Ocean Freight Operations Head at DHL

Job Purpose:

• Drive adoption of the Global OFR standard process and solution landscape within the country. Guide and support stations by providing expert analysis of processes, collecting valuable feedback, and collaborating with stakeholders to develop effective improvement roadmaps. Drive high performance in terms of productivity, quality, effectiveness, and high customer satisfaction. Monitor compliance with regulations and standards, ensuring that business practices align with relevant government, industry, and company rules. Foster a culture of collaboration, customer centricity and change management to facilitate smooth adoption and implementation of the global standard, ultimately achieving operational excellence within your country
• DHL Global Forwarding has an opening for an Ocean Freight Operations Head in Johannesburg South Africa.  Join us in connecting people and improving lives!

In this Ocean Freight Operations Head position

• Responsible for policy and strategy implementation and short-term results (1 year or less)
• Problems faced are difficult to moderately complex
• Design and implement country improvement programs to drive adoption of global processes and solutions, focusing on achieving operational excellence in line with global standard
• Identify and oversee continuous improvement initiatives within the country to enhance operational efficiency, quality, reduce waste, and improve overall performance and customer satisfaction.
• Contribute to the development of the global standard by reviewing customer feedback and collecting requirements / feedback / best practices from the country organization with regards to existing processes, workflows, trainings, KPI, GSC services, solutions, systems, and providing those to the regional/global process excellence and solutions delivery teams
• Ensure adherence to legal and company regulations by monitoring and enforcing compliance measures and quality standards, including but not limited to regulations set out by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), ISO certifications etc.
• Ensure the successful, efficient, and scalable onboarding of all new and existing customers, translating customer promise into operational execution
• Champion a culture of change and innovation within the country operations, implementing effective change management practices to facilitate process improvements and coaching the organization on First Choice core tools
• Work closely with Global Shared Services (GSC) to drive centralization and continuous improvement
• Work closely with country IT teams to integrate technology solutions that support process optimization and automation initiatives
• Provide training and development opportunities for operations and process excellence team members to enhance their process optimization skills and foster a culture of process excellence
• Independently create longer-term deployment plans for larger initiatives and to deliver against them – managing effectively multiple parallel initiatives.
• Engage and influence stakeholders across all levels—from management to operators—by clearly communicating ideas and benefits, and driving alignment and execution.

Stakeholders

• Collaborates with leadership teams from regional and country Ocean Freight and all other country functions e.g. IT, Finance, Procurement, Sales, Air Freight 
• Extensive contact and negotiating with other departments and 3rd parties e.g. carriers, service providers etc.

Management Responsibilities

• Manage experienced professionals who exercise latitude and independence in assignments
• Develop short to longterm (1-5 years) plans for optimizing the organization and the talent required to execute strategies; ensure succession planning for key roles 

Now, here is what we need from you!

• Education Level: Bachelors Degree or equivalent experience/qualification
• Experience: More than 6 years of experience
• Ability to apply project / process management methodologies to drive processes improvements / solve complex issues e.g. First Choice methodologies 
• Good understanding of and strong network in the forwarding industry, the OFR organization and related DPDHL departments 
• Good understanding of the systems and tools relevant to the operations of DGF OFR (e.g. CW1, RMS, CargoSphere, MyFRP, ESP etc.) 
• Solutions-oriented, customer-centric mind-set to identify and drive relevant improvements.  Operations Management;
• In depth freight forwarding knowledge
• Sound knowledge in Ocean Freight and customs
• High level of attention to detail
• Good Interpersonal skills
• Planning and organizing skills
• Business Processes skills
• Project Management
• Presentation skills
• In depth freight forwarding knowledge
• Microsoft office applications
• Excellent command of the English language (both written and verbal)