Senior Director, Operations Launch – Contract Logistics Europe
DP World · Rotterdam
About the role
As Senior Director, Launch Management, reporting into the Regional VP Operations Excellence, you will provide leadership, governance and direction to both the regional & cluster Launch Management function. However, the cluster Launch Management function, reporting to the Cluster VP of Contract Logistics is responsible for the execution of launch, turning commercial opportunities into successful, operationally ready solutions. Occasionally, your Regional Team may assist or lead the successful delivery of some of the most strategic and complex customer implementations, business expansions, and operational transformations across Europe.
This role sits at the heart of our growth strategy. You will partner with senior leaders, customers, and cross-functional teams to ensure new operations are launched safely, efficiently, on time, and within budget. From greenfield start-ups and automated facilities to large-scale supply chain transformations, your leadership will help create sustainable operational success, exceptional customer experiences, and long-term business value.
How you will contribute
- Lead the Regional Launch Management function, ensuring successful governance & delivery of customer implementations, business expansions, and transformation programs across Europe.
- Establish and continuously enhance launch governance, methodologies, standards, and operational readiness processes to support consistent project execution.
- Provide strategic oversight throughout the project lifecycle, from project initiation and design through deployment, stabilization, and transition to business-as-usual operations.
- Build strong partnerships with customers and act as the senior operational escalation point during implementation and stabilization phases.
- Ensure launch programs meet agreed milestones, operational readiness requirements, quality standards, and financial objectives.
- Lead cross-functional teams and stakeholders ensuring strong collaboration/alignment across Operations, Engineering, IT, Automation, Finance, HR, Commercial, Quality, and Security functions to achieve successful project outcomes.
- Oversee operational readiness, systems implementation, testing activities, training programs, and go-live governance processes.
- Monitor project risks, budgets, resources, and performance metrics, taking proactive action to address challenges and protect business objectives.
- Develop and coach Launch Managers and Launch Support Specialists while fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and learning.
- Drive adoption of Operational Excellence, Lean, and data-driven improvement practices to enhance launch quality, speed, customer satisfaction, and operational performance.
- Continuously contribute enhancing launch governance, methodologies, standards, and operational readiness processes in close collaboration with Global Launch Management to support consistent project execution.
What you will bring
- Experience leading large-scale operational launches, customer implementations, business transformations, or complex supply chain projects within Contract Logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, technology, or related industries.
- Ability to build trusted relationships with executive stakeholders, customers, and cross-functional teams in complex, international environments.
- Strong expertise in leadership, program management, operational readiness, change management, risk management, and delivering strategic initiatives with measurable business impact.
- Experience developing high-performing teams through coaching, capability building, succession planning, and collaborative leadership.
- A customer-focused, results-oriented, and continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, influence decisions, and drive sustainable outcomes.
Compensation
DP World offers exciting and challenging roles within a growing international organization. We strive to hire and develop the right people, locally and globally, stimulating personal growth and self-development within an informal atmosphere. We offer a market competitive compensation package.
About DP World
Trade is the lifeblood of the global economy, creating opportunities and improving the quality of life for people around the world. DP World exists to make the world’s trade flow better, changing what’s possible for the customers and communities we serve globally.
With a dedicated, diverse and professional team of more than 120,000 employees spanning 75 countries on six continents, DP World is pushing trade further and faster towards a seamless supply chain that’s fit for the future.
We’re rapidly transforming and integrating our businesses -- Ports and Terminals, Marine Services, Logistics and Technology – and uniting our global infrastructure with local expertise to create stronger, more efficient end-to-end supply chain solutions that can change the way the world trades.
What's more, we're reshaping the future by investing in innovation. From intelligent delivery systems to automated warehouse stacking, we’re at the cutting edge of disruptive technology, pushing the sector towards better ways to trade, minimizing disruptions from the factory floor to the customer’s door.
WE MAKE TRADE FLOW
To Change What's Possible For Everyone
#LI-JV1
Are you ready to lead the launch of complex customer operations and strategic transformations across Europe? Can you bring together customers, technology, operations, and people to deliver successful go-lives that create lasting business impact? If you're passionate about turning ambitious growth plans into operational reality, we'd love to hear from you. Apply today!