Customer Logistics Specialist – Africa & Trading

Job Description

As a Customer Logistics Specialist, you will be part of a high-performing team with direct external exposure, working with colleagues to drive success. You will report to the Customer Logistics Manager.

Get ready for a lot of exposure to senior stakeholders. The customer logistics role is in place to support critical operational topics within the Kraft Heinz key distributor partnership. You will be the focal contact for problem-solving, data collection, and driving process improvement on the full operational chain. The achievement of topline and bottom-line financial targets (gross sales value, net sales volume, and contribution margin) for the region will be your primary responsibility. You will constantly look for implementation and monitoring of IMS, distribution, and visibility objectives. This role requires strong analytical skills, excellent communication abilities, and a deep understanding of supply chain processes. The ideal candidate will excel in a dynamic environment and possess a customer-focused approach.

Key Responsibilities:

• Meeting Customer Logistics critical metric scores and achieving service level targets.
• Delivering products to meet customer service targets, ensuring high customer satisfaction, order accuracy, and timely arrival at the final destination.
• Mastering the order fulfillment process, from order placement to delivery, and proactively coordinating with customers and the business to handle risks and changes throughout the process.
• Coordinating with distributors and internal teams to maintain stock availability, process and track orders, and proactively manage the order cycle.
• Collaborating with Logistics, customers, and various teams to ensure optimal ordering parameters, create coordinated plans, and enhance operational savings.
• Building and maintaining effective relationships with a diverse range of partners, including external customers and suppliers, and supervising daily operations in coordination with them.
• Assessing the performance of freight forwarders and agents in terms of on-time delivery, collection, document accuracy, communication, service, availability, and critical issues.

Support in Demand Drivers and Data Visibility:

• Maintaining monthly tracking reports for shipment count and other KPIs.
• Collaborating with demand planners, providing market insights from distributor sales teams to enable accurate forecasting processes.
• Contributing to the monthly S&OP executive meeting, addressing any issues or discrepancies.
• Performing risk assessments, identifying, analyzing, and minimizing potential risks that could affect or interrupt the supply chain, and developing effective mitigation plans.
• Identifying and proposing actions required to handle slow-moving or obsolete stock to eliminate expiry risk and optimize inventory levels.
• Collaborating with demand planners and commercial teams to build the most accurate sales forecast.
• Ensuring ongoing improvement and sustainability to achieve optimum levels of forecast effectiveness.
• Providing effective stock and inventory management.
• Analyzing demand patterns, sales forecasts, and inventory data with the demand planning team to decide on the optimal stock levels for each product, ensuring adequate stock cover while minimizing excess inventory.
• Connecting interdepartmental information and data to drive informed business decisions that balance cost, inventory, business importance, and meet both customer needs and business profitability.

Customer Excellence:

• Establishing and maintaining positive relationships with customers.
• Providing prompt, efficient, and satisfactory responses to customer inquiries.
• Finding opportunities for improving the customer experience and providing feedback to relevant teams and departments.
• Analyzing customer data to identify patterns and insights, and demonstrating this information to enhance customer relationship management strategies.
• Collaborating with various departments (marketing, sales, logistics, and product development) to refine the customer journey.
• Conducting customer segmentation and developing customer service strategies for each segment.
• Executing Customer KHC Surveys with key strategic customers, analyzing results, and implementing action plans to address gaps and elevate service levels.
• Ensuring regular customer meetings are scheduled, including annual top-level meetings, with joint dashboards that extend beyond internal KPIs to ensure Service As Measured by Customer and enhance customer perception and experience.
• Driving joint projects with customers to enhance satisfaction and improve service levels.
• Guaranteeing the effective development and documentation of Service Level Agreements with customers.

Commercials & Contract Compliance:

• Understanding and aligning with customer contracts, particularly shipment requirements.
• Monitoring cargo movement from tender phase to delivery as per contractual agreement.
• Ensuring adherence to financial regulations within respective markets.
• Leading the end-to-end Letter of Credit (LC) process application, starting with LC draft review, document preparation, collaborating closely with customers for processing, and transmitting subject LC documentation to customer banks up to payment confirmation.
• Developing a good understanding of international commercial terms.
• Ensuring that all safety and logistical regulations are closely adhered to.
• Performing management reporting activities as needed.

Understanding Business needs throughout Supply Chain:

• Acting as a single point of contact and primary liaison between our company and the distributor, maintaining regular communication and promptly addressing any inquiries, concerns, or escalations.

Process Improvements:

• Leading value stream mapping to identify process and resource wastes and implementing corrective actions.
• Continuously evaluating and improving logistics processes, identifying areas for enhancement, automation, and efficiency gains to refine operations

Qualifications:

• BSc in Supply chain management, Logistics or relevant field
• Work experience of 3 to 5 years in Operations, logistics and supply chain.
• Prior work experience in an FMCG environment is important.
• English & French is a must.
• Excellent analytical skills
• Ability to proactively challenge and advise
• Experience of dealing with senior management
• Strong interpersonal, influencing and communication skills
• Experience of developing creative business solutions.

Competencies:

• Work as a team- live the power of WE
• Work as a team- Energize self and others
• Inspire excellence – Simplify the complex 
• Inspire excellence – Move with speed and agility
• Navigate future – Define the destination

What we offer

• An ambitious employer: we only want to the best for you.
• A fast career track like only few other companies can match.
• A competitive salary and excellent bonus structure (above market).
• Permanent contract: for we believe in doing big bets on people.
• Always room for innovative ideas; if you have an excellent idea, please let us know, and we can set it in action!

Location(s)

El Tagamoa El Khames Commercial Office

 

Kraft Heinz is an Equal Opportunity Employer – Underrepresented Ethnic Minority Groups/Women/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity and other protected classes.