Retail Operations & Supply Chain Manager

dnata catering UK; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading catering services company in the UK is seeking a Retail Operations and Supply Chain expert to oversee new market launches and ensure operational readiness. The ideal candidate will have at least 5 years of airline retail operations experience, strong leadership skills, and the ability to manage complex supply chains. Responsibilities include planning operational implementations and supporting local team recruitment. Join us to make an impact in a growing global business.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years in airline retail operations or supply chain management.
• Experience in buying, merchandising, and supply chain environments.
• Strong interpersonal and teamwork abilities.

Responsibilities

• Ensure operational readiness for new business start-ups.
• Plan and manage supply chain, stock, and warehouse operations.
• Develop processes, templates, and training for new roles.

Skills

Airline retail operations experience

Leadership and management skills

Analytical skills

Attention to detail

Communication skills

Job description

The dnata global retail business is rapidly expanding, building off successful operations in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Australia. As the business expands into new market territories with new clients, the need has arisen to recruit a Retail Operations and Supply Chain expert on a consultative basis to support this expansion to provide a range of services aligned to business readiness to provide a turnkey approach for Operations, Process and Supply Chain to meet client needs long term.

Operations management for our retail business is a manged service we provide for our clients. As a retailer we act as a managed agent to ensure there is clear integration between the buying and merchandising functions, through to the supply chain and final operational fulfilment onboard the aircraft.

The role is designed to ensure that the business will be using ready-made processes, templates and applications upon deployment in a new territory or for a new start-up business without having to invest the time and resources required to develop their own from scratch.

Using this toolkit, the role holder will play a leading role in the deployment of new retail business, ensuring operational readiness in any new territory. The role will also play a pivotal role in the development of supply chains and operations with both internal and 3rd party ops teams pertinent to the retail business proposition.

Who you’ll deal with:

Internal: Regional units, management teams and support functions

External: Airlines, Supply Chain partners and suppliers

Key Responsibilities:

• Operational readiness for all new business start-ups.
• Ensuring all Bond & Warehousing facilities are ready for retail programme implementations – aligning Tech, Infrastructure, Space, People and Process.
• Ensuring all equipment relating to the retail operation is planned in sufficient quantities in readiness for transition,
• Plan the supply chain – with space analysis in each operational location, readying par levels to MOQ’s and delivery schedules – driving accurate stock depth to maintain robust availability of products.
• Work with each Warehouse Provider to outline and capture all applicable processes for stock management, pick, pack and despatch for the full product lifecycle.
• Train operators in alignment with required procedures, legislative requirements and systems for stock management and galley loading requirements.
• Implement robust SLA’s aligned to customer contract requirements.
• Support supplier contracting process, to align operational requirements to trading terms.
• Process Manual collation, handover to core operations management team in each retail programme implementation location.
• Assessments of existing operations and supply chain processes with identification of gaps and actionable improvement points.
• Create a core set of “white label” processes, templates and applications applicable to retail operations and supply chain management.
• Supporting the global Sales team with new business implementations – providing guidance for start-up processes.
• Developing turnkey operational processes, that align with the new business start-up IT solution.
• Support the recruitment of local teams for new start-up airline customers – using the turnkey approach to embed processes and templates into the new teams’ ways of working.
• Engage the suppliers and operations teams into the strategies and white-label approach and align them culturally to the objectives being driven.

This list is not exhaustive, accountabilities may vary dependant on locality and may include any other duties considered reasonable by the retail management team.

What you’ll have:

• Evidence of previous airline retail operations / supply chain management - a minimum of 5 years
• Experience of working within an aligned buying, merchandising and supply chain environment
• Strong leadership and management skills- Good interpersonal, communication, presentational and teamwork
• Able to work under pressure – plan, organise and delegate
• Attention to detail and accuracy
• High level analytical and numerical skills
• Enthusiastic, self-motived, proactive and persuasive

If you believe your skills and experience align with what we're looking for, we encourage you to apply — we’d love to hear from you!