Regional Head of Seafreight Operational Excellence

Global Talent & Organizational Development @ Hellmann Worldwide Logistics | Talent Management

As a global active logistics service provider, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics serves solutions for every logistical challenge. The driving force are our exceptional employees in the global Hellmann FAMILY, which are in the middle of our Hellmann Promise and all our decisions. For the better. Together.

If this resonates with your career aspirations, come and help us shape our sustainable impact. Job details below

Job Overview:

The Regional Head of Seafreight Operational Excellence leads strategic initiatives and operational excellence at a regional level, driving key business outcomes and ensuring alignment with the organization's vision. This role focuses on major functional areas with significant influence, requiring deep industry knowledge, strategic communication, and innovative leadership.

Lead the design, deployment and execution of strategic Seafreight projects for business process improvement and transformation initiatives, in conjunction with Global & Regional leads. Lead and manage a team of regional and country/cluster Seafreight Operational Excellence heads.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead the Seafreight-related strategic business process improvement and transformation projects
• Develop, align, implement and govern the future global and regional demand. Test, support and maintain on a high-quality level.
• Work collaboratively with Seafreight business process owners and supporting functions to define business needs, create respective business cases. Design & implement required solutions.
• Plan & implement business process improvements in the nature of process automation and digitalization, organizational changes, process transformation, policy adherence and standardization.
• Identify Innovation potentials and align roadmap with innovation team.
• Establish a solid implementation process together with CI to implement new accounts

Key Objectives

Improve EBIT Conversion by:

• Enabling unit cost reduction through reducing cycle times, reducing Opex, centralizing processes to reap economies of scale and to reduce overall labor cost.
• Driving process standardization and quality; development of tools and IT applications that effectively support the Seafreight Operational Blueprint.
• Maintaining relevant skills in Seafreight operations through training.
• Developing the Regional Operational Excellence Team.
• Project specific objectives as required (e.g. CargoWise roll-out, Service Center implementation, Forward 2030 Strategy etc)
• Lead the Regional Operational Excellence Team by defining and communicating strategy and priorities, and following up on execution of the same, including the Global Operational Excellence Concept.
• Manage, coach and support Regional & Country Ops Excellence Heads
• Work with Global Operational Excellence Head, Regional Head Seafreight, and Country Ops excellence to identify and develop Ops excellence talents.
• Foster collaboration between General Management, Products, Sales, and Supporting functions.
• Drive the Matrix organization and be a role model for direct and functional reports.
• Provide functional direction and guidance on product business matters.
• Challenge and support own management team.

Process

• Establish and enforce standards that drive quality, eliminate rework, and enable the standardisation of processes
• Identify / define opportunities and priorities for driving process and data quality
• Work with Regional Head of Seafreight, Country Seafreight Heads and Country Ops excellence Heads to drive implementation of process standards
• Focus on how value is added for customers, eliminate waste and non-value adding activities. Balance productivity and control with profitability
• Maintain the Seafreight process blueprint, aligned with Seafreight Target Operating Model
• Closely work with Regions and Corp. Functions (Seafeight, Finance, Sales, HR) to define process design standards (incl. non-negotiables and variants) within defined process modelling tools
• Screen, consolidate and deploy proven practices across Regions
• Seek opportunities to reduce unit cost and improve GP control across Seafreight commercial and operational functions at desk and supervisor level

Design

• Provide operations with the right tools and enable operators and supervisors to work effectively and efficiently
• Own and maintain Seafreight Operational blueprint (as-is/target)
• Define, maintain and implement/execute implementation roadmaps
• Closely work with Regions to understand opportunities, requirements and priorities
• Work with Corp IT, Seafreight, Sales and Finance to align priorities and obtain, allocate funds and resources
• Maintain system and tool related training materials
• Focus on how value is added for customers, eliminate waste and non-value adding activities. Balance productivity and control with profitability
• Seek opportunities to improve productivity and GP control across the Seafreight commercial and operational functions (incl. supervisor level)
• Coach and support Country Seafreight Ops Excellence Heads as required
• Work closely with Corp. IT, Products and Regions to define and maintain required standards
• Act as a counterpart and escalation point for Corp. IT

Training

• Establish a culture of best practice sharing, on-going learning and constructively challenging the status quo. Leverage and promote Continuous Improvement mindset. Provide the methods and materials to deliver consistent and current training to operations
• Define and own the Seafreight Training Concept including implementation
• Work with HR and Corp. Functions to align and coordinate maintenance and development of Seafreight training library (curriculum) and associated tools
• Establish & maintain methods and tools for regularly assessing skill gaps and action to address same within Seafreight Operations
• Promote and enable a culture of best-practice sharing and on-going learning
• Establish a discipline of regularly and constructively challenging the status quo
• Conduct respective operational training where applicable and required
• Actively develop relevant skills and capabilities in the Ops Excellence Team at Regional and Country level

Support

• Leverage and promote Continuous Improvement mindset and supporting methods
• Establish and maintain a global structure to channel support needs from the end-users in a most efficient way to deliver timely solutions
• Initiate and manage projects in the area of Operational Support on corporate level
• Actively contribute to knowledge and best practice sharing across the global & regional Ops excellence Team
• Regional escalation point for business support and issue resolution
• Organize and manage global User Acceptance Testing (UAT) against releases of core systems / new operational tools and respective reporting of UAT results

Optimization

• Use smart and innovative IT solutions to automate manual processes, drive integration with Business Partners (internal and external) to eliminate redundant processing and drive data quality at the source
• Establish and maintain processes and tools for monitoring and driving improvement of process and data quality
• Define and maintain a roadmap for integration with Business Partners (incl. priorities and business cases)
• Work with Corp. stakeholders, Business Partners and industry groups to define, align and maintain required standards
• Define, own and maintain business cases for global implementation and value realization
• Define, align and follow up on global KPIs with Regional Ops Excellence and define corrective actions systematically
• Closely work with Regions to define organizational blueprints that enable improvements in unit cost and GP control through economies of scale and skills, labor arbitrage and role clarity
• Work with the COO Seafreight and Global Operations and Procurement VP Seafreight to design the Target Operational Blueprint
• Coach and support Regional & Country Seafeight Freight Ops excellence team & Managers as required
• Drive economy of scale and economies of skills, sourcing activities at the right level and the right cost
• Establish the blueprint for a global SSC approach for Seafreight jointly with the Global Head of SSC considering the Operational Blueprint
• Identify and coordinate global Service Centralization projects
• Specifically, drive process centralization initiatives jointly with Regions and Countries
• Own global business case for service centralization ensuring value realization at global level
• Coach and support Regional Seafreight Freight Ops Excellence Managers as required

Required Experience & Skills

• Bachelor's or master's degree in business administration or logistics
• A minimum of 10 years of proven operational/industry/relevant experience at a senior level
• Proven track record of international leadership in cross-functional/regional positions

Functional Knowledge

• SeafreightProduct, specifically operational processes *
• In depth understanding of drivers for Productivity and EBIT conversion *
• Ability to understand and evaluate Seafreight P&L at Global, Regional and Country level *
• Process management including process mapping
• Analytical skills
• Ability to manage a global Ops Excellence team within a matrix organization *
• Result oriented with a customer focus *
• Capable to make informed decisions and to generate practical, timely solutions *
• Self-motivated, flexible and resilient *
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• High attention to detail and sense Seafreight accuracy
• Ability to clearly and concisely present both written and verbal information
• Interact with Regional Head of Seafreight at eye level (accepted counterpart, ability to constructively challenge)

Note: *Essential knowledge and skills

Seniority level

• Director

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Management, Product Management, and Administrative