Operations Director

Operations Director

As an Operations Director within DHL Supply Chain's Ecommerce and Retail division, you're at the heart of an industry-leading logistics powerhouse. Every day, you shape the success of some of the UK's most recognisable brands, ensuring their products flow smoothly through our network and into customers' hands. You'll lead passionate teams, drive performance across multiple high-profile sites, and make strategic decisions that directly influence the future of our operations. It's a role where your leadership has real impact, and where innovation, safety, and operational excellence go hand in hand.

At DHL, you're part of a global business known for developing talent, rewarding ambition, and giving leaders the platform to truly excel. You'll immerse yourself in a culture built on respect, continuous improvement, and doing what's right for our people and customers. It's fast, dynamic, and packed with opportunity perfect for someone who wants to build something exceptional while pushing both themselves and the business forward. Together, we don't just move products… we keep the world moving.

A typical day may involve

• Leading and inspiring senior operational teams across multiple sites, creating clarity of purpose, building strong engagement, and ensuring leaders are aligned, accountable, and fully invested in delivering the end to end strategy.
• Setting strategic direction for a multi-site operation, ensuring the entire end-to-end supply chain, from source to store is optimised, connected, and resilient.
• Leading transformation, automation, and CI programmes, identifying where technology, process redesign, or new ways of working can unlock efficiency, accuracy, and speed across the network.
• Driving supply chain planning excellence, influencing replenishment strategies, ANR stock planning, and network stock flow to improve product availability and reduce waste across ecommerce and retail channels.
• Conducting structured Gemba activity and performance reviews, using data and behavioural insight to identify capability gaps, fix root causes, and create sustainable improvements.
• Strengthening executive-level customer relationships, particularly with major UK retailers, shaping strategy and driving collaborative decisions that enhance end-to-end performance.
• Overseeing operational governance, compliance, and future resource planning, ensuring we have the right skills, leadership bench, automation readiness, and structure to support long-term growth.
• Collaborating across functions and customer groups (Supply Chain, Planning, Retail, Transport, IT, Finance) to ensure decisions are joined-up and not made independently within siloed teams.
• Assessing where value is delivered across the supply chain, identifying inefficiencies, challenging established thinking, and improving the connectivity between sourcing, logistics, fulfilment, and retail operations.

This role would suit people who

• Are true end-to-end supply chain thinkers, able to understand, influence, and optimise the full chain—from sourcing and inbound flows to replenishment, logistics operations, and retail execution.
• Have strong retail or FMCG supply chain exposure, bringing insight into how stock planning, availability, fulfilment, and store performance connect to operational success.
• Lead and inspire high-performing teams, creating a culture of accountability, empowerment, continuous improvement, and operational discipline.
• Embrace automation as a strategic enabler, understanding how digital tools, mechanisation, and data-driven technologies can enhance accuracy, speed, safety, and efficiency across a multi-site network.
• Drive continuous improvement and transformation, using structured methodologies and insights to raise standards, build efficiency, and remove waste across an entire operation.
• Navigate complex stakeholder environments, influencing senior customer boards, retail planning teams, and internal leaders to align decisions and avoid siloed approaches.
• Bring strong commercial and strategic acumen, understanding how operational performance, cost control, availability, and innovation combine to create sustainable customer value.
• Think boldly but stay grounded, balancing long-term strategic direction with practical, shop-floor-level leadership where real value and insight are found.
• Enjoy shaping transformation, helping customers modernise legacy ways of working and shift towards connected, automated, data-driven supply chain operations.

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

Who we are

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.

Please be aware that interviews are provisionally scheduled to take place during the week commencing 20th April 2026. Applications received after this date may not be considered but will be added to our talent pool for future opportunities, subject to your consent. Please also be aware that we review applications continuously and where we have a large number of applications the application period may close ahead of the provisional interview date. To ensure your application is considered we recommend submitting it as early as possible.