Scion Executive Search has been retained to conduct an immediate search for the Chief Operating & Impact Officer of United Food Bank, an organization on a mission to unite communities to alleviate hunger in Arizona. This is a full-time, onsite position based in Mesa, AZ.

ABOUT UNITED FOOD BANK:

United Food Bank is a mission-driven nonprofit uniting communities to alleviate hunger across Arizona. Through partnerships with more than 125 food pantries, mobile markets, and hot meal sites, the organization provides reliable access to nutritious food for neighbors facing hardship. United Food Bank views food security as the first step toward helping individuals and families achieve long-term stability and opportunity. Grounded in the values of being Uniters, Cultivators, and Optimists, the organization fosters a collaborative, solutions-focused culture and continues to expand its reach and impact across Arizona communities.

At a pivotal moment of growth, United Food Bank is advancing a dual strategy to support lasting stability. Through Food for Today, the organization ensures efficient distribution of food through a complex supply chain. Through Food for Tomorrow, United Food Bank leverages partnerships and programs to connect neighbors with resources that support long-term economic stability.

Position Overview:

The goal of United Food Bank is to create stability for any neighbor who is experiencing a need for food. The Chief Operating and Impact Officer (COIO) will be responsible for operationalizing our dual strategy for achieving this goal:

• Food for Today - Ensuring the right food gets to the right place at the right time, optimizing a complex supply chain to help our Arizona neighbors reach a stable place with their immediate food supply.
• Food for Tomorrow - Leveraging our operational touchpoints to create pathways to economic stability. This is accomplished through a combination of direct services and robust partnerships, ensuring neighbors have the resources to maintain stability. 

The COIO leads the sourcing, storing, repacking and distribution of tens of millions of pounds of food across more than 19,000 square miles of Arizona, from urban centers to remote rural and tribal communities. This person leads most of United Food Bank’s floor-facing staff, so this is a culture leadership role as much as an operations one.

This is a moment of change, and the COIO arrives to lead it. We are redesigning how food reaches our agency partners. We are designing a new campus that opens in 2028. And we are rebuilding trust between leadership and the people who do the work on the dock, in the warehouse and on the road. The COIO is a member of the Senior Leadership Team, staffs the Board’s Operations & Impact Committee, and ensures operations comply with federal, state and local law and Feeding America contract requirements.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Senior Leadership and the Board

• Executive role: Reports to the Chief Administrative Officer and serves as the senior operations leader on the Senior Leadership Team, with joint responsibility for organizational leadership and mission success.
• Board partnership: Serves as staff lead to the Operations & Impact Committee, bringing quarterly impact results and the Operational Response Plan, which Feeding America requires every three years with Board approval.
• Strategy: Translates the organization’s strategy, Stability First, into a continuous, multi-year operational roadmap. Sees industry trends early and names obstacles before they arrive.
• Leading through transition: Steps into a seat held by an interim leader during the holiday distribution season. Stabilizes the operation quickly, earns the team’s trust, and leads the changes ahead without losing the work in flight.

Frontline Culture and People Leadership

• Retention and engagement: Accountable for turnover and engagement results across Operations teams, with measurable progress against organizational goals. This is a core measure of the role, not a side responsibility. Visible leadership: Leads campus huddles on a rotating schedule and stays afterward with the door open. Owns what is raised in the room through to resolution, and goes to every “red” check-in before the day is out.
• A safe person to tell the truth to: Builds a team where people raise problems early, where candor is rewarded, and where the experience on the floor matches the experience in the office.
• Reaching everyone: Designs communication and recognition for a workforce that is spread across early-morning, weekday, weekend and on-the-road shifts, including drivers who work on locked-down devices and rarely use company email.
• Developing leaders: Holds timely performance reviews, sets annual work plans, coaches managers in their supervisory responsibilities, applies the 90-day probationary standard decisively, and builds a succession bench.

“Food for Today”: Supply Chain, Logistics and Warehouse Operations

• Food sourcing and distribution: Oversees food acquisition strategy and operations across grocery rescue, prepared food rescue, USDA commodities, produce and purchased product. Drives continuous improvement against annual growth and distribution goals.
• Distribution model redesign: Owns the move from individual delivery to roughly 250 agency partners toward consolidated morning distributions. Co-designs it with the Director of Transportation & Logistics, the Agency Network team and Finance. The model locks between January and March 2027.
• Transportation and warehouse: Through the Director of Transportation & Logistics, oversees fleet, routing, DOT and FMCSA compliance, warehouse operations, inventory accuracy and cold chain. Ensures food safety under USDA, AIB and Feeding America standards.
• Territory logistics: Leads logistics across dense urban Maricopa County and remote rural and tribal communities Navajo, Apache, Gila, Pinal, with a fleet ready to meet constant demand.
• Inventory and product mix: Works with the Chief Financial Officer and inventory leadership on inventory control, food flow and ordering, so neighbors receive a nutrient-dense product mix.
• Disaster response: Serves as primary operational lead in community crises, such as wildfires, floods, benefit disruptions and pandemics, coordinating with partner food banks, the state association and emergency providers.
• Safety culture: Champions a zero-incident safety culture across warehouse and transportation, with full OSHA and DOT compliance.

The New Campus

• Serves as the operations owner for the new campus, approved by the Board for Phase 1 design in October 2026 and opening in 2028. Shapes dock configuration, flow, refrigeration and staffing with the project managers, architect and contractor, and plans the operation’s move into the new site.

Partner Network Management and Development

• Capacity building: Oversees the team that supports roughly 250 agency partners, including churches, schools, pantries, dining rooms and shelters, and moves the network from food drops to genuine capacity building.
• Equitable distribution: Allocates food equitably across the network, finds gaps in the service area and deploys solutions.
• Compliance and dignity: Oversees partner monitoring for food safety and for treating neighbors with the dignity our values require.
• Waste Not: Coordinates with Waste Not, Inc., our affiliated food rescue organization, on shared routes, receiving and poundage tracking, with clear authorization points. You are the point person for UFB, leading and guiding WN’s Executive Director and are accountable for their performance.

“Food for Tomorrow”: Program Management

• Direct services: Oversees direct services to neighbors, including Neighbor’s Pantry and SNAP application, and develops further services that build longer-term stability.
• Pilots and partnerships: Oversees pilots that test new approaches, and builds a network of onsite and referral partners in areas such as housing, workforce development, mental health and legal aid.

Data, Performance and Financial Stewardship

• Operating system: Models and runs EOS with their teams: rocks, L10 meetings, scorecard and accountability chart, in Bloom Growth. Owns rocks even when the work is delegated.
• Operations scorecard: Builds out the Operations scorecard to include inventory accuracy, route efficiency, agency network measures, food-in by source and SNAP approval rate. Uses the validated distribution forecasting model to plan.
• Budget: Holds P&L responsibility for all Operations departments, supporting revenue-generating programs while optimizing operating and capital spending.
• Cross-functional partnership: Works with the Chief Philanthropy & Communications Officer on funding for operations, program expansion, partner capacity and capital needs such as fleet.
• Network standards: Leads Operations’ response to the Feeding America Network Standards Review and required network reporting.
• Performs other duties as assigned by the Chief Administrative Officer.

Required Qualifications: (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

• A genuine connection to our mission and values.
• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience, with at least 5 years at the Director or C-level overseeing operations or supply chain, including complex teams, budgets and logistics.
• A track record of improving retention, engagement or safety in a frontline or hourly workforce, with results you can describe.
• Experience leading an operation through significant change, such as a new facility, a new distribution model, or a leadership transition.
• Proven success managing warehousing, fleet logistics and inventory control, including at least 2 years of warehouse supervisory and safety program experience. Experience with ERP systems and route optimization software.
• Experience operating across a wide geographic territory. Experience with Arizona’s rural and tribal communities is a strong plus.
• Experience working with a board or board committee, and with a diverse network of external partners.
• Ability to see food insecurity as a symptom of broader economic instability. Experience with social service programs or benefits enrollment is preferred.
• Food safety regulation and compliance experience preferred. ServSafe certification required within 6 months of hire.
• Experience with EOS, or a comparable operating system, preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, nonprofit management, operations or supply chain management, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. MBA or master’s degree a plus.
• Excellent communication with people of diverse backgrounds and circumstances; maturity, judgment and tact; advanced Microsoft Office skills.
• Offer contingent on a background check and soft credit check.                                                                                                         

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS: 

This full-time, on-site executive role offers a meaningful opportunity to lead critical operations and community impact efforts at one of Arizona’s most respected hunger-relief organizations. The position offers a competitive salary range of $135,000–$165,000 (DOE) along with a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision coverage with employer contributions, access to both traditional and HSA medical plans with employer HSA funding and matching opportunities, employer-paid life and AD&D insurance,  access to 401k retirement plan with employer matching contributions, and to voluntary disability and supplemental insurance options.

APPLICATIONS AND NOMINATIONS:

United Food Bank has retained the services of Scion Executive Search, a national executive search firm specializing in recruiting for mission-driven organizations, to assist in conducting this important search. For immediate consideration, please apply with your resume and cover letter, formatted in Microsoft Word, via:  https://scionexecutivesearch.com/job/15713  

Please address applications to:

Ellen Johnson, Executive Recruiter Scion Executive Search

Review of applications, nominations, and expressions of interest will begin immediately and continue on a confidential basis until an appointment is made.