Country Operations Lead (Poland)

About Flexport:

At Flexport, we believe global trade can move the human race forward. That’s why it’s our mission to make global commerce so easy there will be more of it. We’re shaping the future of a $10T industry with solutions powered by innovative technology and exceptional people. Today, companies of all sizes, from emerging brands to Fortune 500s, use Flexport technology to move more than $19B of merchandise across 112 countries a year. 

The recent global supply chain crisis has put Flexport center stage as we continue to play a pivotal role in how goods move around the world. We are proud to have the support of the best investors in the game who believe in our mission, solutions and people. Ready to tackle global challenges that impact business, society, and the environment? Come join us.

Location:

• Remote and/or a possible short-term relocation to Hamburg (business dependent) in the first 4-6 months, after which permanent relocation to Warsaw, Poland.

The Opportunity:

As the Country Operations Lead (Poland), you will play a pivotal role in building and leading Flexport’s Polish operations. As one of our first in-country employees, you will be instrumental in driving regional growth by "wearing many hats." This includes developing deep local market knowledge, engaging key stakeholders, building a culture of operational excellence, and establishing the Flexport brand within Poland.

This role is ideal for an individual with a strong problem-solving mindset, deep operational knowledge of the Polish freight market, a high degree of customer obsession, and a willingness to take on new challenges.

You will be the subject matter expert for all local operations (FCL, LCL, and Air) and will be responsible for setting up and executing the end-to-end movement of multimodal shipments. Your primary focus will be driving a first-in-class customer experience by obsessing over data quality and on-time performance.

You will build, lead, and coach a team of motivated operations experts. Concurrently, you will manage relationships with all internal and external stakeholders—including clients, partners, account management, customs, carriers, and trucking providers. A key part of your role will be to scale operational excellence by using data to manage supply chains and working with our technology teams to drive innovation and process automation.

To set you up for success, you will spend the first 4-6 months embedded in one of our base EMEA Offices (e.g., Amsterdam or Hamburg). This period is dedicated to mastering the Flexport operating processes, systems, and software, which will empower you to drive operational quality and best-in-class customer service as you expand operations in Poland.

You will:

• Lead & Develop Team: Hire, coach, mentor, and develop a team responsible for the end-to-end handling of FCL, LCL, Air, and intermodal shipments, preparing them for future responsibilities.
• Drive Client Growth: Personally represent Flexport’s value proposition by recommending supply chain solutions, identifying growth opportunities, and leading new client implementation.
• Manage Escalations: Act as the primary escalation point for clients and internal/external stakeholders (carriers, vendors, customs partners), ensuring timely issue resolution.
• Build Scalable Operations: Establish and continuously improve scalable operational infrastructure and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to maximize efficiency and productivity.
• Drive Performance & Quality: Be the "front line" in ensuring shipments move on-time, exceptions are handled, and all work satisfies internal KPIs, SLAs, and data quality standards.
• Manage Financials: Monitor and improve cost-to-serve while mitigating financial leakage and ensuring cost-conscious behavior.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Drive collaboration across customs, trucking, procurement, and product/engineering teams to ensure operational excellence.
• Empower Your Team: Empower your team to prioritize key initiatives, experiment to drive growth, and maintain high employee engagement.
• Be Hands-On: Deep-dive to fill gaps that may be outside your day-to-day remit and support your team in handling high-complexity movements or delicate communications.
• Align with Stakeholders: Create feedback loops with key stakeholders to align operations with evolving client needs.

Overall, your team will:

• Seamlessly coordinate day-to-day logistics operations with all internal and external partners.
• Execute the end-to-end movement of freight shipments within a regional network (both imports and exports), including intermodal movements.
• Assist the shipments managed by partners as we drive partner autonomy.

You have: 

• A successfully completed a BA/BS degree in Logistics, Supply Chain, Business or high-level vocational qualification equivalent.
• 5+ years of experience in freight forwarding, logistics / supply chain management, and/or ocean freight operations (multimodal operations experience is a plus) in Poland.
• Knowledge and understanding of local Port / Terminal / Customs software and operating systems.
• Fluent in Polish and English (other European languages are a plus).
• Able to adapt to new technology and can thrive in a fast paced environment
• Effective time management. Be able to properly prioritize and manage a large volume of tasks and commitments.
• Hands-on, process-oriented, structured thinking with strong problem-solving capabilities.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Ability to effectively build feedback loops within the team, for a product, or service.
• Teamwork and relationship building.
• A client service mindset; you are obsessed with client satisfaction, and strive to investigate and troubleshoot the client’s problem.
• Designing and optimizing processes.
• Problem-solving capabilities: Building consensus among people with differing opinions.
• A “compliance first” attitude to keep our regulators happy and enthusiastic about Flexport since we operate in a heavily regulated industry.
• Willing to travel regularly and/or a possible short-term relocation to Hamburg (business dependent) in first 4-6 months, after which permanent relocation to Warsaw, Poland.