Head of Logistics, Africa

What You’ll Do

• Own the inbound supply chain into our operating sites and onto build sites: freight, ports, customs, a spares warehouse in each country, batteries, prefabricated site hardware, and construction materials.
• Build corridor discipline: a standing customs dossier for each country, a pre-agreed HS classification catalogue, and exemption processes written into contracts and worked through our Country Directors’ government relationships.
• Set two-way service-level agreements with site operations and the Deployments team at published transfer prices, so every miss is priced, visible and credited.
• Drive emergency air freight towards zero, using buffer stock as risk cover.
• Be the single named interface to Zipline’s global supply chain and production team in South San Francisco, with one procurement line into Africa.
• Lead and develop our in-country logistics analysts in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire.
• Put integrity and controls first: accurate customs valuation, clean import documentation, and rigorous reconciliation of vendor and forwarder billing.

What Success Looks Like

• Consistently high on-time-in-full delivery to operating sites and build sites.
• Customs clearance that is fast and predictable.
• Landed costs on or under plan.
• Emergency air freight spend falling towards zero.
• SLAs met, with every miss visible and credited.

What You’ll Bring

• 10–15 years running cross-border supply chains in Africa, in freight forwarding, FMCG, pharmaceutical or health logistics, telecoms, or humanitarian logistics at scale.
• Deep, hands-on customs and corridor experience in West and East Africa, including declared-value and valuation discipline.
• You have priced and published internal SLAs, and you have taken emergency freight out of a network before.
• A strong controls mindset and firm discipline with vendors and freight forwarders.
• Strong programme and project management instincts: you drive workstreams end to end across teams you don't directly lead.