Team Manager - Customer Operations

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

Team Leader, Life Science – Customer Operations

Smartways Logistics

Smartways specialises in time-critical, complex logistics for the Australasian healthcare community. We move medical devices, life science, pharmaceutical and clinical trial shipments — from patient-on-table emergencies to scheduled, temperature-controlled global freight — and we're the first 100% carbon neutral healthcare logistics company in Australasia. Our people are driven by the impact they have: every shipment can change a patient outcome.

The role

Our Life Science team handles some of our most critical work: high-value, temperature-sensitive, regulated shipments where packaging integrity and cold chain performance can't fail. Small team — this role is a new addition, and it's genuinely hands-on. You'll be a player-coach: leading, coaching and growing the team while personally owning how life science jobs are monitored and managed, how packaging is sourced and stocked, and how temperature-controlled and dry-ice consignments ship safely, compliantly and cost-effectively. Early on, expect the balance to sit heavily on the "doing" side. As the team and its capability grow, you'll shift progressively into recruiting, leading and setting direction rather than personally executing.

Reporting to the Customer Experience Manager, you'll sit on the Leadership Team.

What you'll be doing

• Leading, coaching and developing the team — one-on-ones, huddles, development goals, and building genuine team engagement
• Owning end-to-end monitoring and management of life science jobs, intervening proactively before issues hit customers or product
• Managing packaging stock, sourcing and qualifying new packaging solutions for temperature-controlled and dry-ice shipments
• Ensuring dangerous goods and Good Distribution Practice (GDP) compliance, and that cold chain integrity holds throughout
• Guiding the team through high-pressure and crisis situations, and driving root-cause fixes for critical service failures
• Supporting new client onboarding — solution design, packaging, process and training
• Using data to spot issues and opportunities across the Life Science team and wider Customer Operations
• Building recruitment, onboarding and cross-skilling so specialist knowledge doesn't sit with one person

What you'll bring

• 3–4+ years leading customer-facing and operational teams, ideally somewhere fast-paced, time-critical or high-risk
• Genuine comfort operating as a hands-on player-coach — doing the work while leading a small, growing team
• Experience building or scaling a specialist function in a high-growth environment
• Strong leadership, decision-making and solution design skills, with a data-driven, analytical mindset
• Excellent stakeholder communication and the ability to influence across teams
• Sharp organisational skills and the judgement to juggle multiple priorities under pressure

Nice-to-haves: a degree in business, supply chain or life sciences; dangerous goods or GDP/cold chain certifications; experience in life science, pharma, clinical trials or healthcare logistics; hands-on cold chain, dry-ice or temperature-sensitive shipping experience; familiarity with IATA DGR.