Site Development Manager - East Africa

About the role

DHL Supply Chain is seeking a Site Development Manager for East Africa based in Nairobi. This is a strategic position focused on improving the performance of existing operations across the region by building and executing Site Development Plans (SDPs) and driving structured operational change.

The role supports DHL Supply Chain’s ambition to create a great workplace while strengthening sustainable performance improvement, customer focus, operational discipline, and continuous improvement across sites. It works closely with site leadership, operational teams, and regional stakeholders to deliver measurable business impact.

Role summary

The Site Development Manager is responsible for coordinating site improvement activity, applying operations excellence practices, and helping sites stabilise, grow, and perform in a standardised and sustainable way. The position also supports transformation initiatives, best-practice sharing, digitalisation, engineering improvements, and profitability initiatives across warehouse and transport operations.

Key responsibilities

• Build site development plans by bringing together agreed actions from site leadership, general management, business unit directors, and operations excellence teams.
• Make sure development plans support DHL Supply Chain priorities and focus on stronger site performance, customer value, and ongoing improvement.
• Run structured review forums, including TDM meetings, to monitor progress, manage deadlines, and ensure clear accountability.
• Lead workshops and working sessions that help turn planned actions into executed improvements.
• Identify proven practices from across the business and work with continuous improvement and logistics engineering teams to adapt and deploy better solutions.
• Develop effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders such as suppliers, regional teams, and cluster functions to support delivery of site plans.
• Support struggling sites and new start-ups by guiding turnaround efforts and performance uplift plans.
• Ensure BASICS / “The DHL Way” standards are embedded and that operational gaps are identified and closed through the site plan.
• Escalate risks and issues early to operations excellence and business unit leaders.
• Support customer renewal activity and contribute to new business opportunities in the region.
• Review control reports and dashboards with site teams to identify process inefficiencies and support data-based decision-making.
• Ensure control reporting is available to validate data quality across systems such as Logics, EtQ, and SmartRem.
• Deliver continuous improvement initiatives across sites and track measurable results.
• Help achieve cost reduction targets and operational efficiency gains.
• Lead logistics engineers assigned to supported sites and manage their work effectively.
• Build individual development and succession plans for team members.
• Support capability building across continuous improvement, digitalisation, and engineering.
• Drive OMS FC and SmartReM adoption through governance, performance reviews, and sustained usage.
• Analyse labour use across direct and indirect work to identify productivity gains and alternative working models such as flex models, shared resources, and headcount optimisation.
• Improve the utilisation of equipment such as MHE, scanners, and printers by removing excess capacity and supporting digitalisation.
• Strengthen planning and forecasting to better balance workloads, cut overtime, and optimise capacity using tools such as SmartPlan.
• Ensure time and attendance processes are effective, exceptions are managed, and overtime inefficiencies are reduced.
• Put in place governance for Gemba walks and process confirmations so deviations are logged, work instructions are updated, and training is completed.
• Review WMS and TMS use and setup to remove waste and improve productivity.
• Review contract terms, including service levels, liabilities, scope, pricing, and indexation, to find improvement opportunities and gaps.
• Create joint account plans and improvement initiatives that help customers lower supply chain costs while protecting DHL margins.
• Improve coordination between warehouse and transport activities.
• Assess network design choices such as cross-dock locations, transhipment points, utilisation levels, and outsource versus insource decisions.
• Track performance to identify opportunities such as reducing idle space, lease costs, and storage or inventory inefficiencies.
• Identify non-billable out-of-scope work and support tariff reviews and customer alignment discussions.
• Support renewal business cases by using site development plans to review operations, customer needs, growth, people, structure, real estate, and IT.
• Take part in customer discussions to present DHL Supply Chain’s continuous improvement approach and progress updates.
• Support project delivery teams during new start-ups and transition activities using SIP and O2D methods.
• Assist with site transformation projects, including racking, systems, and process changes.
• Help prepare for and execute internal and external audits.
• Carry out back-check analysis to compare commercial assumptions with actual operational results such as volumes, processes, and tariff lines.
• Make sure site teams can support business development teams during tendering.
• Put controls in place so that site operations meet legal, client, and corporate certification requirements.
• Monitor HSE, quality, environmental, BCM, and facility processes through structured governance and address deviations quickly.
• Ensure site teams understand supplier SLAs, lease agreements, and preventive maintenance plans.
• Support decarbonisation and environmental initiatives aimed at lowering energy costs and meeting ISO and carbon neutrality goals.
• Review outsourced service costs such as security, cleaning, pest control, and waste management to find savings with procurement.
• Support EMS certification readiness in line with ISO 14001 and ISO 50001.
• Validate environmental and decarbonisation data across relevant systems to ensure it is accurate, complete, and timely.
• Support energy and CO₂ reduction initiatives, including fuel alternatives, MHE optimisation, battery efficiency, and zero-to-landfill programmes.
• Help Africa HSE leadership and East Africa directors close escalations, reduce risk, and address resourcing or delay issues.
• Improve transport efficiency by increasing driver productivity, managing driving hours, and optimising routes, lane use, and truck utilisation.
• Identify planning gaps in transport operations and support improvement actions.
• Find ways to reduce own-fleet costs, including fuel, maintenance, leasing, and asset usage.
• Support initiatives that reduce waiting time at delivery and collection points.
• Benchmark subcontractor rates against market levels and support renegotiation or tender activity with procurement.
• Ensure transport movements and revenue are captured and allocated correctly, separate from other service lines.
• Review subcontractor contracts and confirm compliance with agreed standards and legal requirements.

Qualifications and experience

The ideal candidate should bring practical experience in engineering or analytical methods, lean and continuous improvement, change management, performance management, and project delivery. The role also calls for strong influence, negotiation, people leadership, and the ability to work effectively in matrix structures and across multiple countries, clusters, and operating environments.

Certifications preferred

• ISO Auditor Certification
• OMS4Implementers Certification
• CSCS Foundation Certified
• CSCM Certified
• Operations Essentials Certified
• Leadership Essentials Certified
• Certified GoGreen Specialist

Additional requirements

• A dynamic, target-driven and self-starting approach to work.
• Strong coaching, training, and facilitation capability.
• Confident presentation skills for both in-person and virtual audiences.
• Solid commercial awareness and financial understanding.
• Working knowledge of DHL Supply Chain standards such as BASICS, Merlin, OMS FC, First Choice, Behavioural Based Safety, and GoGreen.

Core competencies

The position also expects a strong customer focus, the ability to align plans with broader organisational strategy, clear communication, objective setting, progress tracking, continuous improvement, feedback culture, and personal accountability.