Senior Operations Director, Americas

Cencora•Cary, NC

About The Position

The Senior Operations Director, Americas provides strategic leadership and operational oversight across North America and Latin America for Cencora’s global logistics and storage services marketed through World Courier. Reporting to the Vice President Operations and partnering with regional, country and functional leaders, this role is accountable for safe, compliant, reliable and financially disciplined operations across a geographically diverse network. The role develops and executes the Americas operations strategy, establishes common performance and governance standards, and ensures global requirements are applied consistently while allowing justified adaptations for legal, regulatory, infrastructure and market conditions. It connects country execution with regional priorities and builds an integrated operating model across stations, depots, brokerage, packaging, fleet, facilities and service partners. The position also leads regional and country operational leaders and collaborates across functions to deliver customer outcomes, manage risk, improve performance and support sustainable growth.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Finance, Engineering or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Minimum of 8–10 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in logistics, supply chain, transportation, operations or a related industry.
Experience leading multi-site, multi-country and geographically dispersed operations, including through country leaders and matrixed functional partnerships.
Demonstrated success managing operational performance, financial results, regulatory and quality requirements, service partners and organizational change.
Deep understanding of logistics, transportation, warehousing and supply-chain practices, with working knowledge of customs, international trade and cross-border operations.
Strong business and financial acumen, including experience using KPIs, productivity measures, cost drivers and investment cases to improve performance.
Knowledge of transportation management, operational reporting and data-analysis tools.
Ability to interpret and govern differing country requirements while preserving regional consistency and control.
Proven ability to lead through other leaders, influence in a matrix organization and build alignment across countries, functions and cultures.
Excellent verbal, written and presentation communication skills, including ability to communicate with frontline teams, senior leaders, customers and external partners.
Willingness and ability to travel across the Americas as required.
Strong analytical, critical-thinking and decision-making skills in complex and time-sensitive operating environments.
Excellent organization, prioritization and follow-through, with focus on customer impact, risk and measurable outcomes.
Continuous-improvement mindset and ability to turn performance insights into sustained operational change.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
Experience with operational systems, reporting platforms and data-visualization tools used to manage a geographically dispersed network.

Nice To Haves

Experience in international, cross-border or regulated logistics environments; exposure to both directly operated and partner-supported markets is preferred.
Additional language capability relevant to the Americas region is an asset.

Responsibilities

Align regional priorities with global business objectives, customer commitments and financial plans, serving as a business partner to the Regional Vice President and senior operations representative.
Lead an integrated Americas operating model with common standards, governance and performance expectations across countries and clusters, while recognizing valid local requirements.
Monitor service, quality, productivity, cost, capacity, compliance and customer-outcome KPIs, and translate results into recovery or improvement actions.
Partner with Commercial and service-line leaders to assess operational readiness, support sustainable growth and ensure new business commitments can be delivered reliably.
Represent Americas Operations in regional and global forums, escalating material risks and coordinating cross-functional or cross-border decisions.
Oversee station operations, regulated pharmaceutical storage and distribution depots, brokerage interfaces, packaging, fleet, facilities and operational equipment across the region.
Drive consistent operating routines, tiered performance reviews and continuous-improvement practices, sharing proven practices across the network.
Oversee capacity, workforce and contingency planning across countries, time zones and operating environments to protect service during growth, disruption and seasonal demand.
Monitor operational and financial performance across locations, prepare consolidated regional reporting and ensure country actions support regional commitments.
Use operational systems, data and process controls to improve shipment visibility, execution discipline, data quality and decision-making.
Guide operating-model decisions where infrastructure, shipment volumes, customs practices or internal capabilities differ by country, keeping local solutions aligned with regional controls and global standards.
Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, security programs, customs and trade requirements, quality standards, SOPs and corporate policies in every country of operation.
Ensure facilities and depots meet applicable pharmaceutical storage, distribution, security, quality and regulatory requirements.
Partner with Quality, Security, Trade Compliance and country leaders to maintain audit readiness, regulatory inventories, documented ownership, and timely closure of findings and corrective actions.
Govern incident, deviation, exception-reporting, investigation, root-cause-analysis and corrective/preventive-action processes, addressing repeated failures at regional level.
Maintain business-continuity and operational-risk plans for critical facilities, routes, systems, suppliers and service partners.
Ensure local exceptions to global standards are documented, risk assessed, appropriately approved and periodically reviewed.
Ensure country operations identify, maintain and monitor licenses, permits, registrations and local operating requirements for transport, depots, customs, environmental, health and safety activities.
Partner with Brokerage, Customs and Trade Compliance teams to support efficient, compliant clearance and clear ownership across operational hand-offs.
Oversee regional governance for agents, carriers, vendors and outsourced operational providers using service, quality, cost, compliance and capacity measures.
Build and maintain relationships with customers, regulatory authorities, airlines, ground handlers, customs providers and other critical partners.
Ensure service-partner models are scalable, resilient and capable of supporting specialized and time- or temperature-critical services.
Govern agent, subcontractor and other service-partner operations, including capability assessment, onboarding, service standards, performance management, risk mitigation and continuity planning.
Strengthen airfreight and ground-transport sourcing discipline, vendor-cost visibility, rate governance and alternative-routing capability across markets.
Lead, coach and develop regional and country operational leaders, setting clear accountabilities, decision rights and performance expectations.
Partner with Human Resources and Talent Acquisition on organization design, workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, succession, retention and leadership capability.
Ensure role-based training is current, documented and completed consistently, including recurrent, compliance and specialized-service training.
Build an inclusive, accountable and collaborative culture connecting North America and Latin America as one regional team while respecting language, cultural and market differences.
Ensure performance-management and compensation processes are completed in line with company policy and applicable local requirements.
Oversee regional requirements for facilities, depots, fleet, operational equipment and packaging assets, including utilization, maintenance, replacement and investment planning.
Ensure locations provide safe, secure, compliant and reliable operating environments and that material facility or equipment risks have funded action plans.
Partner with Finance and Procurement to prioritize investments, manage total cost and standardize assets where this improves safety, service, compliance or scalability.
Partner with Finance and country teams to improve intercompany accuracy, local cost controls and operational-profitability visibility without weakening service or compliance.
Partner across Customer Service, Commercial, Quality, Finance, Human Resources, Technology, Procurement and service-line teams to deliver an effective end-to-end customer journey.
Support strategic customer reviews, service recovery and operational solution design where regional leadership is required.
Create clear escalation paths and communication routines across countries and functions, ensuring decisions and commitments are executed.
Promote clear cross-border processes, documentation standards and customer communication for complex import and export movements across the Americas.
Perform other duties and responsibilities consistent with the scope and level of the role.