Director of Distribution JobPhoenix, AZ
Why You'll Love This Job
Who is Cafe Bakery
Since 1987, Cafe Valley has been baking smiles one cupcake, muffin, cake, and croissant at a time—putting care and craftsmanship into every product we make. Our people are the heart of our success. We’re committed to fostering a positive, team-focused workplace where collaboration, innovation, and respect are part of everyday operations—because the best baked goods come from people who love what they do. Our employees are our special ingredient. With more than 1,700 team members baking a difference every day, we operate state-of-the-art production facilities in Phoenix, AZ and Marion, IN, where quality, safety, and teamwork rise together.
Café Valley ships frozen and temperature-controlled baked goods to retail, club, distributor, and foodservice customers across the country. This role owns how that product gets to customers: the transportation network, the external warehouse footprint, and where inventory sits along the way.
It is an analytical role with real authority. Reporting directly to our SVP of Supply Chain, this role leads the Transportation team, our 3PL partners, and works alongside Planning. Planning decides how much to make and when, and this position decides where it goes, how it gets there, and what it costs to serve.
Responsibilities
What You Will Do
- The distribution network: ship-from points, external storage footprint, and lane structure, built for the lowest total delivered cost at the service our customers need.
- Where finished goods sit across our plants and external warehouses, so product is close to demand without duplicate inventory.
- Transportation strategy and freight spend, including the annual freight bid and carrier terms.
- Our 3PL and cold storage partners: selection, contracts, and performance.
- Cost to serve by customer, channel, and lane, and the freight input to pricing and new business.
- A Transportation team that runs daily execution, so your time goes to the analysis and the decisions.
- Travel 25% to our plants, 3PL partners, carriers, and customers.
- Other duties as assigned
Skills & Qualifications
Who You Are
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 8+ years in transportation, distribution, or logistics, including 3+ years leading people and owning freight spend or a distribution network.
- A track record of network or transportation decisions driven by your own analysis, with results you can put a number on. This one is firm.
- Experience running freight bids and managing third-party warehouse relationships.
- The ability to build a model from raw shipment, rate, and inventory data yourself (advanced Excel plus SQL, Power BI, Python, or similar).
- The judgment to present a recommendation and its tradeoffs to senior leadership, and defend the math.
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Industrial Engineering, Operations Research, Analytics, or a related field.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Frozen or refrigerated food distribution experience.
- Graduate degree in supply chain, analytics, or operations research.
- Bi-lingual – English and Spanish.
Where You Will Work
- This position can be located at our Phoenix or Marion plant.
What You’ll Enjoy
- Competitive base salary and bonus incentive
- Paid time off programs
- Comprehensive benefit offering including medical, dental, vision, life, disability and ancillary programs
- Working with a great team of dedicated professionals focused on a common mission
Cafe Valley is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity in the workplace. We encourage applications from qualified individuals regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.