Lean Leader - Port Terminal Transformation

About the role

APM Terminals is looking for a Lean Leader to report to the Managing Director and join the Terminal Leadership Team in Onne, Nigeria. The role works closely with functional leaders and the regional and global Lean community, reporting to the Managing Director. It offers exposure to terminal, regional and global management, and the chance to guide a terminal-wide transformation.

Key responsibilities

• Set the terminal's Lean strategic direction, turning Strategy, the Annual Operating Plan and policy deployment into a few clear transformation priorities linked to terminal performance.
• Build the Lean operating system: embed SQDC-based daily management, visual management, Gemba routines, escalation, standard work and disciplined follow-up.
• Improve end-to-end flow and stability across the value stream, applying Lean and industrial-engineering methods to raise throughput, reliability, lead time and equipment utilisation.
• Lead structured problem solving and Kaizen, strengthening A3 thinking, root-cause analysis and Kaikaku, with countermeasures tested with data and embedded in standards.
• Deliver measurable business and financial impact, connecting Lean activity to safety, service, productivity, cost, cash and capacity outcomes, and validating results with Finance.
• Mobilise the Terminal Leadership Team and functional leaders around major transformation opportunities and coach leaders and teams at Gemba to identify waste and improve standards themselves.
• Maintain clear transformation roadmaps, owners, milestones, benefits and risks, and implement global Lean standards adapted to the local context.

Required profile

• Minimum five years of hands-on Lean transformation or operational improvement experience in a complex industrial, logistics, port, manufacturing or comparable environment.
• Demonstrated track record of leading cross-functional improvements with sustained operational and financial results.
• Ability to translate operational performance into financial impact and build credible business cases with Finance.
• Experience coaching senior leaders, frontline leaders and teams, including constructive challenge and influencing without relying on authority.
• Bachelor's or master's degree preferred, or equivalent successful experience leading Lean transformations; relevant Lean and/or project/change credentials are advantageous.

Required skills

• System diagnosis, constraint and flow analysis, A3 problem solving, Kaizen and SQDC/daily management.
• Standard work and process optimisation.
• Strong change execution, facilitation, stakeholder management and communication in a multicultural environment.