Sr. Director, Engineering & Facilities

Barnes & Noble•Monroe Township, NJ

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Director of Engineering and Facilities provides strategic leadership and oversight of engineering, maintenance, automation, and facilities across both Distribution Centers. This role is accountable for ensuring operational reliability, safety, regulatory compliance, and scalable infrastructure to support business growth and service excellence. An employee in this position can expect an annual starting rate of $220,000 depending on experience, seniority, geographic location, and other factors permitted by law.

Requirements

Extensive experience independently leading complex, multi-site capital portfolios exceeding $250 million, with a proven track record of delivering large-scale projects that enhance operational and business growth.
Strategic thinker with deep expertise in financial planning, risk management, and change leadership, ensuring capital and operational initiatives align with long-term business objectives.
Proven ability to build and evaluate ROI models, business cases, and capital justifications. Experience partnering closely with Finance teams on investment decisions.
Strong technical and operational knowledge of distribution center infrastructure, automation, and engineering, with required experience bringing new facilities and critical systems online successfully.
Experience designing and implementing formal project governance frameworks.
Recognized for leading large-scale enterprise project portfolios involving automation, facilities and systems integration including setting priorities, aligning stakeholders, and ensuring successful execution across all teams and locations.
Ability to map operational processes to warehouse management system workflows.
Experienced in network analytics and modeling, using data-driven insights to optimize distribution strategy, capacity, and overall network performance.
High-level executive communication, with a track record of transforming complex initiatives into clear, actionable, and board-ready presentations.
Adept at vendor management and contract negotiation, fostering a strong partnership while driving cost-effective solutions.
Data-driven and results-oriented, leveraging analytics to guide decisions and improve performance across the operation.
On-site role with travel required, including regular visits to our Reno facility and other locations as needed.
Proven experience in defining operational requirements and leading enterprise-wide WMS implementations across multi-sites, translating technology investments into measurable business outcomes required.
Proven leader with 15+ years of experience overseeing facilities, WMS projects, capital projects, and teams with complex, large-scale distribution and industrial environments.
Experience managing multi-site capital portfolios with a minimum budget of 250M.
Proven success delivering complex automation and infrastructure projects.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering or equivalent work experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience in designing and implementing project governance frameworks is preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute long-term engineering and facilities strategies aligned with supply chain and corporate objectives, including modernization, automation, and growth roadmaps across multiple sites.
Lead enterprise project governance and execution to ensure discipline, scope control, risk mitigation, and on-time, on-budget delivery across multi-site capital programs.
Oversee capital and operating budgets, including ROI analysis, financial forecasting, and cost control to support strategic investment decisions.
Lead the requirements planning and operational system configuration and workflow development for warehouse management systems.
Work cross-functionally to lead the implementation of warehouse management systems, warehouse execution systems and warehouse control systems.
Build and lead high-performing engineering and facilities teams through coaching, development, and succession planning.
Ensure maximum uptime and reliability of material handling equipment, automation systems, and building systems through proactive maintenance and reliability engineering.
Develop and oversee an enterprise asset management framework that integrates Warehouse and Maintenance systems, lifecycle planning, and performance metrics to maximize uptime, reduce costs, and operational resilience.
Establish and monitor performance KPI’s for reliability, maintenance cost control, asset performance, and project delivery; provide executive reporting and dashboards.
Drive innovation in automation, sustainability, and facility optimization to improve productivity, reduce cost, and enhance service excellence.
Ensure compliance with safety, regulatory, and environmental requirements across all distribution centers.
Manage vendor and contractor relationships, including contract negotiations, performance management, and service delivery standards.