INVENTORY OPERATIONS SPECIALIST

Inventory Operations Specialist

This position is hybrid working from our Legacy West Support Center located in Plano Texas. 

About Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc.

At SBH, our purpose is to inspire a more colorful, confident, and welcoming world. We are the leader in professional hair color, selling and distributing professional beauty supplies across 11 countries through our Sally Beauty and Beauty Systems Group businesses. Sally Beauty offers products for hair color, hair care, nails, and skin care to retail customers looking for salon-quality products at a value price. Beauty Systems Group, branded as Cosmo Prof or Armstrong McCall stores, along with its direct sales consultants, sell professionally branded products intended for use and resale by salons to retail consumers.

About the role

This is a hybrid position working from our Legacy West Support Center in Plano, Texas.

The Inventory Operations Specialist owns enterprise visibility, governance, and decision support for inventory execution and logistics-related operational risk across the store fleet. This role serves as the business lead for identifying systemic receiving, shipment flow, and inventory accuracy issues; determining root cause; setting operating expectations; and driving cross-functional corrective action. The position requires independent judgment, operational authority, and the ability to make recommendations and decisions that materially affect field execution, in-stock readiness, shrink exposure, and business continuity.

This is a lead-level role accountable for interpreting business impact, prioritizing enterprise risks, influencing partner functions, and guiding field-facing standards without requiring direct supervision for day-to-day decisions. The role is expected to evaluate multiple courses of action, determine when issues require escalation or policy clarification, and represent Store Operations in decisions involving inventory process stability and logistics execution.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise monitoring and risk assessment for ASN receiving failures, shipment exceptions, delivery delays, inventory discrepancies, and related execution breakdowns across stores, districts, and regions.
• Own the development, interpretation, and reinforcement of store-facing standards for receiving, shipment handling, inventory execution, and exception resolution within the store environment.
• Independently analyze recurring inventory and logistics issues, compare potential causes and remedies, and determine whether resolution requires field action, process change, partner escalation, system correction, or leadership decision.
• Represent Store Operations in cross-functional discussions with logistics, transportation, distribution centers, accounting, technology, and field leadership to influence priorities, resolve systemic barriers, and align ownership for corrective action.
• Provide expert operational consultation to leaders by translating inventory and logistics data into business recommendations that affect in-stock performance, shrink mitigation, labor prioritization, customer readiness, and sales protection.
• Determine the appropriate business response to recurring issue patterns, including when to update field guidance, recommend standard changes, escalate partner accountability, or sponsor targeted stabilization efforts.
• Lead stabilization of high-risk inventory processes by establishing issue governance, defining success criteria, tracking accountability, and reporting progress to leadership.
• Make independent recommendations on prioritization, escalation path, and field communication approach for inventory and logistics issues that carry operational, financial, or customer impact.
• Design and maintain field-facing decision frameworks, exception routines, and operating cadences that enable consistent inventory execution across a large, geographically dispersed store fleet.

Knowledge, skills & abilities requirement

• Progressive experience in retail operations, inventory management, supply chain, logistics, or store execution with demonstrated ownership of business-critical product flow, exception management, or operational improvement work.
• Proven ability to independently diagnose recurring operational issues, evaluate multiple resolution paths, and make recommendations that influence field execution, cross-functional priorities, or operating standards.
• Experience leading cross-functional work with distribution, transportation, accounting, systems, field leadership, or related support functions; ability to influence outcomes without direct reporting authority.
• Strong operational judgment and business acumen, with the ability to connect inventory and logistics issues to customer experience, sales readiness, shrink exposure, labor prioritization, and enterprise risk.
• Executive-ready communication skills with the ability to present findings, defend recommendations, align stakeholders, and communicate decisions to field and support-center audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity, make sound decisions with incomplete information, and escalate only when decisions require broader business approval or policy direction.
• Ability to develop and implement operating routines, issue governance, reporting interpretation, and decision criteria that affect a large store fleet and multiple business partners.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain, operations, logistics, retail management, or related field preferred; equivalent experience in enterprise retail operations or supply chain execution may be considered.

Competencies & attributes

Inventory & Logistics Expertise – Deep understanding of inventory management, receiving processes, shipment execution, and supply chain operations.

Analytical Thinking – Uses data and trends to identify root causes, evaluate risks, and determine effective solutions.

Problem Solving – Resolves complex operational issues by balancing field execution, process improvement, and business needs.

Business Acumen – Understands the financial and operational impact of inventory decisions on sales, shrink, labor, and customer experience.

Strategic Decision Making – Makes sound recommendations regarding priorities, escalations, corrective actions, and resource allocation.

Cross-Functional Collaboration – Partners effectively with logistics, transportation, distribution, accounting, technology, and field leadership teams.

Influence & Stakeholder Management – Builds alignment, drives accountability, and influences decisions across multiple functions without direct authority.

Continuous Improvement – Identifies recurring issues and implements process, policy, and operational enhancements to drive sustainable results.

Project & Change Management – Leads stabilization efforts, establishes governance, and drives adoption of new standards and operating practices.

Communication – Translates complex inventory and logistics information into clear business recommendations and actionable guidance for leaders.

 Working conditions & physical requirements

• The work environment involves everyday risks or discomforts which require normal safety precautions typical of such places as offices, meeting and training rooms, retail stores, and residences or commercial vehicles, e.g., use of safe work practices with office equipment, avoidance of trips and falls, observance of fire regulations and traffic signals, etc. The work area is adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated.
• The work is sedentary. Typically, the employee may sit comfortably to do the work. However, there may be some walking; standing; bending; carrying of light items such as papers, files, books, small parts; using a keyboard, driving an automobile, etc. No special physical demands are required to perform the work.

Benefits

We offer a competitive salary and outstanding benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, life Insurance, paid vacation and sick days, paid holidays, tuition reimbursement and 401(k) with company match. In addition, associates of SBH may take advantage of our in-house salon with complementary services and a varied selection of food options at our corporate campus. Also, featured at our corporate campus, is both a Sally Beauty and CosmoProf Professional onsite store, where associates enjoy a great merchandise discount!

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