Global Supply Chain Director

Money doesn’t grow on trees. Unfortunately, neither do the millions of products people buy and sell every year. Whether it’s a ceiling fan, oven, streetlight, or sneaker, it can’t be picked from a branch in your backyard. Instead, it must be sourced, manufactured, distributed, purchased, and deployed — usually under the direction of a Global Supply Chain Director.

When you’re a Global Supply Chain Director, it’s your job to manage the logistics of identifying, acquiring, and distributing goods through the global supply chain. Imagine you’re a Baker, for instance. Your bakery is in New York, but you buy vanilla from China, eggs from Wisconsin, sugar from the Caribbean, and chocolate from Brazil. All your ingredients must be found, purchased, and shipped so they arrive at your bakery on time, in the right quantities, and for the right price.

Once they’re baked, you’ve then got to find a way to get your products — fresh and in one piece — to customers, whether they’re down the street, across the country, or halfway around the world.

That’s how global supply chain management works, and it’s your responsibility as a Global Supply Chain Director to oversee the process, making it as efficient and as effective as possible. In collaboration with Supply Chain Managers and Supply Chain Analysts, that primarily means locating and negotiating with vendors, distributors, dealers, and suppliers. However, it also means contributing to contract management, inventory control, product development, and performance measurement.

Basically, you’re a professional shopper: You’re paid to travel the globe negotiating the best deals for the materials and infrastructure needed to make and distribute products.