Job Postings From Our Member Companies Title:
VP, Supply Chain

Post Date
11/29/2016

Expiration Date
1/29/2017

Details:
Bluestem Brands, Inc., a Top 50 Internet Retailer, is the parent to 16 direct to consumer retail brands. We make it our mission to improve our customers’ lives by providing the merchandise and services they need with the flexibility of paying over time. Our smart, passionate, empowered employees drive our success, and we like rewarding people at the top of their game. Our leadership is responsive and supportive – we take risks, learn from mistakes and celebrate success as a team.

A day in the life at Bluestem also includes casual dress, flexible work arrangements, a sweet employee discount and time off for giving back to our communities. Join the Bluestem Brands team to make an impact, be inspired and be valued, every day.

We are seeking a Vice President of Supply Chain for Bluestem Brands, to be located at our corporate office in Eden Prairie, MN. This transformational leader will have full accountability for the strategic direction and operational aspects of the overall supply chain with a strong focus on fulfillment, transportation, and logistics. He or she will be responsible for creating the vision and leading the strategic development and organizational structuring that will deliver operational excellence and a delightful customer experience.

What you’ll do: 

The Vice President of Supply Chain will develop and closely monitor key performance processes and metrics for each function with the goal being flawless execution. The individual will instill a culture of excellence and sustainable improvement in key dimensions of responsiveness, reliability, and flexibility. A primary focus will be the development of people to ensure functional and leadership bench strength.

Specific responsibilities include the strategic leadership and tactical management of:

• Setting the fulfillment strategy for the network, which includes assessing expansion needs and strategically identifying locations for new warehouses (internally or via 3rd party)
• Customer advocacy through customer experience and operational excellence, including addressing the processes in their network that are negatively impacting the customer experience
• Driving a supply chain and logistics strategy that ensures superior customer satisfaction by focusing on quality, service, and cost.
• Inbound/outbound transportation including the overall carrier and parcel strategy
• 3PL logistics and dropship operations management and planning to ensure an optimized network and positive customer experience
• Driving consistent improvement in operations and supply chain profitability
• Instilling a culture of excellence and sustainable improvement in productivity, fixed costs and operating margins
• Functional owner/sponsor of order management processes
• Ensuring company-wide use of best practices through the integration of technology and information systems that affect value, reliability, quality, and cost of services

Success in the first year will include:

• Define and drive a supply chain and logistics strategy to enhance alignment with suppliers, customers and compliance with internal customers. This strategy will collapse company barriers to enable synergy and velocity throughout all divisions and functions to achieve operational excellence, cost and quality improvements
• Define and drive what the network strategy needs to be over the next 3-5 years, assessing expansion needs and making the business case for locations of future warehouses
• Focus on the optimization of inbound logistics as well as optimizing transportation to mitigate risk and impact to the customer experience
• Customer order management – define the functional requirements to streamline order management across a diverse supply chain that include multiple brands, fulfillment centers, and drop ship locations
• Establish the necessary processes that begin yielding results toward decreasing logistics costs/order fulfillment/distribution costs as a percentage of sales; decrease days of inventory and increase the representative service piece fill and order fill percentage of total ordered


Qualifications:
What you’ll need:

Proven, balanced, and hands-on leadership in the field of supply chain planning, logistics and warehouse/distribution services, with an eCommerce supply chain background being preferred. The successful candidate should possess a minimum of a bachelor's degree and ten (10) years of experience in the field, including experience successfully developing and executing against fulfillment strategies. The ideal candidate has been exposed to, and prospered in, more than one corporate culture. Qualified candidates must have held senior management positions leading large, supply chain/planning/logistics and distribution organizations, in a skill-intensive environment where orders vary greatly.

The successful candidate has demonstrated an ability to drive change and generate meaningful results through processes and people, rather than technology investment. He/She has been well trained in an organization known for its excellence in logistics operations. He/She is current and well versed in functional “best practices.” The candidate also has demonstrated the ability to assess and revamp an organization, evaluate existing talent, attract and recruit key leaders, and raise product standards. The successful candidate can easily transition from strategic/visionary thinking to tactical implementation within a moment’s notice. Proven leadership skills to operate as an effective growth and change agent, while maintaining the “can do” attitude, spirit and morale of the organization is a must. He/She will inspire those both up and down the organization that being customer-centric will drive both bottom and top line growth.

Additionally, the candidate should have:

• A strong, demonstrated history of influencing, convincing and persuading others up the organization, laterally and below, both internally and externally. New and creative ideas are required in this rapidly evolving environment.
• A take-charge mentality with a team “roll up your sleeves” orientation. A serious commitment to the notion of accountability and ownership.
• He/She will arrive with the proven ability to recruit effectively and to coalesce successful and committed teams.
• Inspires trust both up and down the organization.
• Delivers on commitments without sacrificing personal or business ethics.

The successful candidate will be a strategic change leader with a high energy level; have industry, technology, and functional knowledge; and be an obvious team player with strong negotiating and people management skills. Further, the individual will have the strategic leadership skills and business knowledge, which allow him/her to assume additional management responsibilities. Lastly, the individual will have demonstrated the following competencies:

• Exceptional senior leadership capabilities coupled with a deep knowledge of retail distribution and logistics
• A strong process development orientation to how he/she manages an organization to deliver systemic and sustainable improvement
• Strategic thinking, enabling him/her to effectively lead the development and implementation of a strategy for the organization to achieve its key financial and growth goals
• Creativity enabling him/her to challenge current practices and ways of thinking about global supply chain planning/logistics across the enterprise
• Initiative demonstrated by the individual’s aggressive approach to drive change and continuous improvement with a relentless focus on execution and results
• High ethical standards demonstrated by the individual’s approach to business and the ability to set that tone for the entire organization
• An ability to inspire others to achieve peak performance
• Highly effective at leading and managing complex and difficult negotiations resulting in a win/win conclusion
• Exceptional skills in: communication, leadership, consulting/coaching, analytical and problem solving, and strong business acumen
• An ability to influence, convince and persuade up, down, and across the organization

Please apply directly to www.Bluestem.com


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Employer:
BlueStem

Website:
www.Bluestem.com