Role Purpose
The Head of Airfreight Procurement & Operations will be responsible for developing and executing the regional carrier procurement and operational strategy across IMEA. The role will drive competitive procurement, capacity management, yield improvement, consolidation development and operational excellence, ensuring that Airfreight growth translates into sustainable margin improvement and consistently high customer service. The position will provide regional leadership and governance while working closely with Area/Cluster Airfreight teams, Global Airfreight Procurement, gateways, carriers and the international network.
- Carrier Procurement & Capacity Management
· Develop and execute the regional Airfreight carrier procurement strategy across IMEA.
· Build and maintain strategic relationships with airlines and other capacity providers.
· Negotiate competitive rates, capacity commitments, allocations and commercial agreements.
· Develop the appropriate mix of spot procurement, preferred-carrier agreements, Block Space Agreements and other capacity solutions.
· Coordinate with Global Procurement and country teams to leverage Maersk's global and regional buying power.
· Ensure procurement strategies support both competitiveness and sustainable profitability.
· Monitor market capacity, carrier developments, rate movements and emerging opportunities.
- Yield & Margin Management
· Drive improvement in Airfreight yield and GP/kg across IMEA.
· Establish visibility of buy rates, sell rates, utilization, load factors and margin performance.
· Identify margin leakage and work with Commercial, Pricing and Area/Cluster Product teams on corrective actions.
· Develop mechanisms for dynamic capacity and yield management based on market conditions.
· Support pricing decisions for strategic tenders, large opportunities and key trade lanes.
· Ensure capacity commitments are supported by appropriate customer and volume pipelines.
· Develop regional consolidation strategies on priority IMEA trade lanes.
· Identify opportunities to aggregate volumes across countries, customers and trade lanes to improve buying power and margin.
· Develop gateway concepts where commercially and operationally viable.
· Improve utilization of contracted capacity and consolidation programs.
· Work with overseas regions to develop joint consolidation and network solutions.
· Continuously assess routing, carrier and gateway alternatives to optimize cost, transit time and reliability.
· Provide functional leadership and governance for Airfreight Operations across IMEA.
· Establish common operational standards, processes and performance expectations across countries and clusters.
· Drive operational excellence, productivity and process standardization.
· Ensure strong execution against customer milestones and agreed service KPIs.
· Identify operational bottlenecks and implement sustainable corrective actions.
· Drive automation and digital adoption to improve productivity, visibility and customer experience.
· Promote best-practice sharing across IMEA operations.
· Establish regional operational KPIs and performance dashboards.
· Monitor service quality, productivity, milestone performance, exceptions and operational cost.
· Drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions for recurring service failures.
· Support implementation and operational stabilization of new strategic customers.
· Ensure appropriate governance around carrier performance and service quality.
· Work closely with Compliance and relevant functions to ensure adherence to regulatory and operational requirements.
- Network & Stakeholder Management
· Build strong relationships with Global Airfreight Procurement and Operations teams.
· Coordinate closely with Area/Cluster Airfreight Heads and local operational teams.
· Work with the Head of Business Development, Growth & Trade Lane to ensure procurement and capacity strategies are aligned with the commercial pipeline.
· Engage with overseas Airfreight teams to develop competitive end-to-end network solutions.
· Act as a senior regional escalation point for major procurement and operational issues.
· Extensive experience in Airfreight procurement, operations or product management.
· Strong knowledge of airline procurement, capacity management, pricing and Airfreight economics.
· Demonstrated experience in consolidation and gateway development.
· Strong understanding of operational processes and performance management within international freight forwarding.
· Proven ability to improve yield, margin and operational productivity.
· Strong airline and industry relationships are highly desirable.
· Strong analytical and commercial capabilities.
· Ability to lead and influence geographically dispersed teams within a matrix organization.
· Strong negotiation, stakeholder-management and problem-solving skills.
· Comfortable operating in a fast-changing international Airfreight environment.
Procurement: Improvement in buying competitiveness and carrier terms.
Profitability: GP/kg, yield and overall Airfreight margin improvement.
Capacity: Utilization and performance of contracted/BSA capacity.
Consolidation: Growth of consolidation volumes and contribution.
Operations: Operational productivity, milestone performance and service reliability.
Quality: Reduction in operational failures, exceptions and recurring service issues.
Network: Improved regional and global network cooperation and execution.
Customer Experience: Consistent operational delivery against agreed customer KPIs.
Maersk is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we embrace different styles of thinking. Maersk is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applicants without regard to race, colour, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy or parental leave, veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with all legal requirements.
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