Operations Director, IEA

Role overview

We are seeking a strong operational leader with commercial judgment and deep experience in operations to steer IEA’s operations agenda. The position is focused on ensuring the right product flow to customers while shaping the operations function in line with the company’s strategic direction.

Leadership and management

• Create the long-term operations strategy for IEA in alignment with the wider IEA business plan.
• Strengthen team engagement, satisfaction, and culture in line with company and BU values.
• Identify, develop, and retain key talent while building a robust succession pipeline across the operations function.
• Define the business and organizational direction for the BU as part of the IEA leadership team, with primary ownership of operations and support for Sales, Marketing, and Finance.
• Represent IEA in APAC operations forums and ensure strong coordination between regional planning and local execution.
• Promote cross-functional teamwork by coaching the team on other departments, business strategy, market trends, and customer needs.
• Maintain smooth day-to-day operations and delivery against agreed KPIs by reviewing planning, inventory, and sales performance.
• Manage and distribute resources effectively, including cross-training within the team.

Demand planning

• Lead the demand planning function and improve processes that capture reliable demand signals for the market.
• Own the local S&OP process, acting as the key link between Sales, Marketing, and Supply Chain while ensuring global and regional demand priorities are followed.
• Oversee safety stock and inventory lifecycle management in local distribution centers, including exit and excess stock.
• Direct supply and inventory movement to improve stock availability, reduce exposure, and maintain healthy inventory levels.
• Hold overall responsibility for IEA forecasting performance metrics.

Customer planning

• Encourage joint customer forecasting and align closely with KAMs/RSMs on push volumes.
• Oversee customer goods-flow planning to support consumer sales, customer inventory targets, and product in-stock levels.

Customer service

• Lead the customer service team so orders are handled efficiently and within the required customer ordering and distribution timelines.
• Ensure a clear connection between go-to-market plans, customer plans, and marketing plans and their execution through customer orders.
• Build and improve order management systems and processes to increase efficiency.
• Be accountable for IEA service performance metrics.

Customer and vendor relationships

• Develop strong partnerships with local customers centered on shared value creation.
• Deliver excellent customer service while helping grow revenue and reduce supply chain costs by connecting regional supply chain initiatives to customer requirements.
• Stay closely linked with customers and distributors throughout the region to ensure local distribution and import requirements are met and products remain available to consumers in every country.

Self-development

• Continuously invest in your own development through a strong individual development plan to maximize long-term career growth within The LEGO Group.

Role context

This position reports directly to the General Manager, IEA. As a member of the IEA BU leadership team, you will lead a team of 8 and work closely with regional and local stakeholders to make the operations organization more responsive to consumers and more closely connected with customers.

Additional information

Applications are assessed continuously. The employer may modify or withdraw the role at any time, including before the stated closing date, so early interest is encouraged.

What you can expect

The company offers enhanced family care leave, life and disability insurance, wellbeing support, a colleague discount from day one, and a bonus scheme when goals are met and eligibility conditions are satisfied.

Workplace arrangement

This role is tied to a primary workplace location such as an office, store, or factory. The work model is hybrid, with an average of 3 days per week in the office. The hiring team will explain role-specific eligibility during recruitment.

Equal opportunity and safeguarding

The organisation promotes a diverse, inclusive workplace and encourages people from all backgrounds to apply. It is committed to equal employment opportunity and equal pay. For roles with significant interaction with children, successful candidates will need to complete child safeguarding background screening as a condition of the offer.

About the company culture

The company describes its culture as playful, creative, inclusive, and supportive, inspired by children’s curiosity and imagination.