Senior Business Development Manager, Consumer, Air & Sea at DSV

 Purpose of the Role.

• The Consumer Vertical Lead is responsible for driving the Consumer & Retail vertical agenda across South Africa and support the greater development into Sub Saharan Territory.
• The role sits at the intersection of commercial growth, customer strategy, operational governance and solution development. The successful candidate must be able to operate with senior stakeholders, translate customer requirements into practical supply chain solutions, and ensure that commercial promises are supported by operational follow-through. 
• It requires a senior leader who can influence across functions, challenge underperformance, create visibility of risk and protect DSV customer relationships through disciplined governance.

Key Responsibilities

Vertical Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and execute the regional Consumer Vertical strategy across SA and SSA.
• Translate global Consumer priorities into practical regional commercial plans.
• Monitor market changes, customer trends, retail dynamics and supply chain developments.
• Represent SSA in Consumer Vertical discussions and provide feedback for regional and global forums.
• Provide clear guidance to sales, operations and leadership teams on priorities, risks and opportunities.

Commercial Performance & Growth

• Drive and direct revenue, gross profit, margin protection and growth performance across the Consumer vertical.
• Drive disciplined pipeline management and prioritize opportunity quality, ownership and next steps.
• Identify new business opportunities and grow share of wallet in strategic accounts.
• Support major tenders, customer proposals, business reviews and executive engagements.
• Connect commercial activity to customer value, operational feasibility and financial impact.

Strategic Customer Leadership

• Act as senior vertical sponsor for priority Consumer and Retail customers.
• Build trusted relationships with customer leadership and key operational stakeholders.
• Lead or support business reviews, strategic workshops, escalations and customer growth discussions.
• Translate customer pain points into structured solutions, action plans and value cases.
• Protect retention, deepen relationships and position DSV as a strategic supply chain partner.

Operational Governance & Stakeholder Accountability

• Proactively identify operational risks, service failures, process gaps and performance concerns that may impact customers or put future business at risk.
• Escalate material customer risks early, clearly and constructively.
• Hold internal stakeholders accountable for agreed corrective actions, owners and timelines.
• Coordinate resolution across operations, sales, customer service, control tower, origin management, product, digital and finance teams.
• Maintain visible action registers after customer meetings, escalations and workshops.
• Challenge existing ways of working where customer value, service delivery or revenue retention is at risk.
• Ensure leadership has visibility of unresolved operational concerns and the potential customer impact.
• Lead or support customer-facing recovery plans when service performance is under pressure.

Supply Chain Optimisation & Solution Development

• Identify opportunities to improve customer supply chain performance, visibility, cost control and predictability.
• Position and support solutions such as purchase order management, SCM, TradeCloud, myDSV, control tower models and reporting tools.
• Support the Account Manager / Sales contact to connect customers with the right internal subject matter experts and ensure solution actions are followed through.
• Support implementation governance and adoption of new customer solutions.

Stakeholder Management & Influence

• Build strong relationships across branch, country, regional and global teams.
• Influence without direct authority and align stakeholders behind customer, commercial and operational outcomes.
• Act as the connector between customer needs and DSV capabilities.
• Communicate clearly with senior leadership on risks, decisions required and support needed.

Reporting, Governance & Communication

• Prepare concise monthly and quarterly Consumer Vertical updates covering financial performance, customer activity, pipeline, market insights and risks.
• Provide executive-level commentary that links customer developments to commercial impact.
• Maintain visibility of strategic initiatives, customer action plans and unresolved risks.
• Ensure meeting actions are documented, owned and followed through.

Required Experience & Qualifications

Essential

• Minimum 10 years of experience in freight forwarding, logistics, supply chain, retail logistics or related commercial leadership roles.
• Proven experience in business development, strategic sales, key account management or vertical leadership.
• Strong understanding of Consumer, Retail, FMCG, Fashion, Lifestyle, Homeware or related supply chains.
• Experience engaging senior customer stakeholders and internal executive teams.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including margin, profitability and pipeline management.
• Operationally credible, with the ability to understand service failures, process gaps and customer risk.
• Excellent communication, presentation, influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work across branches, countries, functions and matrix reporting lines.
• Ability to travel across branches and countries when needed.

Preferred

• Relevant degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Business, Commerce or a related field.
• Experience with multinational or regional customer portfolios.
• Experience in digital logistics, control tower, purchase order management, supply chain visibility or transformation programmes.
• Exposure to customer implementation governance, strategic workshops and executive business reviews.