Senior Director of Distribution & Facility Engineering

Under general direction of the Senior Director of Facility and Distribution Engineering, the Senior Director, Facility & Distribution Engineering is responsible for the strategic leadership, centralized governance, and operational execution of the facility and distribution engineering functions. This role drives cross-functional excellence across planning, design, and implementation of new distribution centers, remodels, expansions, material handling equipment (MHE) technology upgrades, and organizational alignment with supply chain workstreams and global partners. The position requires strong technical expertise, advanced analytical skills, and a focus on creating scalable, data-driven solutions to support organizational growth across regions and operational excellence.

Key responsibilities include:

Strategic Leadership & Collaboration

• Collaborate with global and cross-functional teams, including Alliance Healthcare (Europe),Supply Chain Strategic Planning & Development,Supply Chain Modeling & Optimization, Engineering Lead Team, Distribution Services management, Real Estate, IT, Finance, Legal, Corporate Security, and other business units to align on a unified global engineering strategy.

• Partner with external vendors to develop long-term strategies and ensure alignment of engineering projects with enterprise goals.

• Serve as a global business leader in supporting the establishment of an EngineeringCenter of Excellence (COE)to standardize facility design, vendor governance, capacity modeling, and project execution best practices across the enterprise.

• Collaborate with regional and global engineering and distribution teams to share insights, ensure alignment, and optimize processes and solutions across all regions.

Program Management & Governance

• Lead the Facility Engineering Program with annual capital budgets exceeding $50M, overseeing schedules, resources, expenses, and training to deliver engineering and distribution projects on time and within budget across the organization.

• Govern project execution through the implementation of standardized PMO methodologies, project governance processes, and Smartsheet platform coordination.

• Align engineering projects and facility designs with global and regional compliance requirements, including Factory Mutual, DEA, PDMA, NFPA, Underwriters Laboratory and other regulatory bodies, ensuring consistency across regions.

• Prepares, maintains, and proactively manages the project communication plan with stakeholders.

Facility Design & Vendor Strategy

• Lead the development and evolution of building design specifications, ensuring integration of IT, security, compliance, and operational requirements.

• Partner with Real Estate and Procurement teams to evaluate multi-state and local incentives, site selection criteria, population demographics, labor analysis, lease costs, and site development expenses.

• Oversee vendor portfolio management, including RFP coordination, benchmarking, and bid analysis, ensuring transparency and leveraging economies of scale for global procurement.

Business & Capacity Modeling

• Lead the development of business and capacity models to forecast inventory storage requirements, operational throughput, and scalability.

• Collaborate withSupply Chain Modeling & Optimizationto align engineering solutions with network-wide strategies.

• Create and teach advanced analytical tools (e.g., simulation techniques, Excel, databases) to empower direct reports and drive data-driven decisions.

• Drive scenario planning for regional and global site growth, product mix changes, and technology adoption across facilities to ensure long-term scalability and efficiency.

Material Handling Equipment (MHE) Expertise

• Evaluate and compare MHE solutions across all DC functional areas using complex business models, focusing on cost, labor, building square footage, throughput, utility, support and other qualitative factors that drive a solution improving efficiency, productivity and quality.

• Integrate MHE automation and control systems into facility designs to enhance operational throughput.

• Partner with global teams to ensure large-scale vendor partner solutions are adaptable to different regional requirements while maintaining alignment to enterprise-wide objectives.

Project Execution

• Manage internal and external resources for material handling design, systems design, building construction, and implementation.

• Oversee all aspects of project execution, including construction, inspection, testing, training, and start-up, ensuring alignment with regional and global standards.

• Creates project documentation including integration plans & scope, cost analysis, project design documents, and status reports.

• Proactively identifies potential risk(s) associated with initiatives associated with initiatives/objectives; develops and implements strategies to mitigate identified risks; manages issue resolution process.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead and develop a team of Directors, Project Managers, and Engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Focus on individual and team development, identifying training opportunities, implementing development programs, and building rotational assignments to enhance skills and capabilities.

• Foster a culture of cross-functional and cross-regional collaboration, ensuring that global teams align on engineering strategies and delivery methodologies.

Continuous Improvement & Lifecycle Feedback

• Archive as-builts, update design standards, and incorporate lessons learned from completed projects into future initiatives.

• Support the continual improvement and scalability of the distribution network through a closed-loop collaboration model with theSupply Chain Modeling & Optimization, Engineering Design & COEandEngineering Project Implementationteams.

• Collaborate with global business partners such as Alliance Healthcare (Europe) to share best practices, align engineering strategies, and continuously improve distribution network operations.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or equivalent experience required; advanced degree preferred.

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in warehouse design, MHE solutions, and distribution operations.

• Demonstrated leadership of multi-million-dollar capital projects exceeding $50M annually.

Leadership & Collaboration:

• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional and multi-disciplinary teams, fostering collaboration across departments, organizational levels, and regions.

• Proven experience aligning regional engineering initiatives with enterprise-wide global strategies and objectives.

• Demonstrated leader for multiple, large capital projects totaling $50M plus dollars annually.

• Strong interpersonal, negotiation, and communication skills, including experience presenting strategies and technical information to executives and diverse audiences.

• Strong ability to lead team members, coach, support, mentor, recognize, develop, and energize multi-discipline work teams to learn and apply new skills and techniques to respond to business needs.

Centralized Program Management Expertise:

• Complex program management expertise, with proficiency in project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, AutoCAD, Excel, and PowerPoint.

• Ability to introduce and manage enterprise-wide PMO platforms, tools, and certification programs (e.g., Smartsheet, PMP, Lean Six Sigma).

Technical Expertise:

• Advanced knowledge of warehouse design, material handling equipment capabilities, and integration of warehouse management systems (WMS), warehouse control systems (WCS), and incentive-based workforce measurement systems.

• Expertise in simulation tools, data modeling, and capacity planning to support business forecasting and project justification.

• Deep knowledge of MHE solutions and vendor equipment, with a pulse on industry trends and emerging technologies.

Strategic Analytical Skills:

• Highly analytical with experience developing scalable, data-driven business models and capacity forecasts using simulation, Excel, and database tools.

• Strong ability to introduce leverage innovative modeling tools and methodologies to accelerate workload and improve decision-making.

Additional Skills:

• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to meet deadlines under pressure.

• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills, with the ability to influence and engage C-suite executives and diverse global audiences.

• Ability to resolve complex issues effectively and efficiently.

• Creativity and openness to new technologies, with experience in developing and evaluating prototypes.

• Willing to travel up to 75% of the time, including occasional international travel

We provide compensation, benefits, and resources that enable a highly inclusive culture and support our team members' ability to live with purpose every day. In addition to traditional offerings like medical, dental, and vision care, we also provide a comprehensive suite of benefits that focus on the physical, emotional, financial, and social aspects of wellness. This encompasses support for working families, which may include backup dependent care, adoption assistance, infertility coverage, family building support, behavioral health solutions, paid parental leave, and paid caregiver leave. To encourage your personal growth, we also offer a variety of training programs, professional development resources, and opportunities to participate in mentorship programs, employee resource groups, volunteer activities, and much more. For details, visit https://www.virtualfairhub.com/cencora

*This Salary Range reflects a National Average for this job. The actual range may vary based on your locale. Ranges in Colorado/California/Washington/New York/Hawaii/Vermont/Minnesota/Massachusetts/Illinois State-specific locations may be up to 10% lower than the minimum salary range, and 12% higher than the maximum salary range.

Cencora is committed to providing equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or membership in any other class protected by federal, state or local law.

The company's continued success depends on the full and effective utilization of qualified individuals. Therefore, harassment is prohibited and all matters related to recruiting, training, compensation, benefits, promotions and transfers comply with equal opportunity principles and are non-discriminatory.

Cencora is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the employment process which are consistent with legal requirements. If you wish to request an accommodation while seeking employment, please call 888.692.2272 or email hrsc@cencora.com. We will make accommodation determinations on a request-by-request basis. Messages and emails regarding anything other than accommodations requests will not be returned

.