Director of Operations

Skechers, a Fortune 500® global company, designs and markets a diverse range of lifestyle and performance footwear, apparel, and accessories. Present in more than 180 countries and territories, Skechers delivers its products through department and specialty stores, e-commerce platforms, and more than 5,300 Skechers retail locations worldwide.

Your Future Employer

Based in Southern California, Skechers, The Comfort Technology Company®, has been helping men, women, and children around the world feel good and look good for more than 30 years. Comfort innovation is at the heart of everything we do, driving us to develop stylish, high-quality products that offer exceptional value for money. From our diverse footwear collections to our growing range of apparel and accessories, Skechers is a complete lifestyle brand.

Your Mission

As Director of Operations for the European Distribution Center (EDC), you are responsible for driving the site’s operational performance to ensure the achievement of Skechers’ shipping objectives across Europe. This is accomplished through the optimization of productivity, quality, safety, budget adherence, and customer satisfaction.

You translate corporate strategy into executable operational plans, deploy relevant KPIs, and develop teams to ensure a reliable, efficient, and scalable logistics flow.

Key Objectives

• Achieve an on-time shipment rate of ≥ 98% on a monthly basis.
• Maintain order accuracy of ≥ 99.5%.
• Meet productivity targets in Zone X: +Y units/hour.
• Reduce recorded safety incidents by 20% over 12 months.
• Adhere to the operational budget with a variance of ≤ 2% per quarter.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Leadership & Execution

• Translate corporate strategy into quarterly and annual action plans for inbound, storage, picking, shipping, automation, and maintenance.
• Define and monitor operational KPIs (OTIF, cycle time, throughput, scrap rate, OEE for automated equipment).
• Oversee daily and weekly planning (workforce planning, shift schedules, volume forecasting).
• Manage the operational dashboard and lead daily and weekly performance reviews with management teams.
• Ensure customer service levels are met and promptly resolve performance gaps.

People Management & Employee Relations

• Lead and develop operational managers through coaching, development plans, and annual performance reviews.
• Manage workforce planning, critical hiring, and succession planning.
• Oversee labor relations, including preparation and facilitation of meetings and negotiation processes with unions.
• Implement HR initiatives focused on engagement, recognition, and training to maintain a positive and constructive work environment.

Safety, Quality & Compliance

• Establish and sustain a strong safety culture through audits, training, inspections, and feedback loops.
• Ensure compliance with SOX requirements, internal procedures, and regulatory standards.
• Implement corrective and preventive actions following incidents or non-compliance.
• Lead optimization initiatives (LEAN, Kaizen), automation projects, and logistics flow improvements.
• Oversee WMS/WCS integrations (PKMS, Pyramid) and the effective use of performance management tools.
• Measure and assess ROI on improvement initiatives and monitor their deployment.

Educational Background

• Bachelor’s degree minimum in Logistics, Industrial Engineering, Supply Chain, or Operations Management.
• Preferred:
  Master’s degree in Supply Chain / Operations Management / Industrial Engineering or an operations-focused MBA.
• Certifications considered an asset:
  Lean Six Sigma (Green/Black Belt), APICS/CPIM, NEBOSH (safety), or equivalent.

Professional Experience

• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in warehouse or distribution center operations, including at least 3 years in a senior leadership role.
• Proven experience in the following areas is essential:
• Strong expertise in automated environments and WMS/WCS management (ideally PKMS / Pyramid).
• Leadership of large-scale teams (several hundred employees) within matrix organizations.
• Cross-functional collaboration with Finance, HR, IT, and Procurement on transversal projects.
• Labor relations management and union negotiations.

Technical Skills

• Strong command…