Lead – Operational Excellence, Regional Customs Asia Pacific

Role Purpose

The Sr. Manager – Regional Customs Asia Pacific is responsible for driving operational standardization, integration enablement, and process excellence across multi‐country customs operations. The role plays a critical bridge between Operations, Product, IT, and Customers, enabling scalable customs solutions through harmonized operating models, robust data and integration frameworks, and structured implementation governance.

Key Responsibilities

1. Operational Standardization & Operating Model

• Define, document, and deploy standardized customs operating models across Asia Pacific markets.
• Gather and analyze country‐level customs operating practices to design regional templates and target models.
• Drive harmonization of SOPs, workflows, roles, and handover points across countries.
• Identify gaps, risks, and inefficiencies in existing operational models and recommend improvements.

2. Integration, Data & Digital Enablement

• Own and drive customs system integration flows between customer systems, DHL platforms, and local customs systems.
• Define and govern regional data models for customs transactions, compliance, and reporting.
• Act as business lead for integration requirements, translating operational needs into IT‐ready specifications.
• Partner with IT teams to support multi‐country integration design, testing, deployment, and stabilization.
• Drive automation initiatives using OCR and AI‐based tools to digitize customs documents, reduce manual intervention, and improve data accuracy and processing speed.
• Identify high‐impact use cases for automation (e.g., invoice capture, classification support, document validation, exception handling) and lead regional adoption in collaboration with IT and Digital teams.

3. Customer Implementation & Support

• Lead and streamline customer customs implementation programs across multiple countries.
• Ensure consistent onboarding approach, milestones, and readiness criteria for customer go‐
• Act as escalation point for complex multi‐country customer issues related to operations and integrations.
• Support key customers in transforming and scaling their customs processes using regional solutions.

4. Performance Management & Continuous Improvement

• Define and track performance indices (KPIs) covering productivity, quality, compliance, timeliness, and cost.
• Drive performance improvement initiatives across countries using data‐driven insights.
• Lead regional process improvement programs (Lean, standard work, automation readiness).
• Support countries in root cause analysis and corrective action deployment.

5. Program, Milestone & Stakeholder Management

• Manage regional programs with clear milestones, timelines, dependencies, and success measures.
• Ensure disciplined project governance, risk management, and stakeholder communication.
• Coordinate closely with Country Product Heads, Operations Leaders, IT, and Global Product teams.
• Prepare structured updates and decision inputs for regional management forums.

6. Multi‐Country IT & Integration Support Leadership

• Lead and coordinate multi‐country operational support to IT teams for customs integration topics.
• Ensure alignment between business priorities and IT delivery roadmaps.
• Support incident resolution, stabilization, and continuous improvement post‐

7. Regional Customer Use Cases for Business Development

The role will build and institutionalize regional data and insights use cases that can be packaged as value‑added offerings for customers and sales teams:

Regional Trade & Flow Insights

• Provide customers with regional visibility on shipment volumes, trade lanes, commodity mix, and clearance performance across Asia Pacific.
• Enable customers to benchmark country performance and identify consolidation or rerouting opportunities.

Duty, Tax & Cost Optimization Opportunities

• Use regional customs data to identify duty leakage, preferential trade agreement opportunities, and optimization levers.
• Support customers with scenario analysis for sourcing shifts, INCOTERMS changes, and landed‑cost optimization.

Compliance & Risk Intelligence

• Deliver proactive insights on customs risk indicators, error patterns, audit exposure, and regulatory impacts across multiple countries.
• Position DHL as a trusted advisor for risk mitigation and compliance strengthening.

Automation & Digital Readiness Assessments

• Share regionally aggregated insights on manual touchpoints, document quality, and automation potential.
• Support customers with roadmaps for OCR, AI, and system integration adoption at regional scale.

Performance Benchmarking & KPI Transparency

• Offer customers regional dashboards covering clearance cycle times, exceptions, accuracy, and service levels.
• Enable evidence‑based performance discussions and continuous improvement programs.

Business Growth & Market Entry Support

• Provide customs and regulatory insights to support customers entering new Asia Pacific markets.
• Highlight customs complexity, operating models, and integration requirements upfront to accelerate go‑live timelines.

Key Stakeholders

• Country Customs & Operations Heads
• Regional CDZ Product Team
• IT & Digital Customs Platforms Teams
• Sales & Customer Development Teams
• Global Customs Product & Governance Teams
• External Customers and Strategic Partners
  
  

Professional Services Development (Regional)

• Support the design, build, and scaling of regional professional services offerings based on operational, data, and integration of insights.
• Translate regional customs insights into structured, billable professional services (e.g., advisory, assessments, transformations, automation readiness, operating model design).
• Closely partner with Country Customs Heads and Operations teams to identify market needs, service gaps, and monetization opportunities.
• Drive professionalization of services delivery, including service definitions, scope of documents, pricing logic, delivery of playbooks, and governance.
• Enable countries to consistently deliver regional professional services with clear standards, methodologies, and quality benchmarks.
• Support Sales and Customer Development teams in positioning professional services through proposals, pursuits, QBRs, and customer workshops.
• Ensure strong linkage between professional services, core operations, and digital solutions to drive long‑term customer value and stickiness.
  
  

Skills & Experience

• Strong experience in Customs Brokerage / Customs Operations across multiple countries.
• Proven background in operational standardization, operating model design, and process improvement.
• Hands‐on experience with customs systems, integrations, and data models.
• Program and project management experience with multi‐country scope.
• Ability to translate operational requirements into IT and digital solutions.
• Strong stakeholder management across business, IT, and customer environments.
• Analytical, structured, and execution‐oriented mindset.
• Experience of around 7-10 years in delivering in similar roles
  
  

Behavioral Competencies

• Strategic and systems thinking
• Strong execution and delivery discipline
• Collaborative leadership across cultures and geographies
• Customer‐centric and solution‐oriented
• Comfortable operating in complex, matrix environments

Success Measures

• Adoption of standardized operating models across countries
• Stability and scalability of integration and data frameworks
• Improved customs performance indices and customer satisfaction
• Successful on‐time delivery of regional implementations and programs
• Strong alignment between Operations, IT, and Product teams
• Measurable customer value creation through regional insights and data‐driven business development use cases