First Line Manager - Outbound Operations

Volvo Group offers the opportunity to work in a dynamic and team-focused environment in a company that is well known for its state-of-the-art company culture and benefits. Our culture is about how we interact with each other, our customers, and with society as a whole. It helps us to achieve our business objectives, is firmly rooted in our history, and is critical to our company’s long-term success. It is the foundation on which everything else is built. 

Volvo Group is defined by a set of five carefully chosen values, which include Customer Success, Trust, Passion, Change, and Performance. These values are a major force in guiding our day-to-day behavior and drive our decision making at all levels of the organization. Our values are easy to understand, and yet fundamentally important. They express our shared beliefs across countries and entities to form the basis for a high-performing culture that can help maximize the full potential of the organization. 

Would you like to be a part of our team and join us on our journey?

Service Operations & Technology (SO&T) is the organization within the Volvo Group that secures and develops the service operations and technical solutions our customers depend on, every day, across the globe, for all brands of the Group. We sit at the heart of the Volvo Group’s service ambition, enabling uptime, trust, profitability, and sustainable growth for customers across the globe. 
The world around us is changing fast, and the service business is becoming one of the most strategic growth areas for the Volvo Group. SO&T turns this momentum into action by translating strategy into concrete solutions and stable operations. Guided by a clear Customer First mindset, we work side by side with commercial and operational teams to secure uptime, create transparency, and deliver scalable, data driven services that unlock new business models and support a competitive, segmented offer.

Resilience and sustainability are built into everything we do. We design and run robust, AI enabled processes and systems that strengthen the end to end value chain, increase flexibility, and ensure we are always ready when our customers need us. At the same time, we actively contribute to the Volvo Group’s sustainability transformation by enabling circular and electromobility services, reducing emissions and waste in our operations, and helping shape a service ecosystem that is better for our people, our planet, and our company. 

We have an exciting opportunity for the right individual as a First Line Manager – for our Regional Distribution Center in Northlake, TX. This position reports to the Site Manager.

Scope

• Manages an allocated part of the Distribution Center, in one of the operational areas (Inbound/Outbound/Mack)
• Manages Team Leaders and respective team members
• Cooperates with colleagues and drives cross-functional work with support organizations, to secure deliverables in an end-to-end customer perspective
• Engages other Volvo entities and third parties, for operational issues, when required
• Enforce rules and regulations as set forth in any collective bargaining agreement, local work rules, and company policy

Main activities and responsibilities for these roles

• Accountable for the inbound/outbound operational performance in terms of SQDCEP
• Responsible for improving safety and ergonomics in the area

               Securing analysis and corrective actions in case of accidents or incidents

               Drive prevention through risk hunting and risk analysis

               Increase safety culture via regular GEMBA walks and safety dialogue

• Secure built-in quality and work with customer feedback to constantly improve quality of the deliveries
• Responsible for the timely deliveries towards dealers (including refill to SDC/RDC) and improvement of internal lead times
• Responsible for the financial performance within the area by:

                Securing efficiency targets

                Identifying improvements opportunities and realizing cost savings

• Formalize and implement best practices through shared learnings via networking, benchmarking (both internally and externally) to drive performance to the next level.
• Support all project activities as directed by the management
• Assist with attracting, hiring, and developing talent for new as well for existing employees
• Create improvement plans and challenge team to achieve higher results
• Establish and develop strong relationship with all staff members
• Ensure environmental policies are followed and maintained
• Ensure compliance with all OD/VPS programs and communicate with subordinates as required
• Support a strong problem-solving culture with everyone all-in on the achieving the operations objectives
• Use sound judgment to ensure the end customer is satisfied
• Maintain compliance with company policy/procedures as required
• Promotes the Volvo Group values and culture
• All other duties and responsibilities as assigned

Minimum Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Logistics, business, Engineering, or similar field is preferred
• 5 years of experience in distribution/manufacturing or logistics required
• 2 or more years of management/supervisory experience required
• Proven skills in developing people; coaching and shaping a high-performing team
• Strong leadership skills using an inclusive style of coaching 
• Significant change management experience with the ability to set demanding targets; and then motivate teams and individuals to deliver outside their comfort zones
• Strong Knowledge in Lean Principles through formal training preferred
• Proficient in MS Office

Necessary functional/language skills

• As all documentation is in English, proficiency in the English language is required

Service Operations & Technology (SO&T) offers the opportunity to learn about, and impact, all our North American brands.