Open role at Sherpa - Senior Manager, Delivery Operations

Company Description

Sherpa Delivery is Australia’s largest independent same-day delivery platform, combining a national driver network with proprietary technology to help businesses deliver faster and smarter.
Operating across 17 Australian city centres, Sherpa provides delivery management technology, ship-from-store, 3PL integration and fulfilment solutions. Its platform includes real-time tracking, customer notifications, proof of delivery and returns management, providing businesses with flexible, technology-enabled logistics at scale.

About the Role

We are seeking a commercially minded, data-driven Senior Manager, Delivery Operations to improve the performance, efficiency and scalability of Sherpa’s delivery network.

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the role will lead operational improvement across network performance, delivery economics, technology, processes and customer experience.
Working closely with the Delivery Solutions Director and teams across Operations, Product, Engineering, Finance and Commercial, this person will use data to identify opportunities, develop practical solutions and lead their implementation.

The successful candidate will combine strong logistics experience with analytical capability, commercial judgement and hands-on execution. They will be comfortable moving between operational analysis, financial modelling, technology requirements and frontline implementation.
This role is suited to an emerging senior leader with the capability and ambition to progress into broader executive operational leadership as Sherpa scales.

Operational compliance, safety and regulatory governance sit within a separate function, with this role partnering closely with that team.

Key Responsibilities
Operational Performance & Optimisation

Analyse network performance and identify opportunities to improve reliability, assignment rates, utilisation, productivity and delivery quality.
Improve dispatch, batching, routing, driver supply and delivery workflows.
Identify root causes of recurring operational issues and implement scalable solutions.
Reduce manual processes and improve operational consistency.
Develop operational standards, playbooks and performance frameworks.
Provide the COO with clear recommendations on operational priorities, risks and opportunities.

Data & Commercial Performance

Use operational and commercial data to identify trends, performance gaps and improvement opportunities.
Connect operational performance to revenue, cost, margin and customer outcomes.
Analyse cost-to-serve, delivery economics, network productivity and profitability.
Own and improve operational dashboards, reporting and performance targets.
Develop business cases for operational, technology and network investments.
Measure the financial and operational benefits of improvement initiatives.
Support pricing and service-design decisions with robust operational analysis.

Delivery Solutions

Partner with the Delivery Solutions Director to ensure new customer solutions are operationally viable, scalable and commercially sustainable.
Assess network capability, cost-to-serve, dependencies and implementation requirements.
Translate customer requirements into practical operational plans.
Support implementation and handover of new delivery solutions.
Identify opportunities to standardise or automate customer-specific requirements.

Technology & Automation

Partner with Product and Engineering to identify and prioritise operational technology improvements.
Translate operational problems into clear technology requirements and use cases.
Support testing, implementation and adoption of new platform capabilities.
Identify opportunities to automate repetitive processes and operational decisions.
Explore practical applications of AI, predictive analytics and emerging technologies.

Project & Change Leadership

Lead cross-functional improvement projects from problem definition through implementation and benefits realisation.
Establish clear project plans, milestones, ownership and success measures.
Coordinate stakeholders across operational, technical and commercial teams.
Identify implementation risks and develop practical mitigation plans.
Ensure changes are successfully adopted and deliver measurable outcomes.
Maintain a prioritised pipeline of operational improvement initiatives.

Leadership

Lead and develop team members responsible for operational analysis and improvement projects.
Build stronger data-driven decision-making and accountability across Operations.
Promote structured problem-solving, experimentation and continuous improvement.
Build strong relationships across frontline, technical, commercial and leadership teams.
Act as a trusted adviser to the COO on operational performance and improvement.

Skills & Experience
The ideal candidate will have:

Approximately 6–8 years experience in logistics, transport, supply chain, last-mile delivery, marketplace operations or another complex service environment.
Strong experience in operational improvement, network optimisation or transformation.
Advanced analytical capability and confidence working with large operational datasets.
Experience with BI tools such as Looker, Tableau, Power BI or similar.
Strong spreadsheet and financial-modelling capability.
Experience analysing cost-to-serve, productivity, profitability and utilisation.
Strong commercial judgement and ability to balance service, cost, customer experience and growth.
A track record of leading cross-functional projects and delivering measurable outcomes.
Experience developing business cases and measuring ROI.
Experience partnering with Product and Engineering on technology improvements.
Strong process-design, root-cause analysis and structured problem-solving skills.
Strong stakeholder management, communication and presentation skills.
Experience leading people or cross-functional workstreams.
Experience in a fast-paced, technology-enabled or high-growth organisation will be highly regarded.

Core Capabilities

Data-Driven Decision Making
Operational Optimisation
Commercial Acumen
Continuous Improvement
Technology Orientation
Execution
Executive Influence
Leadership Potential

Desired Attributes
We are looking for someone who is:

Commercially curious and interested in how operational decisions affect business performance.
Highly analytical while remaining grounded in frontline operations.
Comfortable challenging existing processes and assumptions.
Able to simplify complex operational problems.
Hands-on and willing to work directly with operational teams.
Collaborative, pragmatic and low-ego.
Comfortable with ambiguity and changing priorities.
Focused on measurable outcomes rather than activity.
Able to influence senior stakeholders without relying on formal authority.
Ambitious and interested in progressing into broader operational leadership.

Success Measures

Success will be measured through:

Improved delivery reliability, assignment rates and fulfilment performance.
Reduced cost-to-serve and avoidable operational expense.
Improved driver and network utilisation.
Measurable margin improvement.
Successful delivery of optimisation, automation and technology initiatives.
Increased use of reliable data in operational decision-making.
Reduced manual processes and recurring operational issues.
Successful implementation of new customer solutions.
Strong alignment between Delivery Operations and Delivery Solutions.
A sustainable pipeline of operational improvement initiatives.

How to apply

Email your CV with executive summary to jobs@sherpa.net.au