Head of Operations

Rocket Technologies Limited

JOB DESCRIPTION

Location: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with regional travel

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Employment: Full-time, Senior Leadership

Experience: 12 - 18 years

Business focus: 70% Business-to-Business and 30% Business-to-Consumer

About Rocket Technologies

Rocket Technologies Limited is the technology arm of Wadsworth Distributors Limited, an established Fast-Moving Consumer Goods distributor in Tanzania. UTrade, Rocket's Business-to-Business e-commerce platform, connects manufacturers, importers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers across the country.

Building on this distribution network, Rocket is developing technology-led commerce operations and expanding its consumer businesses. The next phase requires disciplined growth, reliable service and an operating model that can be repeated across regions.

Role Purpose

The Head of Operations will take end-to-end ownership of Sales, Procurement, Warehousing, Fulfilment, Logistics and Expansion, integrating these functions with customer service into one accountable operating organisation.

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the role will turn Rocket's growth strategy into a scalable, controlled and measurable operating model. It connects customer demand and sales execution with procurement, inventory, warehouse capacity and last-mile delivery, protecting margins, working capital and customer experience as the business grows.

Approximately 70% of the role will focus on Business-to-Business commerce, primarily UTrade and related distribution operations, and 30% on Business-to-Consumer operations and emerging consumer platforms.

Experience Across Both Business Models

Candidates should bring meaningful experience across both models, preferably around 60 - 75% Business-to-Business and 25 - 40% Business-to-Consumer career exposure.

- Business-to-Business experience should include distribution, wholesale, general trade, institutional sales or supply-led marketplaces, with an understanding of bulk orders, credit customers, field sales, supplier economics and multi-depot inventory.

- Business-to-Consumer experience should include e-commerce, quick commerce, retail, food delivery, dark stores or hyperlocal operations, covering smaller, frequent orders, rapid fulfilment, delivery density, service expectations and retention.

Consumer marketplace experience alone is insufficient. Traditional distribution leaders should demonstrate successful experience operating technology-enabled businesses.

Key Responsibilities

1. Sales and Commercial Operations:

- Lead sales execution across regions, districts and channels, with clear ownership of acquisition, activation, repeat ordering, retention and reactivation.

- Convert Wadsworth's existing business customers onto UTrade through segmentation, field activation, assisted ordering, call centre support and appropriate sales incentives.

- Improve sales representative productivity, customer coverage, average order value and category penetration through onboarding playbooks, cross-selling, category bundling and customer plans.

- Align sales targets with stock availability, procurement capacity and fulfilment capability. Grow geographical coverage while protecting margin, working capital and service quality.

- Work with Finance and relevant partners on viable business credit, trade finance and collections models. Evaluate delivery fees, supplier promotions and other value-added revenue opportunities.

2. Procurement and Supply:

- Lead procurement performance, using customer demand, sales velocity, stock cover, supplier lead times and growth forecasts to guide purchasing and replenishment.

- Improve supplier reliability, service levels, catalogue depth and product availability. Use demand and stock-out data to support supplier negotiations and purchase decisions.

- Establish controls for purchase planning, ageing and slow-moving stock, inventory exposure and stock-outs.

- Work with Finance on supplier terms, purchase economics and working capital so supply plans support growth without creating avoidable inventory risk.

3. Warehousing and Inventory:

- Own operating performance across warehouses, depots and dark stores, aligning space, staffing and infrastructure with projected order growth.

- Standardise receiving, put-away, storage, picking, packing, dispatch, stock counts, reconciliation, returns and transfers between locations.

- Improve inventory and Available to Sell accuracy, with clear controls for loss, damage, expiry, shrinkage and reconciliation differences.

- Build a repeatable warehouse operating model that can be deployed across future Rocket locations.

4. Fulfilment and Customer Service:

- Own the order journey from confirmation to successful delivery and customer closure, including partial orders, cancellations, rejections, returns and failed deliveries.

- Improve order fill rate, picking accuracy and processing time. Resolve daily exceptions before they become recurring problems.

- Set clear customer complaint, escalation and resolution processes, using customer feedback to correct underlying operational failures.

- Develop fulfilment processes suited to the different order profiles and service expectations of business and consumer customers.

5. Logistics and Fleet:

- Own delivery performance across both businesses, improving route planning, vehicle and load utilisation, driver productivity and cost per successful delivery.

- Select appropriate fleet models across trucks, vans, electric vehicles, motorcycles and three-wheelers according to order profile, route conditions and delivery economics.

- Maintain visibility of route performance, delivery success, failures and vehicle productivity. Work with Technology to automate routing, dispatch and delivery tracking.

- Use Wadsworth's distribution network and suitable transport partnerships to support scheduled business deliveries and faster consumer fulfilment.

6. Regional and Depot Expansion:

- Lead operational readiness for expansion across Tanzania, assessing priority locations such as Mwanza, Arusha, Dodoma, Tanga and Kilimanjaro against demand, supply and delivery capacity.

- Create an expansion playbook covering market potential, customer density, sales coverage, suppliers, premises, fleet, staffing, technology, inventory, working capital, delivery economics and break-even assumptions.

- Launch controlled pilots with measurable readiness criteria before full operation or significant capital commitments. Build local supply, transport and distribution partnerships where they improve service or cost.

- Develop a model that can be replicated nationally. Recommend expansion into East Africa or other suitable African markets only when Tanzania's core operation is stable, financially controlled and repeatable.

7. Business to Consumer Operations:

- Build operating capability for consumer commerce, food delivery, retail delivery and other consumer-facing services.

- Use distinct processes where business and consumer economics require them, sharing infrastructure where this improves efficiency.

- Improve delivery speed, fulfilment accuracy, customer experience and retention while maintaining sound unit economics.

8. Technology and Automation:

- Work with the Chief Technology Officer to translate operational problems and customer pain points into clear system requirements and priorities.

- Prioritise measurable improvements in inventory accuracy, forecasting, order fill, fulfilment speed, route utilisation, delivery cost, sales productivity and real-time visibility.

- Reduce manual reconciliation and follow-up. Own the business processes while Technology owns system architecture and implementation.

9. Leadership and Organisation:

- Recruit, structure and lead the managers responsible for Sales, Procurement, Warehousing, Fulfilment, Logistics and Regional Operations, with clear ownership between functions.

- Establish daily controls, weekly performance reviews and monthly business reviews, supported by dashboards and clear escalation paths.

- Develop second-line leaders and succession coverage. Raise problems early with facts, root causes, named owners and corrective actions.

- Maintain a strong field presence with sales teams, warehouses, delivery operations and customers. Report growth, service, risks and expansion milestones to the Chief Executive Officer and senior leadership.

Experience and Leadership Requirements

1. Essential Experience:

- 12 - 18 years of progressive operating leadership, including at least eight years in relevant Business-to-Business commerce, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods distribution, e-commerce, marketplaces, retail, supply chain or logistics.

- Meaningful experience across both business and consumer operations, preferably around 60 - 75% Business-to-Business and 25 - 40% Business-to-Consumer.

- Proven responsibility for at least four of these areas: Sales Operations, Procurement, Supply Chain, Warehousing, Fulfilment, Logistics, Regional Operations or Business Expansion.

- Experience scaling multi-city, multi-region or multi-warehouse operations, with measurable customer, revenue, service and cost outcomes.

- Strong understanding of general trade, informal retail, wholesale channels, supplier relationships, field sales, credit and route-to-market structures.

- Experience leading significant teams through multiple management layers and connecting revenue growth with inventory, fulfilment capacity, logistics cost and working capital.

- Strong commercial understanding of Gross Merchandise Value, margin, order value and operational leakage, with the ability to translate operational issues into technology requirements.

2. Preferred Experience and Industry Background:

- Relevant backgrounds include Business-to-Business e-commerce, digital wholesale, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods distribution, general trade, quick commerce, marketplaces, retail and omnichannel commerce, food or grocery delivery, technology-enabled logistics and large distribution networks.

- Emerging-market operations, including informal trade digitisation and infrastructure or supply constraints.

- Business credit, embedded finance, collections or trade finance; WhatsApp-based commerce, low-connectivity or assisted ordering; and field-led digital adoption.

- A parent distribution business, group company or hybrid offline-online model. Experience combining distribution infrastructure with digital commerce is particularly valuable.

- Experience in businesses comparable to Udaan, Jumbotail, ElasticRun or Ninjacart is relevant, but strong execution experience matters more than a particular employer.

Education and Mobility:

A bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Supply Chain, Commerce or a related field is required. A Master of Business Administration is preferred. The role requires relocation to Dar es Salaam where applicable and travel across Tanzania and East Africa as needed.

Leadership Profile:

We are looking for a practical operator who can move between strategy and field execution. The successful candidate will be commercially strong, disciplined with data and controls, and comfortable challenging teams when performance or reconciliations do not add up.

They will build trust and accountable managers, make sound decisions with improving information, and maintain pace in an evolving organisation. They should bring resilience, a builder mindset and a clear understanding that sustainable customer experience depends on reliable execution and sound unit economics.

Priorities and Performance

1. First 90 Days:

- Complete an end-to-end diagnostic of Sales, Procurement, Warehousing, Fulfilment, Logistics, customer service and Expansion, validating baselines, data quality, credit exposure and capacity constraints.

- Identify the main leakage and scalability risks; clarify functional ownership, leadership gaps and the daily, weekly and monthly review rhythm.

- Establish one management dashboard covering the customer funnel and complete order lifecycle, including inventory, delivery, returns, complaints and cost.

- Present a realistic 12-month operating plan covering growth capacity, investment, budgets, people, risks and expected outcomes, together with readiness and pilot plans for the next regional launches, including Mwanza and Arusha.

2. Realistic Key Performance Indicators:

- Revenue and active customer growth

- Customer retention and repeat ordering

- Product availability and fewer stock-outs

- Inventory accuracy and warehouse productivity

- Order fill rate and fulfilment accuracy

- On-time and successful delivery

- Delivery cost and fleet utilisation

- Procurement efficiency and supplier performance

- Customer complaints and resolution

- Controlled regional expansion

- Operational cost, leakage and working capital efficiency

- Team performance and accountability

Final targets will be agreed after validating the current operational baseline and business growth plan during the first 60 - 90 days.

What Success Looks Like:

Success means building an operation that can grow without losing control, with strong coordination across Sales, Procurement, Warehousing, Fulfilment, Logistics and Expansion.

Within the first year, we expect more predictable growth, better product availability and inventory control, stronger fulfilment and delivery, and lower leakage and avoidable costs. Managers should have clear accountability and reliable performance visibility, supported by a repeatable approach to regional expansion and business and consumer operations that scale without compromising customer experience.

What We Offer:

- Opportunity to shape Rocket's operating model as the business scales across Tanzania

- Responsibility across Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer businesses

- Opportunity to build teams, processes and operating capabilities at scale

- Exposure to technology-led commerce, distribution, logistics and regional expansion

- Competitive senior leadership compensation and relocation support where applicable