EVP – Operations Transformation — Port And Terminal Operation

The mandate

A port and terminal operation is handling substantial volume without converting operational effort into dependable network profit. Vessel bunching, yard congestion, equipment availability, labour patterns and customer exceptions interact, but improvement programmes remain organised by function. The EVP – Operations Transformation will reset the system around flow, contribution and service, making choices that hold under real operating variability.

The position is onsite in Dubai and reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive-committee sponsor. Its remit reaches terminal operations, engineering, planning, labour, customer interfaces, technology and material partners across the United Arab Emirates and wider international network. The scale demands visible site leadership as well as board-level capital judgement.

Profitability cannot be recovered through a single productivity target. Faster quay work may move congestion into the yard; reduced labour can increase overtime or service failure; new equipment can disappoint if planning and maintenance remain weak. You will create an end-to-end baseline and direct resources towards the true system constraints.

Why this seat is open

An accelerated leadership transition has created an urgent replacement requirement. Interim accountability protects safety and service, but the network reset needs one permanent owner. The search is confidential and designed to reach appointment quickly without prejudging predecessor circumstances or disrupting customers and partners.

What you will own

You will establish one flow model from vessel window and berth through yard, gate, connection and customer release. Measures should expose queue, dwell, rehandles, equipment loss, labour variance, service and contribution by relevant flow. Functions must see how their local choices change total performance.

The operating portfolio needs hard decisions. You will identify processes, contracts, shifts and assets to redesign, invest in or stop. Capital cases must include utilisation, maintenance, integration, labour and transition. Customer exceptions require price and ownership; recurring workarounds should become designed services or disappear.

Safety and reliability remain non-negotiable during the reset. You will integrate operational risk into planning, shift routines and change gates. Contractors and partners must work to common standards, while severe incidents and near misses generate verified system action rather than additional paperwork.

Leadership and industrial relations will determine whether the design works. Assess the operating team, appoint accountable flow owners and create succession for critical posts. Engage workforce representatives early with facts about work, capability and safety. Productivity should come from better flow and stable routines, not unmanaged work intensification.

Technology should support dispatch, visibility, maintenance and customer decisions. You will distinguish usable interventions from automation theatre and require adoption evidence. Data ownership must sit with operations, with digital teams accountable for dependable enabling services.

Customer and shipping-line governance also needs recalibration. You will make window, cut-off, storage and exception commitments visible in the operating plan and ensure commercial decisions reflect terminal consequence. Joint recovery plans should be activated before congestion compounds. Where behaviour repeatedly consumes scarce capacity, the contract, operating rule or customer promise must change.

Daily control should therefore connect forecast arrivals, yard state, labour deployment and recovery choices before each operating peak begins.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, observe the operation across shifts, trace representative flows and reconcile service, cost and asset evidence. Meet customers, labour representatives and key partners, assess leaders and stabilise immediate safety or reliability risks. Bring the board a constraint map, early decisions and a governed transformation sequence.

From months four to nine, implement changes around the principal constraints, reset operating cadence and make necessary leadership appointments. Improve planning, maintenance or labour deployment where evidence supports it. Demonstrate a material flow with lower dwell or failure, stronger service and improved contribution without transferring cost elsewhere.

By year end, profitability improvement should be visible across reporting cycles and supported by operational evidence. The next capital and workforce plan must reconcile volume, capacity, service and resilience. Present a three-year terminal case with actions for demand, disruption and asset-performance downside.

What the board will measure

The annual transformation case should remain within 10% of approval, with emerging variance raised before quarter close. Three forecasts must align volume, revenue, cash, asset capacity and people. The primary network-profit constraint should improve from a verified baseline with one accountable owner.

Priority safety and execution risks must close by agreed dates and stay closed through subsequent operations. At least 90% of critical talent should remain and 70% of direct reports require ready-now cover. Severe operational escalations cannot sit undecided for more than 30 days.

The person

You are an EVP Operations, terminal executive or network transformation leader with 22–28 years in ports, logistics or a comparable asset-intensive operation. You have led large employee and partner populations and carried direct accountability for safety, service, capital and profit.

Your record includes a terminal or network reset in which end-to-end flow improved, not merely functional metrics. You can quantify dwell, productivity, asset, customer and financial outcomes and explain choices rejected. References must distinguish your intervention from market-volume changes.

Compensation and terms

Compensation will retain the exact published indicative range and be positioned for final accountability and current mix. The permanent onsite Dubai appointment offers regular enterprise-governance exposure. Transition timing will protect operational continuity.

Confidentiality

The operator, terminals, customers and performance evidence remain confidential until reciprocal interest is established under an undertaking. Published facts are blended.