General Manager

General Manager

The General Manager role at our Daventry site is a high-impact leadership opportunity with full accountability for safety, performance and profitability. Living our Safety First mindset, you will set bold annual and multi-year priorities, drive sustainable growth and ensure the operation performs at its full potential. This is a role for leaders who thrive on ownership, pace and making decisions that truly shape results.

Partnering closely with customers, senior stakeholders and the leadership team, you will deliver outstanding customer outcomes while building a future-ready organisation. Developing people is central to success coaching leaders, strengthening succession and embedding a culture of continuous improvement. By leading First Choice, lean thinking, Gemba Walks and Performance Dialogues, you will create momentum that delivers results today and positions the operation strongly for what's next.

A typical day may involve:

• Holding full accountability for site safety, ensuring a highly visible Safety First culture, with particular focus on food safety, cold-chain integrity, transport compliance and regulatory standards.
• Leading a large, multi-function operation spanning warehouse, transport and trunking activity, supporting nationwide deliveries into customer premises.
• Engaging closely with customers through operational, commercial and strategic forums to drive service, growth, retention and long-term partnership success.
• Acting as the senior commercial lead, balancing cost control, service delivery and profitability while protecting the long-term relationship.
• Reviewing operational and financial performance against KPIs, budgets and seasonal demand, directing corrective actions and prioritising at pace.
• Leading and coaching a strong site leadership team, enabling clear decision-making, succession planning and performance ownership.
• Overseeing governance, audit actions, licensing requirements, export activity and duty compliance where applicable.
• Driving continuous improvement through lean methodologies, productivity initiatives and maturity improvements across warehouse and transport operations.
• Managing forecasting, buying and supplier collaboration on behalf of the customer, ensuring accurate demand planning and fulfilment execution.

This role would suit people who:

• Are a warehouse or supply chain leader with end-to-end responsibility for complex operations, including transport and national distribution networks.
• Have strong knowledge of transport compliance, temperature-controlled distribution and food safety standards within a regulated environment.
• Are passionate about people development, building highly engaged leadership teams and embedding a culture of accountability, ownership and continuous improvement.
• Have full P&L accountability experience within an customer contract environment, with strong commercial judgement.
• Are confident operating as a trusted partner and skilled influencer, able to navigate customer relationships, align stakeholders and make progress through collaboration.
• Are data-driven and comfortable translating forecasts, trends and performance insight into clear operational and commercial actions.

Why join us?

• Access to the Company Car Scheme or Car Allowance
• Join our generous pension scheme and benefit from an 8% employer contribution, alongside a 4% employee contribution
• Free confidential 24/7 GP consultations
• Hundreds of retail and lifestyle discounts
• Affordable loans, savings schemes and free mortgage advice

We're the global leaders in supply chain management with 188,000 people in over 50 countries. Our expert teams work together to deliver for our customers across a range of industries including retail, automotive, healthcare and more.

Building an inclusive workplace

At DHL, we're all about creating a workplace where everyone's skills and experiences matter, and where you can be your true self every day.

As proud supporters of the Armed Forces Covenant, we value the skills and experience of ex-service personnel and are dedicated to helping our veterans find jobs.