Vice President Operations

Company Overview

Family-owned and rooted in purpose for over 30 years, our client is a wholesale distributor of design-forward ceramics, vases, and home décor serving the floral, event, and wedding industries. With a steadfast commitment to offering customers nothing less than the finest and most innovative products, they embark on a globe-trotting quest every season to curate a cutting-edge collection that defines the forefront of today's style and design trends.

Position Overview

Our client is seeking a Vice President of Operations to serve as the operational lead of the organization. Reporting directly to the President, this leader will oversee four core departments, including Operations, Transportation, Customer Success, and IT. The VP of Operations will be equally at home developing a long-range strategy and rolling up their sleeves to implement it alongside their teams.

The ideal candidate brings sharp analytical instincts, a bias for action, and the humility to stay connected to the work happening on the ground, from the distribution center floor to the customer experience queue. This individual will split time between the company’s main office and its distribution center, embedding themselves across all levels of the organization.

This is a rare opportunity to join a tight-knit, values-driven leadership team and leave a real operational imprint on a growing company.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Strategy & Executive Leadership

• Partner with the President and executive leadership team to define and execute the company’s operational strategy, ensuring alignment with long-term growth objectives.
• Develop and oversee company-wide operational performance frameworks, including KPIs, reporting, and accountability mechanisms across distribution, transportation, customer success, and technology.
• Lead annual operational planning, budgeting, and resource allocation to support sustainable growth and margin improvement.
• Identify opportunities to increase operational leverage through process optimization, automation, and improved cross-functional coordination.

Freight & Transportation Strategy

• Own the company’s freight cost strategy, including analyzing spend, identifying savings, negotiating carrier contracts, and driving measurable reductions in one of the organization’s largest expense categories.
• Implement data-driven freight analytics and performance management processes to monitor carrier performance, optimize routing strategies, and improve overall transportation efficiency.
• Develop and standardize shipping and packaging practices, including creative approaches to reducing damages.

Warehouse & Distribution Operations

• Provide executive oversight of distribution center operations, ensuring operational excellence across inventory management, order fulfillment, workforce planning, and facility performance.
• Oversee distribution center performance and oversee the Operations team. Lead training and development, leadership, KPIs, and overall efficiencies of the distribution centers.
• Champion standardization, process documentation, and operational scalability across the distribution center.
• Build and develop high-performing operations leadership teams, ensuring strong succession planning, training, and operational discipline.

Customer Success

• Provide executive leadership for the Customer Success function, ensuring a seamless customer experience from initial order placement through post-delivery support.
• Identify and implement improvements to customer-facing processes, touchpoints, and automation to drive satisfaction and loyalty.
• Implement systems, automation, and service metrics that improve response times, transparency, and customer satisfaction.
• Utilize customer insights and operational data to proactively identify service improvements and strengthen long-term customer relationships.

IT & Systems

• Oversee the IT team and serve as a strategic partner for technology decision-making across the organization.
• Drive strategic improvements to ERP utilization, data visibility, and cross-system integration across the organization.
• Identify and implement technology solutions that automate workflows, improve operational reporting, and enhance decision-making capabilities.
• Support software vendor relationship management with a focus on driving down costs while maintaining operational performance.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Culture

• Partner with the President and executive peers to establish operational priorities, resource plans, and annual budgets.
• Identify and leverage cross-departmental strengths to address organizational challenges and unlock new opportunities.
• Be a model of the company culture, including being hands-on, collaborative, and people-first, without an ego.

Requirements

• 7 years of progressive operations leadership, including experience at the VP or Senior Director level
• Proven track record owning freight/transportation strategy and delivering measurable cost reductions
• Experience managing or overseeing teams, ideally customer service and/or IT functions
• Background in distribution, wholesale, e-commerce, or a related product-based business is preferred
• Resource planning and budget management experience
• Analytical mindset
• Process-oriented
• Highly communicative and collaborative
• Comfortable working cross-departmentally
• Strategic but comfortable rolling up your sleeves and being hands-on
• People-centric, you lead with empathy and bring out the best in diverse teams
• Entrepreneurial in spirit, you’re energized by building, not just maintaining

Benefits

Our client doesn't just accept difference, they celebrate it, support it, and thrive on it for the benefit of their team members, their products, and their community. They are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. Our benefits and perks include profit sharing after 1 year, 401K matching dollar for dollar up to 5%, paid community volunteer days, and a professional development allowance.