Life Science Team Lead - Customer Operations (Hands-on)

Smartways Logistics Holdings; Sydney; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Smartways Logistics is seeking a hands-on Team Leader, Life Science – Customer Operations to guide a small life science team handling high-value, temperature-sensitive shipments. You will coach, recruit as the team grows, and own monitoring and management of life science jobs, packaging sourcing, and GDP compliance.

Based in Sydney, the role reports to the Customer Experience Manager and sits on the Leadership Team.

Qualifications

• 3–4+ years leading customer-facing and operational teams
• Hands-on player-coach
• Experience building or scaling a specialist function
• Strong leadership and data-driven decision-making
• Excellent stakeholder communication and organisational skills
• Nice-to-haves: degree in business, supply chain or life sciences; DG or GDP/cold chain certifications; experience in life science/logistics; familiarity with IATA DGR.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop the team with one-on-ones, huddles and development goals
• Own end-to-end monitoring and management of life science jobs
• Manage packaging stock and sourcing for temperature-controlled and dry-ice shipments
• Ensure GDP compliance and cold chain integrity
• Guide the team through high-pressure situations and drive root-cause fixes
• Support new client onboarding including solution design and training
• Use data to spot issues and opportunities across Life Science team
• Build recruitment, onboarding and cross-skilling

Skills

Team leadership

People management

Data-driven

Stakeholder communication

Operations leadership

Problem solving

Education

Business degree

Supply chain degree

Life sciences degree

Job description

Smartways Logistics is seeking a hands-on Team Leader, Life Science – Customer Operations to guide a small life science team handling high-value, temperature-sensitive shipments. You will coach, recruit as the team grows, and own monitoring and management of life science jobs, packaging sourcing, and GDP compliance.

Based in Sydney, the role reports to the Customer Experience Manager and sits on the Leadership Team.