Senior Operations Director, Americas

This role is in support of Cencora's global logistics and storage services marketed through our World Courier business.

The Senior Operations Director, Americas provides strategic leadership and operational oversight across North America and Latin America. Reporting to the Vice President Operations and partnering with regional, country and functional leaders, this role is accountable for safe, compliant, reliable and financially disciplined operations across a geographically diverse network.

The role develops and executes the Americas operations strategy, establishes common performance and governance standards, and ensures that global requirements are applied consistently while allowing justified adaptations for legal, regulatory, infrastructure and market conditions. The Senior Director connects country execution with regional priorities and builds an integrated operating model across stations, depots, brokerage, packaging, fleet, facilities and service partners.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic and Regional Leadership

• Business partner to the Regional Vice President (RVP) and senior voice of operations in the region, aligning regional priorities with global business objectives, customer commitments and financial plans.
• Lead an integrated Americas operating model that creates common standards, governance and performance expectations across countries and clusters while recognizing valid local requirements.
• Monitor key performance indicators for service, quality, productivity, cost, capacity, compliance and customer outcomes; translate results into clear recovery or improvement actions.
• Partner with Commercial and service-line leaders to assess operational readiness, support sustainable growth and ensure new business commitments can be executed reliably.
• Represent Americas Operations in regional and global forums, escalating material risks and coordinating decisions that require cross-functional or cross-border support.

Operational Excellence and Network Performance

• Provide leadership and oversight for station operations, regulated pharmaceutical storage and distribution depots, brokerage interfaces, packaging, fleet, facilities and operational equipment across the region.
• Drive consistent operating routines, tiered performance reviews and continuous-improvement practices that strengthen accountability and transfer proven practices across the network.
• Oversee capacity, workforce and contingency planning across multiple countries, time zones and operating environments to protect service during growth, disruption and seasonal demand.
• Monitor operational and financial performance across locations; prepare consolidated regional reporting and ensure country-level actions support regional performance commitments.
• Use operational systems, data and process controls to improve shipment visibility, execution discipline, data quality and decision-making.
• Guide operating-model decisions where infrastructure, shipment volumes, customs practices or internal capabilities differ by country, ensuring local solutions remain aligned with regional controls and global standards.

Compliance, Quality and Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, security programs, customs and trade requirements, quality standards, SOPs and corporate policies in every country of operation.
• Ensure facilities and depots operate in accordance with applicable pharmaceutical storage, distribution, security, quality and regulatory requirements.
• Partner with Quality, Security, Trade Compliance and country leaders to maintain audit readiness, regulatory inventories, documented ownership and timely closure of findings or corrective actions.
• Provide governance for incidents, deviations, exception reporting, investigations, root-cause analysis and corrective and preventive actions; ensure repeated failures are addressed at regional level.
• Maintain effective business-continuity and operational-risk plans for critical facilities, routes, systems, suppliers and service partners.
• Ensure local exceptions to global standards are documented, risk assessed, approved by the appropriate functions and periodically reviewed.
• Ensure country operations identify, maintain and monitor the licenses, permits, registrations and local operating requirements needed to conduct transport, depot, customs, environmental, health and safety activities.

Brokerage, Customs and Service Partners

• Partner with Brokerage, Customs and Trade Compliance teams to support efficient and compliant clearance processes and clear ownership across operational hand-offs.
• Oversee regional governance for agents, carriers, vendors and outsourced operational providers, using service, quality, cost, compliance and capacity measures to guide decisions.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with customers, regulatory authorities, airlines, ground handlers, customs providers and other critical partners.
• Ensure service-partner models are scalable, resilient and capable of supporting specialized and time- or temperature-critical services.
• Provide governance for operations performed through agents, subcontractors and other service partners, including capability assessment, onboarding, service standards, performance management, risk mitigation and continuity planning.
• Strengthen airfreight and ground-transport sourcing discipline, vendor-cost visibility, rate governance and alternative-routing capability across markets with differing carrier and service availability.

People and Organizational Leadership

• Lead, coach and develop regional and country operational leaders, setting clear accountabilities, decision rights and performance expectations.
• Partner with Human Resources and Talent Acquisition on organization design, workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, succession, retention and leadership capability.
• Ensure training requirements are role-based, current, documented and consistently completed, including recurrent, compliance and specialized-service training.
• Build an inclusive, accountable and collaborative culture that connects North America and Latin America as one regional team while respecting language, cultural and market differences.
• Ensure performance-management and compensation processes are completed in line with company policy and applicable local requirements.

Facilities, Fleet and Asset Management

• Oversee regional requirements for facilities, depots, fleet, operational equipment and packaging assets, including utilization, maintenance, replacement and investment planning.
• Ensure locations provide safe, secure, compliant and reliable operating environments and that material facility or equipment risks have funded action plans.
• Partner with Finance and Procurement to prioritize investments, manage total cost and standardize assets where this improves safety, service, compliance or scalability.
• Partner with Finance and country teams to improve intercompany accuracy, local cost controls and visibility of operational profitability without weakening service or compliance.

Customer and Stakeholder Leadership

• Partner across Customer Service, Commercial, Quality, Finance, Human Resources, Technology, Procurement and service-line teams to deliver an effective end-to-end customer journey.
• Support strategic customer reviews, service recovery and operational solution design where regional leadership is required.
• Create clear escalation paths and communication routines across countries and functions, ensuring decisions and commitments are followed through to execution.
• Promote clear cross-border processes, documentation standards and customer communication for complex import and export movements across the Americas.

Perform other duties and responsibilities consistent with the scope and level of the role.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Finance, Engineering or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

Experience:

• Minimum of 8-10 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in logistics, supply chain, transportation, operations or a related industry.
• Experience leading multi-site, multi-country and geographically dispersed operations, including through country leaders and matrixed functional partnerships.
• Demonstrated success managing operational performance, financial results, regulatory and quality requirements, service partners and organizational change.
• Experience in international, cross-border or regulated logistics environments; exposure to both directly operated and partner-supported markets is preferred.

Skills and Abilities:

• Deep understanding of logistics, transportation, warehousing and supply-chain practices, with working knowledge of customs, international trade and cross-border operations.
• Strong business and financial acumen, including experience using KPIs, productivity measures, cost drivers and investment cases to improve performance.
• Knowledge of transportation management, operational reporting and data-analysis tools.
• Ability to interpret and govern differing country requirements without losing regional consistency or control.
• Proven ability to lead through other leaders, influence in a matrix organization and build alignment across countries, functions and cultures.
• Excellent verbal, written and presentation communication skills; ability to communicate effectively with frontline teams, senior leaders, customers and external partners.
• Ability to operate credibly across North America and Latin America; additional language capability relevant to the region is an asset.
• Willingness and ability to travel across the Americas as required.
• Strong analytical, critical-thinking and decision-making skills in complex and time-sensitive operating environments.
• Ability to balance global standards, regional consistency and legitimate country-specific requirements.
• Excellent organization, prioritization and follow-through, with a clear focus on customer impact, risk and measurable outcomes.
• Continuous-improvement mindset and demonstrated ability to convert performance insights into sustained operational change.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
• Experience with operational systems, reporting platforms and data-visualization tools used to manage a geographically dispersed network.

What Cencora offers

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

Full time

Equal Employment Opportunity

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

Affiliated Companies

Affiliated Companies: World Courier Inc