Associate Director of Operations (USA)

Join Wild, a fast-growing personal care brand focused on sustainability. As the Associate Director of Operations (US), you will lead our fulfillment operations across the United States, ensuring excellent customer experience, retail service performance, and cost efficiency. You will own operational performance across various channels, manage relationships with logistics partners, and drive continuous process improvement. This role is based in our new US office in Manhattan, NYC.

• Operational excellence, including ownership of US end-to-end fulfilment and logistics execution across DTC, Amazon, and Retail channels.
• Relationship management, including running structured SLA reviews and QBRs, holding partners accountable to performance expectations.
• Commercial and P&L ownership, including ownership of US fulfilment KPIs across the P&L and balance sheet, and leading negotiations with logistics partners.

About us

Hi there 👋 We're Wild. We set out to remove single-use plastic from the bathroom and ended up building one of the fastest-growing personal care brands in Europe. Our refillable, natural deodorant is now in millions of hands, our cases are collected like accessories, and our collaborations - from Disney to seasonal scent drops - keep the brand fresh, playful and impossible to ignore. Now part of the Unilever family, we have the backing to go global while keeping the pace, ambition and mischief of a start-up.

🚀The Role

We are looking for a highly skilled and proactive Associate Director, Operations (US) to lead our fulfilment operations across the United States. This is a critical role responsible for delivering excellent customer experience, retail service performance and cost efficiency as we continue to scale rapidly in Wild’s fastest growing market.

You will own operational performance across DTC, Amazon and major US Retailers (Walmart & Target) and act as the senior partner to our US 3PL and logistics network. You will combine strategic planning with hands-on operational leadership - ensuring our operations are scalable, efficient and consistently high-performing.

You will lead a team of 2 and play a key role in shaping how Operations scales in the US, a key growth market for Wild. This is a high-impact role for someone who loves execution, structured problem solving and commercial operational thinking.

You’ll be part of a team that believes in doing work that matters — for people and the planet. Because here, we don’t just hire for jobs. We invite you to be part of something bigger.

This role is based in Wild's brand new US office in Manhattan, NYC (3 days per week in office).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Operational excellence
• Own US end-to-end fulfilment and logistics execution across DTC, Amazon and Retail channels
• Deliver consistently strong performance across OTIF, dispatch SLAs, carrier delivery and inventory accuracy (DTC), and ensure timely execution of display builds / pipefills, reduce chargebacks and improve on-shelf availability metrics (Retail)
• Define regional customer experience strategy and lead systemic improvements to drive customer delight
• Set performance standards and engage in regular business reviews with the Ops team and 3PL partners

Relationship management

Run structured SLA reviews and QBRs, holding partners accountable to performance expectations and contractual commitments

Drive a continuous improvement culture across partners, setting clear KPIs and action plans

Primary escalation point and strategic relationship owner with US suppliers / logistics partners

Commercial and P&L ownership

Ownership of US fulfilment KPIs across the P&L and balance sheet

Lead negotiations with logistics partners

Identify and execute against key margin improvement opportunities across the value chain

Continuous process improvement

Work closely with the wider operations team to build scalable operational processes, automation and efficiency

Implement tooling upgrades enhancing performance visibility and decision-making

Drive operational simplification to enable rapid US growth - key is to reduce reliance on manual processes and build scale with a lean team

Strategic projects and launch leadership

Lead major cross-functional projects (new retailer expansion, new channels, retail pipefill / display moments) and ensure strong launch execution and service performance

Proactively manage risk, communication, dependencies and delivery plans

Align supply chain/ops readiness with commercial priorities

Lead and coordinate the local US rollout of global strategic initiatives, and manage dependencies across Supply Chain, Retail, Tech, Finance and CX

Supply chain coordination

Work closely with global supply planning teams to minimise out-of-stocks and ensure good stock availability and inventory health

Ensure replenishment planning meets demand across all sales channels

Lead procurement efforts in line with the global procurement strategy

Work with the global quality team to manage product quality and production process issues with US suppliers

Team leadership

Lead and develop a high-performing US Ops team (Ops Manager, Ops Exec)

Build a high-performance team culture grounded in continuous improvement, proactive problem solving and commercial awareness

Support organizational growth through hiring, coaching and capability building

Set clear accountability, coaching and development plans

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• 7+ years experience in US Operations / Fulfilment leadership roles
• Deep Walmart & Target fulfilment experience including vendor compliance
• Proven track record leading 3PL relationships and logistics performance
• Strong financial acumen with P&L accountability
• Experience in high-growth, omni-channel consumer brands (beauty/personal care ideal) with proven experience managing relationships and performance for large retailers in the US.
• Ability to operate both strategically and hands-on in a scaling environment
• Excellent partner management and clear executive-level communication skills
• Strong people leader - able to coach, motivate and develop teams

Please note, the successful candidate for this role will be an employee of Unilever. For details on compensation and benefits, please click the 'Apply' link below to read the full details on Unilever's careers site.

The hiring process for this role is being managed by Unilever's Talent Acquisition team. If you'd like to apply, please click the link below and apply on Unilever's careers site.