🌟 We're Hiring! We are currently looking to fill a
full-time, permanent position for a
Vice President of Supply Chain Operations Manager in our
Operations Department at our
Leamington facility.
What You'll Do:- Provide senior leadership over all distribution center, warehouse, shipping and receiving, logistics, and non-produce purchasing operations across Canada and the United States, ensuring consistent performance and alignment with corporate objectives.
- Own the North American supply chain operations performance scorecard, including throughput, fulfillment accuracy, inventory flow, labour productivity, capacity utilization, service levels, cost-to-serve, supplier performance, safety, on-time execution, and operational reliability.
- Lead network optimization and distribution strategy, ensuring the efficient flow of product across facilities, regions, and customer channels.
- Lead purchasing strategy for packaging, farm inputs, operational consumables, and other non-produce supply requirements, ensuring supplier performance, cost effectiveness, supply continuity, purchasing controls, and alignment with business needs.
- Provide leadership over packaging sourcing and availability, ensuring alignment with cost, customer requirements, brand/product needs, sustainability priorities, and operational execution.
- Establish standardized operating and purchasing expectations, KPI disciplines, dashboards, reporting, communication rhythms, escalation processes, and accountability structures across all sites.
- Lead, mentor, coach, and develop a high-performing team of Directors, senior managers, and site leaders responsible for warehouse operations, logistics, shipping and receiving, purchasing, packaging sourcing, and related execution across all locations while fostering an accountable, collaborative, and engaged leadership culture.
- Hold Directors and senior leaders accountable for talent development, succession planning, performance management, and building scalable team capability and readiness for future growth.
- Own labour strategy across operations, including workforce planning, productivity optimization, labour model design, seasonal readiness, and alignment with operational and financial targets.
- Lead operational readiness for peak and seasonal demand periods, ensuring capacity alignment, labour availability, space planning, equipment readiness, packaging/material availability, and consistent service delivery during high-volume cycles.
- Develop and execute short- and long-term capacity, space, equipment, resource, purchasing, budget, and capital plans to support business growth, new customers, new programs, customer requirements, and future facility expansion.
- Own inventory flow execution and contribute to inventory and supply strategy, including alignment with demand, working capital efficiency, inventory turns, aging, shrink, product lifecycle management, space utilization, and fulfillment accuracy.
- Partner with Sales, Farm, Finance, and senior leadership to support S&OP, demand alignment, inventory planning, supply readiness, packaging/material availability, and seasonal planning.
- Drive logistics and product flow optimization across inbound and outbound movement, route effectiveness, transportation cost, distribution reliability, warehouse layout, and time-sensitive fresh produce execution.
- Oversee carrier, supplier, vendor, and logistics service provider performance, ensuring reliability, cost effectiveness, service accountability, supply continuity, and alignment with operational requirements.
- Own operational and purchasing systems strategy and adoption, including WMS, TMS, ERP integration, purchasing/PO disciplines, supplier reporting, labour management tools, automation, and operational reporting, to enable visibility, scalability, and data-driven decision making.
- Lead transformation and major initiatives that improve scalability, efficiency, speed, accuracy, and consistency across North American supply chain operations, including facility growth, network expansion, infrastructure upgrades, supplier programs, equipment implementation, systems rollouts, and process redesign.
- Lead a proactive safety culture across all operations, with accountability for safety performance, compliance, risk reduction, employee engagement, and continuous improvement.
- Ensure operations deliver against customer expectations for service, quality, timeliness, accuracy, responsiveness, and reliability, while aligning capabilities to commercial growth, new customers, channels, product programs, volume shifts, and changing fulfillment requirements.
- Partner closely with Quality, Food Safety, Product, Farm, Sales, Finance, People & Culture, and Technology leaders to ensure plans are aligned, risks are managed, company standards are executed, and operational and purchasing teams comply with applicable policies, customer requirements, purchasing controls, regulatory expectations, food safety protocols, and quality standards.
- Lead operational risk management and business continuity planning, ensuring resilience across facilities, supplier disruptions, packaging/material availability, labour challenges, logistics constraints, equipment issues, and customer demands.
- Provide clear visibility to senior leadership on network performance, service risks, safety performance, purchasing and supplier performance, labour and capacity requirements, capital needs, transformation priorities, and progress against business objectives.
- Comply with all Health and Safety, Food Safety, Bio Security, and Nature Fresh Policies and Procedure
- Complete all physical requirements of the job with or without a reasonable accommodation
- This job description highlights the main components but is not inclusive of other activities that may be required
What You Bring:- 10+ years of progressive operations, logistics, purchasing, procurement, or supply chain leadership experience, including senior-level accountability for multi-site warehouse, distribution center, logistics, non-produce purchasing, or high-volume operations.
- 5+ years leading leaders, including Directors, senior managers, purchasing leaders, or multi-site operational teams
- Demonstrated success managing complex, fast-paced operations with high service expectations, time-sensitive product flow, significant labour and purchasing requirements, and customer-driven performance standards
- Experience in fresh produce, food manufacturing, food distribution, CPG, retail distribution, refrigerated/perishable logistics, packaging sourcing, or another high-volume distribution environment is strongly preferred
- Strong knowledge of warehouse operations, inventory flow, shipping and receiving, order fulfillment, labour planning, capacity planning, transportation/logistics, purchasing, supplier management, packaging availability, and operational performance management.
- Proven ability to develop and execute operational strategy, purchasing plans, annual budgets, capital plans, resource plans, labour models, continuous improvement initiatives, and long-term network scalability plans.
- Experience leading network optimization, distribution strategy, purchasing effectiveness, supplier performance improvement, operational transformation, automation, process redesign, and multi-site standardization initiatives.
- Strong understanding of operational and purchasing systems and data, including WMS, TMS, ERP integration, purchasing/PO tools, labour management, dashboards, operational reporting, automation, or related technology platforms.
- Strong business acumen and demonstrated ability to balance service, speed, cost, risk, working capital, supplier performance, employee engagement, safety, customer expectations, and long-term scalability.
- Experience partnering with Quality, Food Safety, Product, Farm, Sales, Finance, People & Culture, and Technology teams to deliver cross-functional business objectives and support S&OP, demand alignment, and supply readiness.
- Excellent leadership, coaching, culture-building, communication, delegation, negotiation, conflict management, planning, organizing, decision-making, and follow-up skills.
- High degree of confidentiality, integrity, professionalism, sound judgment, and demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity and solve complex operational problems.
- Respectful, positive, flexible, accountable, honest, patient, and dependable leadership style with a commitment to continuous learning.
- Strong computer skills, including Microsoft Office and related business systems.
- Valid driver's license, use of a personal vehicle, valid passport, and ability to travel locally, nationally, and internationally are required.
What To Expect: - Travels regularly between Nature Fresh locations, operational sites, suppliers, and service provider locations across Canada and the United States, as required.
- Works with a diverse group of employees, leaders, cross-functional teams, suppliers, service providers, carriers, and external partners
- Works in a fast-paced, high-volume operational environment with competing priorities, seasonal demands, and time-sensitive requirements
- Works Monday-Saturday, non-standard work hours. Flexibility with work schedule is required
- The Vice President, Supply Chain Operations is actively involved with Nature Fresh locations, including warehouse, greenhouse, distribution, logistics, purchasing, supplier, and office environments. Their days vary based on business priorities, operational needs, travel schedules, and site requirements
