Head of Operations

Key Responsibilities

1. Building and Governing the Global End‑to‑End Operating System

• Unified operating framework: Establish globally consistent operating standards, SOPs, work cadence, and metric definitions at HQ level, then drive adoption, audit, and continuous iteration across all overseas countries — closing the execution gaps that arise across multiple countries, multiple legal entities, multiple languages, and multiple regulatory regimes.
• Time‑zone & handover governance: Design the follow‑the‑sun, 24/7 relay operating model; define handover points, accountability boundaries, and timestamp standards across origin pickup, linehaul, gateway/port, overseas warehouse, and last mile — eliminating chain break‑points and gaps in ownership.
• Country‑level operating capability: Lead the build‑out of country operations teams, decision‑rights delegation, and performance scorecard models (directly operated teams / joint ventures / acquired local entities); drive localization of key roles and succession pipelines.
• Global operating rhythm: Institute a three‑tier cadence — daily operations review, weekly deep‑dive, monthly business review — to drive regions and product lines to deliver results.

2. End‑to‑End Network Design & Routing Optimization

• Own end‑to‑end network architecture planning: site selection, capacity, and coverage for origin consolidation centers, linehaul transit hubs, gateway/port mix, and overseas warehouses and distribution centers (DCs).
• Build a tiered service network on the transit‑time / cost / experience triangle (Economy / Standard / Express / Specialty — e.g., cold chain, pharma, bulky & heavy goods), and jointly define and defend SLAs by tier with the product lines.
• Lead end‑to‑end routing and wave/manifest design, continuously compressing transit dwell time and end‑to‑end cycle time; ensure network resilience to switch lanes quickly under the current liner landscape (Ocean Alliance, Gemini Cooperation, Premier Alliance, and MSC operating independently).

3. Linehaul Operations & Capacity Execution (Air / Ocean / Land & Multimodal)

• Air: Orchestrate the blended execution of chartered capacity, block space agreements (BSA), and spot capacity; manage ULDs and manifests, load factors, block‑building and capacity swaps, transit handling, and offload management.
• Ocean: Partner with the ocean freight product line on sailing connectivity for FCL/LCL and Buyer's Consolidation, transshipment handling, destination‑port empty pickup and port clearance/drayage, and storage & demurrage (D&D) risk control.
• Land & multimodal: Manage China–Europe road freight, cross‑border trucking, and barge/rail connections to build cost‑ and transit‑competitive alternative lanes.
• Linehaul metrics: Booking fulfillment rate, flight/vessel on‑time performance, transit time, load factor and ULD utilization, exception volume ratio, and linehaul cost per kg.

4. Cost, Efficiency & Business Outcomes

• Own the cost and margin outcome for cross‑border operations: end‑to‑end cost per shipment / per kg, product‑line fulfillment gross margin, exception and claims/compensation loss rate, and ROI on automation and network investments.
• Lead structural cost‑down programs: network consolidation and gateway optimization, load factor improvement, carrier and warehousing re‑tendering, in‑warehouse productivity, and routing automation.
• Establish and manage the annual operating budget and capacity plan; build peak‑flexibility plans for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and platform mega‑sales events.

5. Quality, Resilience & Risk

• Establish a global Control Tower: a closed‑loop exception management process across detection, response, escalation, and post‑mortem, plus complaint, claims, and quality‑improvement mechanisms.
• Manage core vendors — carriers, overseas warehouse providers, customs brokers — across three dimensions: cost, quality, and risk.
• Compliance and safety: import/export controls, dangerous goods and lithium battery shipments (IATA DGR), customs audits, tax compliance, and EHS.
• Business continuity (BCP): maintain and drill alternative routings and capacity switching against port strikes, geopolitical and trade‑lane disruptions, severe weather, and system outages.

6. Digitalization & Continuous Improvement

• Co‑build with product and engineering teams: OMS/TMS/WMS deployment and integration, end‑to‑end visibility through the Control Tower, routing and wave automation, intelligent sorting and in‑warehouse automation, volume forecasting and inventory placement optimization, and AI‑assisted operational decisioning.
• Unify global data assets and metric definitions; lead process re‑engineering and Lean Six Sigma programs to shift the operating model from people‑driven to system‑ and data‑driven.

Job Requirements

1. Education

• Full‑time bachelor's degree or above in Logistics Management, Supply Chain Management, Industrial Engineering, International Trade, Transportation, or a related field; an MBA, or ASCM/APICS (e.g., CPIM/CSCP), PMP, or Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification is preferred.

2. Experience

• 12+ years in international logistics / cross‑border supply chain, of which 8+ years on a dedicated operations (Operations track) career path; 5+ years managing end‑to‑end or multi‑segment operations (linehaul / overseas warehousing / customs clearance / last mile).
• A proven record of building an operating system from 0 to 1 — standards, processes, metrics, and systems — rather than optimizing alone within a mature framework.
• Preferred: HQ operations center or regional/country operations lead at a top‑tier international forwarder or express carrier, a cross‑border e‑commerce logistics company, or a large overseas warehousing provider; alternatively, a supply chain operations leader from a going‑global brand or e‑commerce platform side, with demonstrated service‑provider governance experience.
• Scale reference: candidates who have orchestrated 100,000+ orders per day on average, or managed a 100,000+ sqm warehousing network spanning three or more regions, are strongly preferred.

3. Core Competencies

• Network & structure: Strong end‑to‑end network design and modeling skills; able to identify transit‑time and cost headroom in lane structure, waves, and routing.
• Data & cost: Highly sensitive to unit cost structure, with the ability to build cost models, manage budgets, and deliver structural cost reduction.
• Resilience & decisiveness: Able to make on‑the‑ground calls during peak season and major incidents, restore service quickly, and drive structured post‑mortems.
• Cross‑cultural influence: Able to drive cross‑regional collaboration in a matrixed organization and articulate the why to local teams rather than relying on positional authority.
• Organization & talent: Able to build and develop regional operations leaders, and establish standards, training, and certification systems.