Director, Distribution Network Simulation

About the role

Our team members are at the heart of everything we do. At Cencora, we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures, and every person here is essential to us being able to deliver on that purpose. If you want to make a difference at the center of health, come join our innovative company and help us improve the lives of people and animals everywhere. Apply today!

Job Details

As a result of the expansion of our global supply chain capability we have an exciting new opportunity for a Director, Distribution Network Simulation. In this role you will resolve Distribution Center (DC) throughput and capacity gaps and identify scenarios and options to improve efficiencies in the DC network.

You will play a key role in leading the strategy, governance, development, and adoption of simulation capabilities across the global supply chain. The role uses discrete-event simulation, operational analytics, and scenario modeling to help leaders make high-confidence decisions related to distribution center flow, labor, throughput, capacity, service, automation, resilience, and capital investment.

You will be accountable for building a scalable simulation capability, managing a global portfolio of user cases, establishing modeling and validation standards, developing simulation talent, and ensuring that simulation outputs translate into implemented operational improvements and measurable business value.

The role partners closely with Operations, Engineering, Technology, Finance, Continuous Improvement, Data and Analytics, Transportation, Commercial, and regional supply chain leaders. This role reports directly to the Global Vice President of Network Modeling.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Strategy and Capability Leadership

• Develop a three- to five-year roadmap for building and scaling the Simulation capability within Cencora.
• Define where simulation should be embedded in capacity planning, facility design, automation evaluation, business cases, operational improvement, and the business planning cycle.
• Establish the global operating model, service offering, intake criteria, engagement model, and decision rights for simulation.
• Represent simulation as the capability subject matter expert in executive, portfolio, and investment discussions.
• Identify opportunities to convert one-time models into reusable decision-support capabilities.
• Develop simulation approaches ranging from rapid decision-support models to enterprise-scale digital representations, ensuring the appropriate level of complexity for each business problem.

Portfolio, Intake, and Prioritization

• Own the simulation project portfolio across regions and business units.
• Translate business challenges into structured simulation use cases, objectives, decision questions, scenarios, success criteria, and implementation requirements.
• Prioritize initiatives based on business value, urgency, strategic alignment, feasibility, data readiness, decision timing, and available capacity.
• Manage demand, resources, external support, project sequencing, risks, and dependencies.
• Maintain visibility into delivery status, decisions enabled, benefits identified, and benefits realized.

Modeling Excellence and Governance

• Establish global standards for model architecture, development, verification, validation, documentation, review, reuse, and lifecycle management.
• Define model acceptance criteria, confidence levels, sensitivity requirements, and stakeholder sign-offs.
• Ensure models accurately represent operational constraints, process variability, equipment behavior, labor rules, inventory flows, service requirements, and business assumptions.
• Implement peer-review and quality-assurance practices appropriate to the risk and materiality of each decision.
• Maintain a governed inventory of simulation models, components, assumptions, data sources, and reusable templates.
• Identify operational bottlenecks, system constraints, and resource limitations, providing recommendations to improve throughput, service levels, and operational efficiency.

Decision Support and Business Value

• Lead scenario analysis across throughput, capacity, labor, service, inventory flow, process design, layouts, automation, bottlenecks, resilience, and cost to serve.
• Lead simulation-based stress testing of facilities, networks, and operational processes to evaluate resilience, contingency plans, and response strategies under disruption scenarios.
• Quantify operational and financial trade-offs, including capital, operating cost, risk, service, productivity, and growth implications.
• Develop and support business cases for operational and technology investments.
• Communicate recommendations, assumptions, risks, and sensitivities to executive and operational audiences.
• Partner with Finance and business owners to define benefit baselines and validate realized value after implementation.

Data, Tools, and Digital Architecture

• Define the target-state simulation platform and supporting technology architecture.
• Promote scalable, cloud-enabled, reusable model components, data pipelines, scenario libraries, and interactive decision applications.
• Partner with Data and IT teams to establish reliable access to WMS, WES, ERP, labor, inventory, transportation, engineering, and automation data.
• Establish data quality and traceability standards for simulation inputs.
• Evaluate new simulation, digital twin, AI, visualization, and advanced analytics technologies.

Implementation and Adoption

• Ensure recommendations are translated into executable requirements for Operations, Engineering, IT, Technology, and Continuous Improvement.
• Define handoffs, owners, decision gates, implementation assumptions, and post-implementation validation requirements.
• Support operational pilots and technology evaluations where simulation can reduce investment risk.
• Ensure lessons learned from implementations are incorporated into model standards, reusable components, and future analyses.

Talent and Ecosystem Leadership

• Recruit, lead, coach, and develop simulation managers, engineers, modelers, and analysts.
• Establish competency expectations, development plans, technical career pathways, and succession plans.
• Build simulation literacy across operational and cross-functional teams.
• Develop a community of practice and training curriculum.
• Manage strategic relationships with simulation vendors, consultants, universities, engineering partners, and technology providers.

We would value the following attributes

• Bachelor's degree in supply chain, logistics, operations management, business administration, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience required.

Additional information

Master's degree in supply chain, operations, business administration, or a related field, or equivalent experience preferred.

• 10+ years of experience in supply chain planning, supply chain operations, logistics, field operations, customer support operations, or a related field required.
• 5+ years of experience in a management capacity required.
• Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), Certified Planning and Inventory Management (CPIM), or equivalent certification preferred. Project Management Professional (PMP) or equivalent certification preferred.
• Demonstrates deep knowledge of supply chain planning and operations, including demand planning, inventory planning and optimization, supply planning, forecasting, distribution network support, and continuity planning.
• Applies strong strategic and analytical capability to evaluate network options, interpret complex operational data, model trade-offs, and translate findings into executable business recommendations.
• Demonstrates strong leadership and stakeholder management skills to align cross-functional teams, influence senior decision-makers, and manage external partners in complex operating environments.
• Applies strong knowledge of regulatory-adherent process design, operational controls, and compliance-focused execution across distribution, import/export, and service-critical supply chain activities.

Uses sound judgment, financial acumen, and change leadership to balance service, quality, cost, risk, and scalability objectives across multiple initiatives and business needs.

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.

Full time