
DP World
Global Director - Cross-Functional Systems Lead
- Permanent
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Experience 15 - 20 yrs
- Urgent
Job expiry date: 19/04/2026
Job overview
Date posted
05/03/2026
Location
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Salary
AED 50,000 - 60,000 per month
Compensation
Job description
The Global Director - Cross-Functional Systems Lead (Freight Forwarding) is responsible for leading and managing all business design aspects of the cross-functional systems for Freight Forwarding services at DP World, ensuring that business requirements defined by the Global FF Commercial and Product owners are understood, prioritized, and correctly and completely delivered to the IT team for development or configuration. The role ensures that new developments in CRM, NPM, Quote Tool, Customer Platform, and other Cross functional systems are delivered to end-users as fit for purpose, and engages Global FF Management across Commercial, Product, Operations, Finance and related functions to ensure alignment of goals and deliverables and to support delivery of planned business benefits including productivity targets, revenue generation, and cost optimization. The position ensures full alignment between business and IT so the team acts as a single entity and serves as the escalation point for business issues relating to the design of the TiaB systems. The Director leads the Global Cross Functional Systems business teams including CRM, NPM, Quote Tool, Customer Platform, and MDM, coordinating and managing all development requirements and training globally, and acting as principal liaison to Global IT by collecting, defining, and prioritizing system requirements for development consideration. The role defines and implements the global strategy for cross-functional freight forwarding systems and processes, bridges business operations and IT to ensure system and process alignment with organizational objectives, and drives standardization and harmonization of freight forwarding processes globally. It owns and oversees the cross-functional freight forwarding system landscape, defines and maintains governance frameworks for system changes, process improvements, and compliance, and collaborates with IT and system vendors to ensure robust system performance and enhancements. The Director identifies opportunities for process optimisation, efficiency gains, automation, and process enhancements, leads cross-functional teams to implement process improvement projects, monitors and reports on progress and impact, and continuously assesses and optimises processes and systems to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The role establishes and monitors key performance indicators (KPIs), implements quality control measures and corrective actions, monitors data quality and integrity, resolves data transmission errors, and implements error-handling procedures to minimise disruptions. It develops and implements training programs for operational staff on freight forwarding systems and processes, ensures consistent training methodologies across regions, works with regional leaders to identify training needs, and facilitates workshops, webinars, and hands-on training sessions for system enhancements and process changes. The Director collects, analyses, and interprets data, prepares reports and presentations, monitors regulatory changes in the freight industry, ensures compliance with regulatory and industry standards, collaborates with compliance, legal, and risk management to mitigate operational risks, manages relationships with external service providers and technology vendors, negotiates contracts and service level agreements, and collaborates with global and regional cross-functional teams to ensure consistent processes and standards while leading and evaluating an engaged team aligned to defined objectives. The role requires strong knowledge of freight forwarding systems including TMS, Rate Management, Master Data, Customer Portals, and Quotation Tools, as well as expertise in process governance, quality management, continuous improvement, air and ocean freight operations and regulations, data analysis, and proficiency in process mapping tools.
Required skills
Key responsibilities
- Lead and manage all business design aspects of cross-functional systems for Freight Forwarding services by translating business requirements defined by Global FF Commercial and Product owners into clearly documented, prioritized, and structured system requirements for Global IT, ensuring accurate development or configuration within CRM, NPM, Quote Tool, Customer Platform, MDM and related TiaB systems while acting as the primary escalation point for system design issues and ensuring that delivered solutions are fit for purpose and aligned with productivity targets, revenue generation objectives, and cost optimization goals.
- Define and implement the global strategy for cross-functional freight forwarding systems and processes by establishing a structured roadmap for CRM, TMS, Rate Management, Master Data, Customer Portals and Quotation Tools, driving global standardization and harmonization of freight forwarding processes, and ensuring that system capabilities are aligned with organizational objectives across Commercial, Product, Operations, Finance and other Global FF Management stakeholders.
- Own and oversee the cross-functional freight forwarding system landscape by defining governance frameworks for system changes, process governance, quality management and compliance, coordinating closely with Global IT and system vendors to ensure robust system performance, enhancements, structured release management, and adherence to best practices across all regions and business units.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives by identifying opportunities for process optimisation, automation, efficiency gains and cost reduction, leading cross-functional teams in structured process improvement projects, leveraging data analysis and process mapping tools to redesign workflows, and monitoring measurable outcomes through defined key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure sustainable operational impact.
- Establish and monitor quality management controls by implementing KPIs to measure process effectiveness and quality, supervising data quality and integrity across systems including Master Data and data transmission interfaces, implementing error-handling procedures to minimise disruptions, resolving data transmission errors, and ensuring that corrective actions are systematically applied to maintain system reliability.
- Develop and implement comprehensive global training programs covering CRM, NPM, Quote Tool, Customer Platform, TMS and other freight forwarding systems, standardizing training methodologies across regions, facilitating workshops, webinars and hands-on training sessions for system enhancements and process changes, and collaborating with regional leaders to identify training needs and ensure high competency standards among operational staff.
Experience & skills
- Hold a Masters degree in Logistics, Supply Chain Management, or a related field and demonstrate 15+ years of experience in freight forwarding, logistics or supply chain management with a strong focus on systems and processes, including direct exposure to cross-functional system landscapes supporting global freight forwarding operations and structured collaboration with Commercial, Product, Operations and Finance stakeholders.
- Demonstrate proven experience in process governance, quality management, and continuous improvement within the logistics industry by establishing governance frameworks, defining KPIs, implementing corrective actions, and driving measurable efficiency gains and cost optimization initiatives across freight forwarding processes.
- Exhibit strong knowledge of freight forwarding systems including TMS, Rate Management, Master Data, Customer Portals, Quotation Tools, CRM, NPM, Quote Tool and Customer Platform, with the ability to translate business requirements into structured system requirements and collaborate effectively with Global IT for development and configuration.
- Possess comprehensive understanding of air freight operations and ocean freight operations and their applicable regulations, ensuring that system designs and process frameworks comply with regulatory and industry standards while supporting operational accuracy and risk mitigation.
- Demonstrate advanced proficiency in data analysis and process mapping tools to collect, analyse and interpret operational data, identify trends and improvement areas, prepare structured reports and presentations, and support data-driven decision-making across global freight forwarding operations.
- Apply strong project management skills to plan, execute and monitor global system enhancement and process improvement projects, coordinate cross-functional teams, manage timelines and deliverables, and ensure that initiatives are aligned with defined productivity targets and business benefits.
- Show experience in managing relationships with external service providers and technology vendors, including negotiating contracts and service level agreements, monitoring vendor performance, and ensuring effective service delivery aligned with governance frameworks and system performance expectations.
- Demonstrate capability to support global training and development initiatives by contributing to the design and implementation of structured training programs for freight forwarding systems and processes, ensuring consistent methodologies across regions and maintaining high competency standards within operational teams.