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Vice President, Global Operations

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About the Role

Stussy, Inc. is seeking an experienced operations leader to own the strategy, execution, and team leadership across global fulfillment, order management, inventory flow, logistics, retail back-of-house operations, and our global third-party logistics network. This is a highly cross-functional role for a global apparel brand that sells primarily through its own retail stores and ecommerce, with additional managed-partner and wholesale channels.

The Vice President, Global Operations will be accountable for building a customer-first, scalable operating model that improves product availability, speed to market, service, inventory velocity, and total logistics cost. The ideal candidate has led operations for a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer apparel or lifestyle brand and is equally comfortable setting strategy, building teams, solving cross-functional problems, and working hands-on in 3PLs and stores.

This is an in-office role based in downtown Los Angeles.


What You'll Own

Customer Experience, Product Availability & Speed to Market

  • Use customer experience, product availability, and speed to market as core operating principles, balancing cost and productivity with service, launch readiness, and the ability to sell inventory when and where demand exists.
  • Own end-to-end operational flow from product readiness through freight, customs, receiving, pickable inventory, fulfillment, and delivery to stores, ecommerce customers, and wholesale/partner channels.
  • Establish and manage service metrics across the flow, including OTIF, dock-to-stock, receipt-to-pickable, fulfillment cycle time, order fill rate, and on-time delivery.
  • Proactively identify and resolve exceptions that threaten launches, replenishment, product availability, or customer commitments.

Global Fulfillment, Order Management & 3PL Network Strategy

  • Set strategy and drive execution across DTC ecommerce, retail store replenishment, managed partner, and wholesale order flows.
  • Own order orchestration and routing logic to optimize service, speed, inventory utilization, shipment complexity, and total cost across a multi-channel network.
  • Own the strategy, design, capacity model, and performance of the global 3PL network, including consistent SLAs, KPIs, governance, peak planning, and accountability across partners.
  • Ensure 3PL labor, receiving, fulfillment, storage, and transportation capacity is ready for seasonal launches, peak periods, store openings, pop-ups, promotions, and unexpected demand.
  • Partner with IT/ERP teams to ensure order management, fulfillment, inventory, and 3PL integrations scale with the business.

Inventory Flow, Availability & Execution

  • Partner with Planning, Merchandising, and Commercial teams on inventory allocation strategy; Planning owns the inventory/allocation strategy, while Operations is accountable for translating that strategy into flawless physical and transactional execution.
  • Ensure inventory reaches the right location, becomes available-to-sell quickly, and is positioned to support seasonal launches, replenishment, and customer demand.
  • Reduce inventory dwell time, unpickable inventory, unnecessary handling and transfers, aged receiving backlogs, and stranded inventory across the global network.
  • Own operational controls for inventory reservations, order commitments, transfer execution, fulfillment priorities, and exception resolution within ERP/OMS and warehouse workflows.
  • Build visibility and accountability for inventory that is owned but not yet available to sell.

Inbound Logistics, Outbound Transportation & Trade

  • Own end-to-end inbound logistics strategy, including ocean and air freight, customs, freight forwarding, receiving, and handoff into distribution centers and stores.
  • Own outbound transportation strategy across parcel, LTL/FTL, final-mile, and international networks for DTC, retail distribution, and wholesale/partner shipments.
  • Manage carrier, freight forwarder, customs broker, and transportation partner performance, contracts, rate negotiations, and service levels.
  • Drive improvements in transit time, reliability, customs clearance, compliance, country-of-origin management, import/re-export processes, and duty efficiency.
  • Optimize total logistics cost - including 3PL handling and storage, transportation, duties, transfers, expedites, and cost-to-serve - while balancing sales opportunity, margin, inventory carrying cost, and customer experience.

Retail Back-of-House Operations & Omnichannel Enablement

  • Own the operating standards, processes, and tools for retail back-of-house operations across the store fleet, including receiving, stockroom management, inventory movement, replenishment, transfer execution, inventory accuracy, and shrink/loss-prevention coordination.
  • Partner closely with Retail leadership, which owns customer-facing selling, traffic, and merchandise execution, to ensure back-of-house operations support the store experience without creating conflicting priorities.
  • Own the operational design and execution standards for omnichannel capabilities such as ship-from-store and future store-enabled fulfillment, including inventory availability, order handoff, pick/pack processes, capacity, service levels, and exception handling.
  • Build training, SOPs, and scalable tools that create consistent back-of-house execution across a growing global store footprint.

Operational Excellence, Capacity & Continuous Improvement

  • Build a continuous-improvement culture focused on simplifying processes, eliminating unnecessary touches and handoffs, improving flow, and reducing operational waste.
  • Use data, root-cause analysis, process redesign, automation, and system capabilities to improve speed, service, inventory velocity, quality, and total cost.
  • Establish forward-looking capacity and risk management across 3PL labor, receiving, fulfillment, storage, and transportation.
  • Develop contingency plans and operating playbooks for launches, volume spikes, supply chain disruptions, carrier failures, system issues, and other material exceptions.
  • Drive scalable capability without automatically scaling organizational complexity or headcount.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Supply Chain Integration

  • Build, lead, and develop a lean, agile, high-accountability operations organization capable of responding quickly to changing demand, launches, disruptions, and a dynamic global retail environment.
  • Act as the connective operational leader across Planning, Production/Sourcing, Merchandising, Retail, ecommerce, Finance, and Technology to optimize the end-to-end supply chain rather than individual functions in isolation.
  • Clarify decision rights, operating handoffs, service expectations, and accountability across internal teams and external partners.
  • Represent Operations in ERP, OMS, WMS, planning, ecommerce, and systems initiatives, ensuring operating requirements are reflected in solution design, testing, cutover, and go-live readiness.
  • Develop and report an executive KPI framework across service, product availability, inventory velocity, 3PL performance, capacity, quality, and total logistics cost.

What We're Looking For

  • 10+ years of progressive operations leadership experience in apparel, footwear, or consumer lifestyle brands, including significant experience in a vertically integrated DTC, retail, and ecommerce environment.
  • Demonstrated ownership of complex end-to-end operations spanning fulfillment, order management, inventory flow, global logistics, 3PL networks, and retail store support.
  • Experience designing and managing multi-3PL or multi-node distribution networks with clear SLAs, capacity planning, governance, and performance accountability.
  • Strong understanding of multi-channel complexity across owned retail, ecommerce, managed partner, and wholesale channels, including the operational and systems differences between them.
  • Track record of improving product availability, OTIF, dock-to-stock, fulfillment speed, inventory velocity, on-time delivery, and total logistics cost.
  • Experience with import/export operations, including customs, country-of-origin tracking, international freight, duty structures, and trade compliance.
  • Strong systems fluency; hands-on experience with NetSuite or comparable ERP/OMS platforms strongly preferred, with a practical understanding of WMS, ecommerce, and planning-system integration.
  • Proven cross-functional leader who can influence across Planning, Production/Sourcing, Retail, ecommerce, Finance, Technology, and external partners without relying solely on direct authority.
  • Proven people leader with experience building capable, lean teams through growth and change.
  • Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, in-office, hands-on environment and willing to spend time in 3PLs and stores, not just in the office.
  • Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree a plus.

Skills

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