workflow insights, and practical recommendations for Pharmacy Operations. The Director will work across Pharmacy Operations, Finance, HR, Technology, and store-facing teams. The right candidate can take an ambiguous operational problem and move it through a structured path: problem framing, hypothesis development, measurement design, validation, analysis, insight, recommendation, and implementation. Labour planning is an important part of the portfolio, but the core skill set is broader: business analytics, operational judgment, planning discipline, model validation, stakeholder engagement, and execution.

Requirements

Progressive experience in business analytics, operational transformation, management consulting, capacity planning, supply chain planning, process improvement, or a related field.
Post-secondary education in Business Analytics, Operations Research, Engineering, Data Science, Computer Science, Finance, Economics, Business, or another analytical or operational discipline.
Experience leading teams with a mix of technical and business-facing skill sets.
Strong business and analytical acumen.
Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems, develop hypotheses, design measurement approaches, validate data, generate insight, and make practical recommendations.
Experience building, improving, or owning models, forecasts, planning tools, decision-support tools, or operational measurement frameworks.
Strong understanding of how analytics supports operational planning and decision-making.
Comfort working with financial, operational, productivity, and performance data.
Ability to challenge model assumptions, analytical outputs, business logic, and recommendations.
Strong stakeholder management skills, including the ability to influence across functions and levels.
Clear communication skills, including the ability to explain complex analysis in simple business language.
Comfort spending time in operations to understand workflow, constraints, and execution realities.

Nice To Haves

Experience with capacity planning, workforce planning, labour planning, scheduling, productivity modelling, or operational forecasting.
Consulting experience or experience leading cross-functional transformation work.
Experience with process improvement, Lean, workflow analysis, time studies, process mining, or other operational diagnostics.
Specific pharmacy, healthcare, or retail experience is helpful but not required.
Familiarity with SQL, Python, R, Power BI, Tableau, or similar analytics tools.
Experience supporting budgeting, annual planning, business cases, or productivity initiatives.

Responsibilities

Lead capacity planning, forecasting, and model improvement
Lead the ongoing development and improvement of pharmacy labour planning and forecasting models.
Own the business logic, assumptions, validation approach, and practical use of planning models.
Ensure models are accurate, explainable, operationally grounded, and useful for planning, budgeting, scheduling, and decision-making.
Assess model performance, identify gaps, test sensitivities, and recommend where the model needs to be refined or redesigned.
Support the rollout of planning models into new parts of the business, including assessment of local operating differences, implementation risks, and change requirements.
Partner with Finance, Operations, HR, and Technology to ensure planning outputs connect to enterprise planning, budgeting, and operational processes.
Strengthen measurement and validation
Define and improve the measurement approach for key pharmacy workflow, productivity, and capacity metrics.
Validate data sources, metric logic, assumptions, and model outputs before they are used for business decisions.
Build confidence in the numbers by being clear on what is known, what is estimated, and where uncertainty remains.
Use workflow data to identify bottlenecks, rework, queue time, wait time, hands-on time, dispensing time, and other process issues.
Segment stores and workflows to understand where standardization makes sense and where different operating approaches may be required.
Use methods such as operational diagnostics, process mapping, time studies, data mining, or process mining where appropriate.
Turn data into operational decisions
Translate business questions into structured analysis and clear decision points.
Test hypotheses and use data to confirm, challenge, or refine proposed operating changes.
Develop recommendations that are practical, measurable, and connected to store execution.
Build decision-support tools and business cases for workflow, capacity, and productivity initiatives.
Support pharmacy workflow redesign by identifying pain points, quantifying opportunities, and helping prioritize action.
Move work beyond analysis and into implementation.
Lead and develop the team
Lead a team with mixed capabilities across workflow design, labour modelling, analytics, and decision support.
Set clear priorities and standards for analytical quality, planning discipline, and validation.
Coach team members on problem framing, hypothesis testing, measurement, data validation, insight generation, and communication.
Provide enough analytical direction to challenge assumptions, pressure-test outputs, and improve the quality of the work.
Adapt leadership approach to different levels of experience and technical maturity.
Create a strong operating rhythm for the team, including prioritization, stakeholder management, issue escalation, and delivery tracking.
Remove barriers for the team by engaging the right partners and escalating issues early.