Supply Chain Lead

Blend360•Columbia, MD

About The Position

Blend is seeking a seasoned supply chain strategist to join our team and lead end-to-end discovery engagements for global apparel and footwear brands building next-generation supply chain control towers. The Discovery Lead owns the 6–10 week assessment that produces a current-state diagnostic, target-state vision, sequenced 2–3 year transformation roadmap, and capital investment case. This role is the client’s primary interlocutor from kickoff through roadmap sign-off and must be equally credible with a Chief Supply Chain Officer and a warehouse operations manager.

Requirements

12+ years in supply chain consulting, transformation, or operations leadership, with at least 5 years in a client-facing advisory or delivery lead role.
Demonstrated experience in apparel, footwear, or fashion retail supply chains – including familiarity with seasonal demand patterns, color/size/style matrices, 12–18 month sourcing lead times from Asian factories, and omnichannel fulfillment.
Deep working knowledge of demand planning, supply planning, S&OP/IBP processes, inventory optimization, and allocation. Ability to assess maturity and design target-state processes.
Prior involvement in designing, implementing, or operating a supply chain control tower, nerve center, or exception-management platform.
Practical understanding of master data management, data governance, and system integration patterns (APIs, middleware, data lakes). Able to evaluate data readiness without conducting a months-long audit.
Experience building business cases, TCO models, and value-attribution frameworks for multi-year supply chain programs.
Executive-level presentation and facilitation skills. Comfortable presenting to C-suite audiences and translating technical concepts into business language.
Bachelor’s degree required

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree in supply chain, operations research, or industrial engineering preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead Discovery Engagements: Own the end-to-end discovery lifecycle – stakeholder interviews, process walkthroughs, data audits, current-state assessment, and gap analysis across plan, source, make, deliver, and return.
Build the Control Tower Vision: Define what a supply chain control tower looks like at each maturity horizon – from visibility and exception detection through constraint-aware recommendations to agentic automation of routine decisions.
Develop Sequenced Roadmaps: Translate findings into a phased 2–3 year implementation roadmap that balances foundational data work, quick wins, and advanced capability build-out. Clearly articulate the sequencing logic (dependency-driven, ROI-driven, or hybrid).
Quantify the Business Case: Build defensible TCO, ROI, and value-attribution models. Partner with client finance teams to stress-test assumptions and produce board-ready investment cases.
Assess Data Foundations: Evaluate master data maturity, data lineage, governance, and integration readiness. Identify binding constraints early and design parallel workstreams where data remediation and solution build can co-exist.
Engage Senior Stakeholders: Serve as the trusted advisor to C-suite and VP-level supply chain leaders. Facilitate executive workshops, present findings, and navigate organizational politics with credibility.
Coordinate Delivery Teams: Direct a cross-functional team of functional analysts, data engineers, and solution architects during discovery. Define workstream charters, manage timelines, and ensure deliverable quality.
Evaluate Technology Fit: Assess integration requirements against existing ERP, planning, and WMS platforms (SAP, Oracle, Blue Yonder, Kinaxis, o9, etc.). Recommend build-vs-buy-vs-integrate strategies without defaulting to rip-and-replace.