Vice President, Distribution Operations & Transportation

Your Opportunity as the Vice President, Distribution Operations & Transportation The Vice President of Distribution Operations & Transportation is responsible for leading end-to-end distribution, warehousing, and transportation operations across the J.M. Smucker Co.'s North America footprint. This role oversees both company owned and third-party distribution centers, national and cross-border transportation operations, and major 3PL partnerships to ensure world-class service performance, operational resilience, and cost efficiency. This role also has responsibility for our Sherbrooke, ON manufacturing facility. Location: Orrville, Corporate Offices Work Arrangements: Hybrid - onsite a minimum of 9 days a month primarily during core weeks as determined by the Company; maybe more as business need requires. In this role you will: Strategic Leadership - Develop and execute a multiyear distribution and transportation strategy aligned with enterprise supply chain and business objectives. - Partner across Commercial, Procurement, Manufacturing, Customer Supply Chain, Finance, and Digital to leverage logistics as a strategic competitive advantage that accelerates growth, improves customer experience, strengthens resilience, and expands margins. - Continuously benchmark Smucker's logistics network, operating costs, service performance, and capabilities against world-class internal and external peers, translating external best practices into competitive advantage and enterprise value creation. - Lead the strategic direction and adoption of Artificial Intelligence, Decision Intelligence, predictive analytics, and digital technologies to improve planning, transportation optimization, warehouse productivity, autonomous decision making, network visibility, and operational resilience. - Own multi-year productivity and transformation roadmaps, delivering committed cost savings, working capital improvements, and service enhancements across warehousing and transportation. Distribution & Warehouse Operations Excellence - Lead operations across multi-site distribution centers, both company owned and outsourced distribution centers ensuring service, safety, quality and cost KPIs are met. - Ensure full compliance with DOT, OSHA, environmental, labor, and food safety regulations. - Proactively manage operational risks, business continuity, and contingency planning across the distribution network. - Oversee facility strategy, including footprint optimization, capacity planning, lease negotiations, renewals, and exit strategies. - Represent Smucker externally through industry forums, strategic partnerships, technology ecosystems, and professional networks to identify disruptive innovations and position the company as a logistics leader. Transportation Excellence Oversee inbound, outbound, and intercompany transportation networks, ensuring reliable, cost effective service. Drive continuous improvement in on time and in full (OTIF) performance, customer service metrics, and carrier compliance. Lead carrier strategy, contract negotiations, and performance management, including 3PLs and dedicated fleets where applicable Automation, Technology & Innovation Champion warehouse and transportation automation initiatives, including robotics, material handling systems, WMS/TMS optimization, and data analytics. Partner with IT, engineering, and external vendors to deploy scalable, future ready solutions that improve throughput, visibility, and labor efficiency. Leverage data to enable predictive decision making and continuous i