Job Placement · Supply Chain · Director of Supply Chain
BEG places supply chain directors who have already run a network bigger than a single site, benchmarked honestly against the right pay band. The Tier IV milestone fee runs $19,080 to $22,896, with a 23 to 35 day average fill.
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TL;DR
The clearest test of a director of supply chain candidate is whether they have already taken an ERP or WMS live across more than one site, because that is exactly the experience the flat $107,230 transportation, storage and distribution manager median cannot separate out. Freight and inventory budgets, supplier and third party logistics contracts above a threshold, and the planning, procurement, and logistics managers who report in all follow from that systems track record, with the director itself reporting to a VP or COO rather than holding the executive seat. BEG's Tier IV fee, $19,080 to $22,896, lands at 89 to 107 percent of a 20 percent contingency fee on the flat manager-code median, close enough to call even, but drops to 64 to 78 percent measured against the $146,770 75th percentile or the $148,080 purchasing manager median, the two benchmarks that actually describe a multi-site seat.
The Hiring Problem
The credential that matters for this seat is a systems one, a live ERP or WMS rollout carried across multiple sites, not just a single facility's operating numbers. Candidates who can show it are already paid by the employer whose network they built it for, so a posting priced at the flat manager median never reaches them.
The Search
The search stalls when the posting is priced off the manager median instead of the director band. BEG rebuilds the comparison against the 75th percentile and the purchasing manager median before sourcing, then screens for multi-site scope specifically.
| Step | What it requires | Where it stalls |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm the real benchmark | A comparison against the $146,770 75th percentile or the $148,080 purchasing manager median, not the $107,230 overall manager figure | Left at the flat $107,230 figure, the posting sits well under even a 20 percent contingency number, so it draws single-site applicants and the requisition ages |
| Source against network size | Candidates who have run a network at or above this company’s scale, multiple sites, not one | Candidates show up who have run a shift or a building well but have never signed a contract above the company’s own threshold or carried a freight budget across sites |
| Screen for systems and team leadership | Evidence of leading an ERP or WMS change and managing the managers who run planning, procurement, and logistics | The analyst who configured the WMS reports to the person BEG is trying to hire, not the other way around, so that resume undersells the systems ownership the seat needs |
| Close against the director band | An offer at or near the 75th percentile or purchasing manager median, not the overall manager figure | A director who has already done this for one employer will not redo it for less than the 75th percentile pays, so the anchor has to move before the close call, not during it |
Verifying the ERP or WMS rollout and the dollar threshold on a candidate’s contract authority takes longer than reading a resume, which is exactly why BEG treats it as billable search work rather than something sorted out after the shortlist is already built.
Milestone Billing Against Contingency
Call this the honest number first: at the flat $107,230 manager-code median, 20 percent contingency is $21,446 and 25 percent is $26,808, and the Tier IV fee, $19,080 to $22,896, lands at 89 to 107 percent of the lower figure. That is a wash, not a discount, and a director search priced against that single median will read BEG as roughly break-even against a contingency firm, which is a fair reading of the wrong number.
The Benchmark That Actually Fits a Director
The number that actually describes this seat is the 75th percentile of the manager code, $146,770, or the $148,080 purchasing manager median, both of which reflect people who have run more than one site source. Twenty to 25 percent of either runs $29,354 to $37,020, and the Tier IV fee covers 64 to 78 percent of that range. A recruiter who never moves off the flat median was never going to source a real multi-site candidate in the first place, so the benchmark that makes BEG look inexpensive and the benchmark that actually fills the seat are the same one.
Placement Models
This seat runs the network day to day rather than deciding where it sits, so it gets filled once and kept, not rotated through on an assignment. The real choice is which billing model fits a multi-site search; covering a network gap while that search runs is the separate case a staffing agency handles.
| Model | Who employs | How you pay | Right when |
|---|---|---|---|
| BEG direct hire placement | The director is on your payroll from the start, reporting to whoever holds the VP or COO seat above this one | The Tier IV fee, $19,080 to $22,896, is staged so the last piece is due only once the hire has cleared its milestones | You need the ERP or WMS history and the threshold-level contract authority verified before anyone signs an offer |
| Contingency search firm | Still your direct hire, the fee mechanism is the only difference from BEG | One invoice, 20 to 25 percent of first year salary, due the moment the offer letter is signed | Your team can already separate a real multi-site systems rollout from a single-facility resume on its own |
| Staffing or temp agency | The agency, not your company, remains the employer of record for as long as the placement lasts | A bill rate charged for the hours or weeks worked, with no milestone structure | The network needs someone running it now, before a permanent director search has even started |
The systems and threshold questions in the table above are what a resume alone will not answer, which is what a properly benchmarked search is for. See how the fee reads against every seat in the Supply Chain hub.
FAQ
BEG targets 23 to 35 days, though director-level searches often run toward the longer end because so few candidates have run a network at the required scale.
It depends on the benchmark. Against the $107,230 overall manager median, BEG runs about the same as a 20 to 25 percent contingency fee. Against the $146,770 75th percentile or the $148,080 purchasing manager median, where a director actually sits, BEG runs 64 to 78 percent of the contingency figure.
Several sites or the whole network’s plan: inventory and freight budgets, supplier and third party logistics contracts above a threshold, the systems roadmap, and the managers running planning, procurement, and logistics, reporting to a VP or COO.
The $107,230 median for transportation, storage and distribution managers blends single-site managers with multi-site directors. Candidates who have actually run a network bigger than a single facility are priced closer to the 75th or 90th percentile.
Evidence of running more than one site, owning budgets and contracts above a threshold, and having led a systems change such as an ERP or WMS rollout, plus experience managing managers rather than individual planners or buyers.
A staffing agency remains the employer of record and bills a rate for an assignment, which fits interim network leadership. A director seat is permanent, so BEG places the hire directly onto your payroll on milestone billing instead.
The third of three CPSM exams, covering strategy development, stakeholder engagement, people development and coaching, systems and technology, risk and compliance, and corporate social responsibility, relevant background for a seat managing other managers.
BLS projects purchasing managers growing 4 percent, from 88,300 jobs in 2025 to 91,800 by 2035, with several years of related experience typically required to reach the seat.
A candidate who has not yet run more than one site belongs on the Supply Chain Manager page instead; one ready to own where the network sits belongs on VP Supply Chain. Both, and the rest of the ladder, sit on the Supply Chain hub.
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