Retail Supply Chain Operations Manager - Customer Compliance

Description:

Contract Length: 3 Months

About the Role

Ships to a broad base of North America wholesale customers, each with its own routing, scheduling, packaging, labeling, documentation, and delivery requirements. Meeting those requirements consistently depends on clear standards, accurate records, coordinated execution across several functions, and fast resolution when something does not go to plan.

The Senior Manager, Customer Compliance owns the North America wholesale customer compliance program and the operating model behind it. You will set the standards, governance, and accountabilities that make compliance performance repeatable, and you will also run the day-to-day work that keeps it on track: managing customer vendor and compliance portals, filing and tracking exceptions, maintaining account requirements, and analyzing the operational drivers behind compliance outcomes.

This role partners closely with Accounts Receivable, but it is not a claims-processing role. Accounts Receivable owns the claims process itself, including intake, validation, dispute, and settlement. This role owns prevention and the operational picture that informs it: how the shipment was executed, what the supporting records show, and which operational, process, or system changes will improve performance going forward.

This is a hands-on leadership position. You will move between working in a customer routing portal, analyzing shipment and cost data, and leading a cross-functional group of Commercial, Distribution & Logistics, Customer Operations, Finance, and IT stakeholders to a decision.

Location : Preferably based in Columbus, Ohio, but open to a remote teammate, willing to be in Columbus for most of the duration of this role.

What You'll Do

Own the compliance program and operating model

• Establish and maintain the end-to-end operating model for North America wholesale customer compliance, including the RACI, standard operating procedures, escalation paths, standards, and a single documented repository.

• Define how compliance work is planned, executed, measured, and escalated across Commercial, Distribution & Logistics, Customer Operations, Finance, and IT, and hold those functions to the agreed accountabilities.

• Lead the cross-functional cadence on compliance performance: trends, open items, owners, due dates, escalation, and closure.

• Build the structured intake and response standards that govern how requests move between finance and the operating teams.

Own customer requirements, onboarding, and readiness

• Own vendor guides and customer operational requirements end to end, including new customer onboarding, program renewals, requirement changes, and operational readiness ahead of go-live.

• Translate customer requirements into scalable operating standards, system requirements, process controls, and distribution execution instructions.

• Maintain current, account-specific requirements covering routing guides, labeling and value-added service specifications, packaging and palletization standards, ticketing, and shipping documentation.

• Assess whether a new or changed customer requirement is operationally feasible, what it costs to meet, and what needs to change to support it.

Run portals and exception management

• Act as LS&Co.'s day-to-day owner of customer vendor and compliance portals for priority accounts, covering routing, appointment scheduling, exception submission, scorecard review, and dispute filing.

• Submit and track exception tickets at the point of occurrence for events outside LS&Co.'s control, including carrier no-shows, mis-assigned or wrong-carrier pickups, portal or system issues, and customer-driven routing conflicts, so that each event is recorded and attributed accurately.

• Maintain the submission standard for each account covering what must be filed, in which system, within what window, and with what supporting evidence.

• Monitor customer compliance scorecards and performance trends by account, and act on early signals before they affect service standing.

Lead chargeback prevention and partner with Accounts Receivable

• Own the chargeback-prevention strategy for North America wholesale and the financial reduction associated with it.

• Analyze the operational patterns behind customer compliance exceptions across pick and pack, staging and loading, routing and pickup, value-added services, ASN and EDI, documentation, and carrier or customer-driven events.

• Give Accounts Receivable a clear, well-evidenced operational position by category so that claims are assessed consistently and on the facts of how the shipment was executed.

• Define the root-cause taxonomy and tagging standard applied across the business, so performance can be analyzed by account, reason code, and driver.

• Make sure the operational records the business relies on are consistently captured, indexed, and retrievable, covering pack confirmation, ASN, bill of lading, proof of delivery, audit records, and appointment and pickup timestamps.

• Coordinate the operations-side response to evidence requests and engage directly on complex or precedent-setting cases that will shape how a whole category is handled.

Own value-added services performance and cost

• Own value-added service optimization and cost reduction across the North America wholesale network.

• Analyze value-added service failures and rework to their operational cause, and put controls in place that reduce both defects and expense.

• Work with Commercial and customers on which value-added service requirements are genuinely required, which can be simplified, and what each one costs to deliver.

Report performance and build the scorecards

• Develop executive KPI scorecards and customer-health reporting for senior Distribution & Logistics, Commercial, and Finance stakeholders.

• Maintain the detailed operating view of compliance performance by account, reason code, root cause, status, owner, and financial impact.

• Track and report progress against annual compliance, service, and cost objectives.

• Identify and monitor the leading indicators that predict compliance outcomes, including routing timeliness, ready-to-ship performance, ASN accuracy, pack and value-added service quality, and documentation completeness.

Partner with Commercial and lead change

• Partner with Sales on customer capabilities, operating models, and what LS&Co. can commit to for a given account.

• Support customer-facing discussions on compliance requirements, exemptions, and operational commitments.

• Lead cross-functional improvement initiatives, and develop the business cases for automation, technology, and process investment that make compliance performance sustainable.

• Convert findings into durable corrective action: process changes, work instructions, training, audit routines, system requirements, and control checkpoints.

• Coach and develop team members, directly and across the extended cross-functional team, and raise the standard of compliance capability across the organization.

Complexity and Decision-Making

The role operates in an environment where customer requirements, commercial priorities, operational capabilities, financial considerations, and system constraints frequently intersect. Issues often span multiple functions, systems, distribution centers, external logistics providers, and customer organizations, with no single function holding complete ownership or visibility.

• Independently diagnose ambiguous and often systemic problems by reconciling multiple data sources, determining root cause, assessing customer and financial risk, and separating isolated execution failures from broader process, system, or governance gaps.

• Decide when to escalate, when exceptions are appropriate, which corrective actions to prioritize, and when changes to processes, controls, systems, fulfillment models, or organizational ownership are required.

• Develop solutions that balance customer requirements, operational feasibility, cost, scalability, and business risk, often under competing priorities, incomplete information, and compressed customer deadlines.

• Influence functions outside the direct reporting line, which calls for strong judgment, fact-based recommendations, negotiation, and the ability to build alignment among stakeholders with different objectives.

How Performance is Measured

Targets are set annually with Distribution & Logistics, Commercial, and Finance leadership. The role owns the outcome measures below and is accountable for the execution and program measures that drive them.

Financial Outcomes

Customer Service Outcomes

Compliance Execution

Program and Governance

Scope and Impact

What You Bring

Required

• Advanced understanding of wholesale customer operations, order-to-cash, customer compliance, vendor routing requirements, distribution execution, transportation, and value-added services.

• Strong knowledge of customer onboarding, fulfillment models, routing guides, compliance manuals, EDI requirements, ASN accuracy, labeling, packaging, ticketing, and shipping documentation.

• Working knowledge of chargeback and deduction processes, including root-cause analysis, dispute support, financial impact assessment, and preventive controls.

• Demonstrated ability to establish governance, standards, and accountability across functions without direct authority over them.

• Strong analytical capability including trend analysis, exception management, cost-benefit analysis, KPI development, and identification of systemic performance drivers.

• Executive communication, program management, facilitation, negotiation, and change-management skills.

Systems and Tools

• Advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.

• Reporting and visualization tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent.

• ERP, warehouse management, transportation management, order management, customer portal, and EDI systems; SAP S/4HANA preferred.

• Familiarity with process-improvement methodologies, automation, workflow tools, and structured problem-solving techniques.

Preferred

• Experience managing retailer compliance programs with large national accounts, and partnering with a finance or accounts receivable function.

• Experience working with third-party logistics providers and holding them to contractual service and quality standards.

• Experience designing process controls, standard operating procedures, or reporting from the ground up.

• Continuous improvement credentials such as Lean or Six Sigma, or equivalent applied experience.

Impellam Group and its brands are equal-opportunity employers committed to diversity and inclusion. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other factor determined to be unlawful under applicable law. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application, interview process, pre-employment activity, and the performance of crucial job functions.

If you require additional disability considerations, modifications, or adjustments please let us know by contacting HR-InfoImpellamNA@impellam.com or fill out this form to request accommodations.