Job Details

Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Region: East Africa
Reports to: Group Chief Executive Officer
Direct Reports: Regional Managing Directors / Country Heads, Operations Directors, Fleet & Transport, Warehousing, Customer Experience and Continuous Improvement
Employment Type: Full-Time, Executive Leadership

ABOUT THE ROLE

The organisation is seeking an experienced Regional Chief Operating Officer to provide strategic and operational leadership across its East African network.

This is a senior enterprise leadership role responsible for translating the Group’s commercial strategy into operational performance across countries, ensuring that growth is supported by scalable infrastructure, disciplined execution, strong customer service, effective cost management and robust operational controls.

The successful executive will inherit a multi-country operating environment and will be expected to strengthen consistency across markets while allowing individual businesses to respond to local commercial realities.

This is not a traditional logistics operations role. The organisation is looking for an executive who can lead at enterprise level, integrate multiple operating functions, build high-performing leadership teams, drive transformation and ultimately improve profitability and customer value.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. Regional Operating Strategy

• Develop and execute the regional operating strategy in alignment with the Group’s overall business strategy.
• Translate corporate objectives into measurable country and functional operating plans.
• Establish a consistent operating model across East African markets while accommodating regulatory and market differences.
• Identify structural constraints to growth and develop plans to address capacity, infrastructure, people, technology and process limitations.
• Lead regional operating reviews with the CEO and Executive Committee.
• Provide strategic advice to the Board and Group Executive Team on operational opportunities, risks and investment requirements.
• Evaluate new markets, operating models, distribution channels and strategic partnerships from an operational perspective.

2. Multi-Country Operations Leadership

• Provide executive oversight of logistics, transportation, warehousing, distribution and related operating activities across the region.
• Establish clear performance expectations for Country Managers and operational leadership teams.
• Drive standardisation of critical operating processes across markets.
• Ensure country operations achieve agreed service, cost, quality, productivity and profitability targets.
• Identify performance variations between countries and lead targeted interventions.
• Develop mechanisms for sharing operational best practice across the region.
• Build a culture of accountability where operational leaders own both performance and outcomes.

3. Supply Chain & Logistics Performance

• Oversee the end-to-end supply chain from inbound movement through warehousing, fulfilment, transportation and final delivery.
• Optimise fleet utilisation, routing, delivery density and asset productivity.
• Improve warehouse throughput, inventory accuracy, order fulfilment and space utilisation.
• Establish appropriate capacity planning mechanisms.
• Reduce empty miles, avoidable delays, turnaround times and operational leakage.
• Develop contingency plans for supply disruptions, border delays, fuel volatility and infrastructure constraints.
• Strengthen relationships with strategic suppliers, transport partners and logistics service providers.

4. Operational Excellence & Transformation

• Lead a regional operational excellence programme focused on productivity, cost, quality and customer experience.
• Review existing processes and eliminate unnecessary complexity and duplication.
• Introduce appropriate Lean, Six Sigma, automation and continuous-improvement methodologies.
• Identify opportunities for digitisation across transport, warehouse and customer-facing processes.
• Establish operational dashboards that provide real-time visibility of performance.
• Lead major transformation programmes and ensure benefits are realised rather than simply implemented.
• Build continuous improvement capability within country and functional leadership teams.

5. Financial & Commercial Accountability

• Take executive accountability for regional operating expenditure and operational profitability.
• Partner with the CFO and commercial leadership to improve margins.
• Identify cost optimisation opportunities without compromising service quality.
• Review pricing, route economics, customer profitability and cost-to-serve data.
• Ensure operational investment decisions are supported by sound business cases and measurable returns.
• Drive working-capital improvements through inventory, billing, collections and operational efficiency initiatives.
• Establish clear accountability for operational budgets across markets.

6. Customer Experience

• Establish regional service standards and customer experience metrics.
• Ensure operational performance supports customer retention and commercial growth.
• Analyse delivery failures, complaints, claims and service disruptions and ensure root causes are addressed.
• Work closely with commercial teams on strategic customer requirements.
• Develop differentiated service models for key customer segments.
• Ensure major operational incidents are escalated, managed and resolved appropriately.

7. Technology, Data & Automation

• Partner with the CIO/technology leadership to improve operational technology infrastructure.
• Promote the effective use of transport-management, warehouse-management and fleet-management systems.
• Use data analytics to improve forecasting, route optimisation, resource allocation and productivity.
• Evaluate emerging technologies including automation, AI-enabled forecasting and digital visibility platforms.
• Ensure operational technology investments deliver measurable business value.

8. Risk, Compliance & Business Continuity

• Ensure regional operations comply with applicable transport, customs, employment, health and safety and regulatory requirements.
• Establish robust operational risk-management frameworks.
• Lead business continuity and crisis-management planning.
• Ensure adequate controls around fleet, inventory, warehouses, cash, cargo and third-party operators.
• Maintain executive oversight of major operational incidents.
• Ensure health, safety and environmental standards are embedded into operating practices.

9. Leadership & Organisational Development

• Build and lead a high-performing regional operations leadership team.
• Develop succession plans for critical operational positions.
• Coach Country Managers and functional leaders.
• Establish clear performance-management systems.
• Strengthen leadership capability across emerging markets.
• Create a culture characterised by ownership, execution, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Lead organisational change sensitively but decisively where required.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Success will be measured against a balanced set of financial, operational, customer and people metrics, including:

• Regional revenue and EBITDA contribution
• Operating-cost reduction
• Cost per shipment/delivery
• Fleet utilisation
• On-time delivery
• Order fulfilment performance
• Warehouse productivity
• Inventory accuracy
• Customer retention
• Customer complaints and claims
• Route and transport efficiency
• Working-capital performance
• Safety performance
• Employee productivity
• Transformation benefits realised
• Country operating-plan achievement

CANDIDATE PROFILE

The successful candidate will bring:

• 15+ years’ progressive experience in logistics, supply chain, transportation, distribution, FMCG, e-commerce or a closely related operating environment.
• Significant multi-country leadership experience.
• Experience operating across East Africa or comparable emerging markets.
• Demonstrated P&L and budget accountability.
• Experience leading large operational teams.
• Strong commercial understanding alongside operational expertise.
• Proven experience delivering operational transformation.
• Experience working with technology-enabled logistics models.
• Strong understanding of fleet, warehousing and distribution economics.
• Board and Executive Committee exposure.

Leadership characteristics

We are looking for an executive who is:

• Strategically minded but highly execution-oriented.
• Comfortable operating across multiple countries.
• Commercially astute.
• Data-driven.
• Decisive without being unnecessarily bureaucratic.
• Strong at developing senior leaders.
• Comfortable challenging established ways of working.
• Highly accountable for measurable outcomes.
• Effective in complex and rapidly changing environments.