Country Operations Lead (Poland)

📋 Description

• • As the Country Operations Lead for Poland, you will be at the forefront of establishing and scaling Flexport's presence in a key European market. This is a unique opportunity to be one of the first employees on the ground in Poland, playing a pivotal role in driving regional growth and shaping the future of global trade from a local perspective.
• • You will be responsible for building and leading a high-performing operations team, fostering a culture of operational excellence, and establishing the Flexport brand within Poland. This role demands a versatile individual who can "wear many hats," leveraging deep local market knowledge and a customer-obsessed mindset to deliver exceptional service.
• • Your primary focus will be on ensuring a first-in-class customer experience by meticulously managing data quality and on-time performance across all shipments. You will be the go-to subject matter expert for all local operations, encompassing Full Container Load (FCL), Less than Container Load (LCL), and Air freight.
• • You will be instrumental in setting up and executing the end-to-end movement of multimodal shipments, ensuring seamless coordination with internal teams and external partners. This includes managing relationships with clients, carriers, trucking providers, customs brokers, and other key stakeholders.
• • A significant aspect of your role will involve scaling operational excellence by utilizing data-driven insights to manage complex supply chains. You will collaborate closely with our technology teams to champion innovation and drive process automation, contributing to Flexport's mission of making global commerce easier.
• • To ensure your success, you will undergo an intensive 4-6 month onboarding period in one of our established EMEA offices (e.g., Amsterdam or Hamburg). This immersive experience is designed to equip you with a deep understanding of Flexport's operating processes, systems, and proprietary software, enabling you to effectively lead and drive operational quality and customer service standards upon your return to Poland.
• • You will be responsible for hiring, coaching, mentoring, and developing a team of operations experts, preparing them for future growth and responsibilities within Flexport. This includes fostering their professional development and ensuring they are equipped to handle the end-to-end logistics operations for FCL, LCL, Air, and intermodal shipments.
• • You will actively represent Flexport's value proposition to clients, recommending tailored supply chain solutions, identifying new growth opportunities, and leading the implementation of new client accounts. This requires a strong understanding of client needs and the ability to translate them into actionable operational strategies.
• • As the primary escalation point for clients and internal/external stakeholders, you will be responsible for the timely and effective resolution of complex issues, ensuring client satisfaction and maintaining strong partner relationships.
• • You will be tasked with establishing and continuously refining scalable operational infrastructure and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to maximize efficiency, productivity, and cost-effectiveness.
• • Driving performance and quality is paramount. You will be the "front line" in ensuring shipments meet on-time delivery targets, proactively managing exceptions, and upholding internal Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and stringent data quality standards.
• • You will monitor and optimize the cost-to-serve for your operations, actively mitigating financial leakage and promoting a cost-conscious approach across your team and operations.
• • Fostering cross-functional collaboration with customs, trucking, procurement, and product/engineering teams will be crucial to ensuring seamless operational execution and continuous improvement.
• • Empowering your team to prioritize key initiatives, experiment with new approaches to drive growth, and maintain high levels of employee engagement will be a core responsibility.
• • This role requires a hands-on approach, where you will be expected to deep-dive into operational challenges, fill gaps as needed, and support your team in managing high-complexity movements or sensitive client communications.
• • You will establish robust feedback loops with key internal and external stakeholders to ensure operations remain aligned with evolving client needs and market dynamics.
• • Your team will be responsible for the seamless coordination of day-to-day logistics operations with all internal and external partners, executing the end-to-end movement of freight shipments within the Polish regional network, and providing support to shipments managed by partners as we foster greater partner autonomy.