Head of National Stock Control, Warehousing & Freight

Introduction

Our client is seeking an experienced and strategic Head of National Stock Control, Warehousing & Freight to lead inventory management, warehousing and freight operations across South Africa, with oversight across the broader African region.

This is a senior leadership position responsible for ensuring stock accuracy, optimising working capital, strengthening warehouse operations, managing domestic and international freight, and driving continuous improvement across the supply chain. The successful candidate will also play a key role in a major ERP transformation and SAP S/4HANA implementation.

Duties & Responsibilities

Strategy, Governance & Continuous Improvement

• Develop and implement warehousing, inventory management and freight strategies.

• Establish and maintain effective standards, policies and procedures for stock control and logistics.

• Develop KPI dashboards and management reporting for inventory, warehousing and freight performance.

• Identify and implement continuous improvement initiatives that improve service levels and reduce operating costs.

• Benchmark logistics and warehousing practices against industry best practice.

Inventory & Working Capital Management

• Take overall accountability for inventory accuracy across multiple warehouses and stock-holding locations.

• Develop and monitor inventory targets, including stock value, inventory turns, slow-moving stock, obsolete stock and service levels.

• Lead initiatives to reduce excess and obsolete inventory.

• Ensure inventory planning supports customer and operational requirements.

• Conduct regular inventory reviews and implement corrective actions.

• Provide management with regular reporting on inventory performance, risks and opportunities.

Warehousing Management

• Oversee warehouse operations across South Africa, with regional oversight of warehouse activities in East and West Africa.

• Ensure all warehouse transactions are accurate, complete and processed on time.

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date inventory systems.

• Drive compliance with cycle counts, stock takes and inventory reconciliation processes.

• Lead annual and interim stock counts.

• Ensure warehouse security, housekeeping and operational compliance standards are maintained.

• Optimise warehouse layouts, storage capacity, stock accessibility and operational processes.

Freight & Logistics Management

• Take responsibility for domestic and international freight operations.

• Manage courier, road freight, airfreight, sea freight and cross-trade shipments.

• Manage relationships with freight forwarders, customs brokers and logistics service providers.

• Ensure compliance with import and export legislation and customs requirements.

• Develop cost-effective logistics solutions while maintaining required service levels.

• Drive freight cost-saving and transport efficiency initiatives.

• Monitor freight performance, transit times and supplier service levels.

• Act as the escalation point for customs, freight and shipment-related challenges.

ERP, Data Governance & SAP Transformation

• Act as the business process owner and key user for warehousing, inventory management and freight processes.

• Lead data cleansing, master data validation and data governance activities.

• Ensure inventory, warehouse and freight data is prepared for system migration.

• Participate in process design, fit-gap analysis and transformation workshops.

• Support unit testing, integration testing and user acceptance testing.

• Develop training materials and support end-user training.

• Coordinate inventory and warehouse cutover activities.

• Support the transition from legacy ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA .

• Support post-go-live stabilisation, troubleshooting and continuous improvement.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with internal controls, audit requirements and company policies.

• Ensure compliance with customs, import and export legislation.

• Maintain accurate inventory, warehouse and freight documentation.

• Investigate inventory variances, stock losses and freight incidents.

• Conduct root cause analysis and implement corrective actions.

• Support internal and external audit processes.

Leadership & People Management

• Lead, coach and develop warehouse, inventory and freight teams.

• Establish clear KPIs, performance objectives and accountability structures.

• Develop team capability and succession plans.

• Build strong working relationships across Procurement, Finance, Sales, Service, Projects and Operations.

• Promote a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, collaboration and customer focus.

Desired Experience & Qualification

Minimum Requirements

Education

• Degree or Diploma in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Warehousing, Operations Management or a related discipline.

• SAP or other ERP certification would be advantageous.

• Project Management qualification would be advantageous.

Experience

• Minimum 6 years' experience in warehousing, inventory management and logistics.

• Minimum 2 years' experience in a leadership or management position .

• Strong experience in freight forwarding and customs compliance.

• Experience managing inventory across multiple sites or warehouses.

• Experience with inventory optimisation and working capital management.

• Experience with ERP implementation, system transformation or major process improvement projects.

• Experience working across multiple African countries would be advantageous.