Senior Director, Warehouse Management Systems & Labor Management Systems

Senior Director, Warehouse Management Systems & Labor Management Systems

The Senior Director, Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Labor Management Systems (LMS) is a senior technology leader with end-to-end accountability for the platforms that power McKesson's distribution network. This role owns the technology strategy, modernization roadmap, delivery performance, operational reliability, and financial outcomes of systems that directly enable inventory accuracy, order fulfillment, workforce productivity, and distribution center efficiency at enterprise scale.

As the primary technology partner to Distribution Operations, Strategic Distribution & Automation, and Supply Chain leadership, this leader translates business priorities into platform outcomes balancing operational stability with modernization, engineering excellence with delivery speed, and team development with accountability.

This role requires a leader who moves with urgency, builds process where none exists, champions AI adoption as a force multiplier for engineering productivity, and drives a culture where teams bring solutions not problems. Candidates who thrive in ambiguity, challenge teams to work differently, and prove results will find this role uniquely rewarding.

Key Responsibilities

• Define, own, and execute the enterprise technology strategy, roadmap, and lifecycle management for WMS and LMS platforms across McKesson's distribution network.
• Maintain full end-to-end accountability from strategy through execution for platform availability, delivery performance, operational reliability, and financial outcomes.
• Establish clear platform principles, guardrails, and success metrics that enable disciplined, outcome-driven decision-making across engineering and operations teams.
• Align WMS and LMS strategy with distribution operations, supply chain priorities, and enterprise technology architecture to ensure investments deliver measurable business value.

Delivery Excellence & Engineering Discipline

• Drive a culture of delivery excellence teams execute with speed, quality, and accountability in support of mission-critical distribution center operations.
• Establish clear delivery standards, remove execution bottlenecks, and enable teams to ship outcomes faster while maintaining reliability and operational stability.
• Own operational governance across distribution centers, ensuring Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA) are delivered on time, clearly documented, and understood by both technical and non-technical leaders.
• Define and track engineering KPIs that drive accountability and continuous improvement:
• Manage portfolio of projects and reduce TCO
• System availability and uptime
• Incident reduction and mean time to resolution
• Delivery predictability and cycle time
• Code quality and technical debt reduction
• Automation coverage and engineering productivity

AI Adoption & Engineering Productivity

• Champion the use of AI coding tools GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, and emerging platforms to measurably increase engineering speed, reduce analysis time, and improve code quality across WMS and LMS teams.
• Model AI-first practices personally. Build a culture of experimentation where teams identify where AI helps, prove it with results, and scale what works.
• Establish repeatable, teachable examples of AI-accelerated delivery impact analysis, code review, RCA documentation, test case generation and actively share these across the broader engineering organization.
• Drive the expectation that AI adoption is a practice built through doing, not a training program. Teams experiment, document results, and share learnings every sprint.
• Partner with other engineering leaders to build a shared library of AI use cases that elevates productivity across the organization not just within WMS and LMS.

Technology Modernization & Innovation

• Lead modernization of legacy WMS and LMS ecosystems cloud enablement, scalable architectures, modern integrations, and improved data and analytics capabilities.
• Evaluate and recommend platforms, tools, and technologies that improve system reliability, developer productivity, and long-term sustainability.
• Establish governance for platform replacement decisions that improve operational performance and total cost of ownership.

Labor Management & Workforce Productivity

• Provide executive leadership for labor management capabilities that measure and improve workforce productivity across distribution centers.
• Partner with Distribution Operations to ensure labor standards, reporting, and analytics support data-driven operational decisions.

Financial Leadership & Business Ownership

• Own budgets and financial planning for WMS and LMS platforms operating costs, capital investments, vendor contracts, and total cost of ownership.
• Ensure every technology investment delivers measurable operational and financial value; articulate ROI clearly to senior business and finance leaders.
• Identify and act on opportunities to reduce cost, consolidate platforms, and improve financial efficiency across the portfolio.

Cross-Functional & Vendor Leadership

• Act as a strategic partner to Distribution Operations, Strategic Distribution & Automation, WCS/WES, Architecture, Cybersecurity, and Infrastructure teams.
• Maintain senior vendor relationships roadmap alignment, contract oversight, and performance management for WMS and LMS partners and system integrators.

People Leadership & Team Development

• Lead and develop a multi-layer organization of managers, engineers, analysts, and offshore teams.
• Build a culture of accountability, ownership, operational excellence, and continuous improvement where people are expected to grow, lead, and deliver.
• Drive performance management, succession planning, and leadership development across the organization.
• Recognize and amplify AI adoption and engineering innovation build a team reputation for working differently and proving it with results.

Leadership Expectations: The successful candidate will demonstrate the following characteristics:

• Speed, Boldness & Innovation: Drives execution with urgency. Encourages bold ideas, challenges the status quo, and actively pushes teams to adopt AI and modern engineering practices. Does not wait for permission to move.
• Operating in Ambiguity: Thrives where processes are still evolving. Builds operating models and engineering practices from the ground up. Candidates seeking fully defined structures may not find this environment a fit.
• Operational Ownership: Leads with full accountability for outcomes and system reliability in mission-critical environments. Sees what needs to be done and moves without being asked.
• Solution-Oriented Leadership: Builds a culture where teams bring solutions, tradeoffs, and execution plans. Leaders here are decisive and drive clarity, not escalation.
• Clear Business Communication: Communicates complex technical concepts clearly to senior leaders, operations, and engineers alike. RCA, incident reviews, and improvement plans are crisp, actionable, and audience-appropriate.
• Building High-Performing Teams: Develops people, drives accountability, and builds a team culture where continuous improvement and AI adoption are the norm not the exception.

Measures of Success - Success in this role will be measured by the following outcomes:

• Platform availability, uptime, and incident reduction targets met or exceeded across WMS and LMS systems.
• Delivery predictability improved teams ship on time, with quality, and with measurable reduction in production defects and escalations.
• RCA and CAPA completion rates meet defined SLAs; findings are clear, actionable, and understood by non-technical leaders.
• AI adoption is visible and measurable specific examples of AI-accelerated delivery are documented, shared, and actively scaled across the engineering organization.
• Modernization milestones achieved on schedule with clear operational and financial value demonstrated.
• Strong, trusted partnerships with Distribution Operations and Supply Chain leadership evidenced by timely decisions, reduced escalations, and positive stakeholder feedback.
• Budget targets met; technology investments deliver defined operational and financial returns.
• Leadership bench strengthened direct reports are developing, performing, and ready for greater scope.
• Team culture reflects accountability, speed, and continuous improvement not escalation dependency.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Engineering, Supply Chain, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 12+ years of progressive experience in warehouse, supply chain, or enterprise systems leadership.
• 6+ years leading managers and senior technical or product teams.
• Deep experience with Warehouse Management Systems in complex, high-volume distribution environments.
• Demonstrated experience owning enterprise platforms with significant operational and financial impact.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Labor Management Systems, engineered labor standards, or workforce productivity platforms.
• Experience integrating WMS with WCS/WES and material handling automation in automated distribution centers.
• Experience leading mission-critical operational systems where downtime directly impacts warehouses, logistics, or manufacturing.
• Demonstrated AI adoption in engineering environments using tools like GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or similar to measurably improve