VP, Distribution Operations

Coke Florida Careers•Tampa, FL

11d•Onsite

About The Position

Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (Coke Florida), a family-owned independent Coca-Cola bottler, is seeking a VP, Distribution Operations based out of its Tampa location. The VP will establish the vision, strategy, and operating model for the distribution network, including distribution centers, warehouse operations and automation, inventory management, fleet operations, and field logistics. The role will drive enterprise-wide operational excellence, productivity, asset utilization, and the development of future distribution capabilities while ensuring service, safety, inventory, financial, and customer objectives are consistently achieved. The VP will lead the continued evolution of the distribution network by integrating people, processes, technology, automation, fleet, and infrastructure into a scalable, efficient, and resilient operation that supports continued growth. The position provides executive leadership across multiple distribution functions and facilities, sets enterprise standards and performance expectations, owns distribution budgets and forecasts, develops investment business cases, and works across departments to achieve company objectives. The role also leads a geographically dispersed organization, develops future leadership and workforce capabilities, and ensures compliance with applicable transportation, safety, environmental, company, and governance requirements.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Operations Management, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline.
15+ years of progressive leadership experience in distribution, automation, logistics, warehouse operations, fleet, transportation, or supply chain operations.
7+ years of progressive leadership leading large, complex, high-volume, multi-site operations, with responsibility for multiple levels of leadership.
Demonstrated experience leading operations within highly automated warehouses, including Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), Vertique warehouse automation, Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), TMS and ERP, fleet management systems, and supporting analytics.
Experience in an ASRS or Vertique environment, including system-driven workflows, throughput management, and operational recovery.
Demonstrated success leading operational transformation, productivity improvement, automation, and network optimization.
Strong financial acumen and experience managing significant operating and capital budgets.

Nice To Haves

CPG, beverage, manufacturing, distribution, or retail supply chain experience.
Master’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Engineering, or a related field.
Lean Six Sigma and/or APICS/ASCM certification.
Experience with warehouse automation, inventory optimization, fleet management, SAP, Manhattan WMS, Blue Yonder, labor management systems, and Power BI.
Experience managing statewide or multi-state operations.
Previous Coca-Cola System or bottler experience.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the enterprise warehouse and distribution strategy in alignment with company goals, customer requirements, and operational priorities.
Serve as the senior warehouse and distribution advisor to executive leadership.
Lead the long-term design, optimization, and evolution of the warehouse and distribution network.
Provide executive leadership for distribution centers, cross-docks, warehouse operations and automation, inventory management, fleet operations, and field logistics.
Establish enterprise operating standards, KPIs, performance expectations, and management routines that promote consistent execution and accountability.
Drive initiatives to improve scalability, operational resiliency, productivity, service, and cost performance.
Lead operating reviews, identify performance gaps, establish corrective actions, and drive continuous improvement.
Develop and execute the enterprise warehouse automation and distribution technology strategy, including the Vertique/ASRS environment and related automated material-handling systems.
Lead deployment and optimization of automation and material-handling technologies to improve safety, capacity, productivity, service, and cost.
Develop a long-term distribution capability roadmap integrating facilities, automation, fleet, technology, labor, and capacity requirements.
Partner with Engineering, Technology, and Operations to implement and integrate new capabilities and deliver expected business results.
Evaluate emerging technologies and operating models that strengthen distribution capabilities and competitive advantage.
Develop, test, and maintain network-wide contingency plans to protect business continuity and customer service during system outages or capacity constraints.
Establish enterprise inventory strategy, governance, controls, and operating standards across the distribution network.
Improve inventory accuracy, product availability, freshness, shrink, damage, and asset accountability, and establish clear ownership of inventory performance.
Partner with Manufacturing and Supply Chain teams to optimize inventory deployment and product flow throughout the network.
Develop and execute the enterprise fleet strategy for distribution and field operations.
Lead fleet operations, maintenance, asset reliability, utilization, and lifecycle management.
Improve fleet availability, preventive maintenance, equipment uptime, safety, and total cost of ownership.
Develop long-range fleet replacement and capital plans aligned with operational requirements and company growth.
Own distribution operating budgets, labor spending, fleet expenses, productivity commitments, and financial forecasts.
Drive productivity initiatives that improve operating margins, labor efficiency, asset utilization, and cost-per-case.
Lead business-case development for significant distribution, automation, fleet, and infrastructure investments and ensure investments deliver expected operational and financial benefits.
Ensure product availability and distribution performance support customer expectations and commercial objectives.
Partner with Sales and Commercial leadership to align distribution capabilities with market requirements.
Partner across Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Engineering, Technology, Safety, Human Resources, Procurement, and Finance to deliver enterprise objectives.
Improve on-time delivery, order fulfillment, customer service, inventory accuracy, warehouse productivity, and fleet reliability.
Lead a large, geographically dispersed organization across multiple distribution facilities and leadership levels.
Develop leadership succession pipelines and workforce strategies for current and future business needs.
Build a high-performance culture focused on accountability, associate development, customer service, and continuous improvement.
Develop organizational and technical capabilities for an increasingly automated and digitally enabled distribution network.
Ensure compliance with DOT, OSHA, environmental, company safety, and governance requirements.