Regional Head of Operations, Procurement

Role Overview

• Lead and oversee vessel operations: Spearhead all vessel operations across West and South Africa, ensuring schedules are executed reliably for both coastal and mainline routes in close collaboration with local agency teams, central vessel planning units, and the global marine operations desk to deliver best-in-class operational performance.
• Oversee safe and compliant special cargo handling (e.g., project cargo, OOG) and ensure stowage planning meets IMDG and safety requirements.
• Act as the senior escalation point for operational disruptions and vessel emergencies; coordinate with authorities and internal stakeholders to support rapid resolution
• Drive a high-performance culture: Cultivate a high-performance environment throughout the region, prioritising port productivity, efficient vessel turnarounds, minimisation of waste, and strict adherence to corporate operational KPIs and policies.
• Lead and embed a continuous-improvement culture across regional liner operations; identify bottlenecks, drive reliability, and improve performance.
• Manage strategic operational relationships: Build and maintain strategic relationships with terminal operators, port authorities, pilotage and husbandry providers, and other key maritime stakeholders.
• Work with terminals to optimize berthing plans, port productivity, and vessel turnaround time; drive Terminal Velocity improvements in order to ensure that vessel calls are conducted safely, efficiently, and in a cost-effective manner.
• Drive cost leadership: Monitor, control, and optimise terminal and marine costs, proactively identifying and minimising inefficiencies such as delays, restows, deviations, and non-productive time to enhance operational performance and reduce expenses.
• Drive cost-efficiency initiatives across liner operations, marine, terminal, agency, and third-party feeder (3PF) activities, in partnership with Head Office Procurement. Mobilize country business units to deliver efficiency targets.
• Partner with vessel and network planning teams: Work closely with central vessel planning and network teams (including headquarters) to manage berth window availability, vessel deployment, schedule integrity, and capacity utilisation across the region.
• Lead contingency planning and execution: Oversee regional contingency planning and execution, ensuring prompt and clear decision-making and communication on port omissions, inducements, delays, deviations, and other operational exceptions. Partner with Head Office Liner Operations on vessel call planning, schedule integrity, and network adjustments to minimize delays. Align actions with commercial and operational stakeholders to maintain service integrity.
• Support HQ Procurement: Assist HQ Procurement in terminal tenders, vendor selection, and performance management, providing regional operational insights to ensure outcomes are both commercially viable and operationally suitable. Lead vendor performance management and support procurement activities (renewals, negotiations, benchmarking) for marine/terminal/3PF partners.
• Ensure operational reporting and team development: Own the delivery of OPPC related KPIs across agencies/branches, using disciplined monitoring, performance reviews, and timely corrective actions. Provide functional leadership and operational oversight to country agencies to ensure consistent execution, timely system updates, and compliance with operating standards. Lead, coach, and develop regional teams and supervisors to ensure consistent governance and high service quality across all operations.

Requirements

• Master Mariner with at least 10 years’ shore-based experience in transportation/logistics, specifically in container liner shipping and commercial operations; or Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in Shipping, Logistics, Supply Chain Management or an MBA (General Management), with at least 15 years’ experience in senior operations leadership within container liner shipping and commercial operations.
• Strong working knowledge of liner operations; broader logistics/supply chain exposure is an advantage
• Excellent written and spoken English; French proficiency is an advantage.
• Strong analytical and communication skills; comfortable using Excel/PowerPoint and presenting operational insights to senior management (Power BI/Tableau exposure is a plus)
• Ability to maintain high-level stakeholder engagement with terminals, marine vendors, and related partners.
• Must demonstrate experience in influencing and working cross functionally and in a matrix group with HQ.
• Strong leadership capabilities with the ability to coach and develop teams across multiple geographies and drive cross-functional initiatives.

Tech Stack

• Tableau

Benefits

• Be part of a leading global carrier with a strong focus on sustainability and innovation.
• Work in a dynamic and collaborative environment.
• Opportunities for professional growth and development.