Global Ocean Freight Tender Manager

Global Ocean Freight Tender Manager

DHL Global Forwarding (DGF) is the world leader in air freight services and one of the leading providers of ocean freight services. Around 30,000 employees work to ensure we transport our customers of shipments by air or sea. DGF's logistics solutions span the entire supply chain, from the factory to the shop floor. This also includes special transport-related services.

As the experts in freight forwarding, we deliver 100% assurance to our customers via a mindset that's always looking ahead to the next commercial opportunity, predicting the next potential issue, anticipating the next global trend.

Because at DHL Global Forwarding, Freight, we're not simply about freight forwarding. We're about forward-thinking ways to connect people – and improve their lives.

Job purpose

The Global Ocean Freight Tender Manager leads the end-to-end management of strategic global ocean freight RFQs, with a primary focus on high-value, high-complexity, multi-country/tradelane opportunities.

The role is responsible for translating customer requirements into a competitive, executable and commercially sound tender response by coordinating across Commercial, Ocean Freight Trade/LCL, Region/Country Growth teams, and relevant product stakeholders. The role ensures that tender submissions are aligned to agreed win strategy, meet internal governance requirements, and reflect operational feasibility, pricing discipline and high data quality.

The Global Ocean Freight Tender Manager acts as the central point of orchestration for global RFQs, driving timely decision making, stakeholder alignment and response excellence from tender receipt through submission, clarification, award and handover. At its core, the position acts as the vital connector—bringing Ocean Freight product experts closer to customers to deliver tailored solutions that secure RFQ success, fuel profitable growth, and strengthen our market leadership.

Principal accountabilities

Strategic Tender Leadership

• Align and facilitate RFQ participation Go/No-Go decision with Commercial and OFR product management.
• Lead the end-to-end tender process for strategic global ocean freight RFQs from qualification through submission, customer clarification, award support and handover.
• Support development of a clear win strategy by consolidating customer requirements, market insight, network strengths and competitive positioning.
• Ensure the final submission presents a differentiated, customer-relevant, and operationally executable solution for all assigned tenders.
• Coordinate inputs across origin and destination countries, trade teams, product experts and pricing contributors to ensure one aligned DHL response.
• Drive timely engagement, clear accountability and decision making across all stakeholders throughout the RFQ lifecycle.
• Facilitate alignment between customer expectations, trade lane strategy, local market realities and operational capability.
• Escalate key issues, gaps, and risks in a timely manner to support decision making and maintain tender momentum.

Pricing, Solution Design and Decision Support

• Translate customer requirements into clear pricing instructions for Pricing Specialists to enable accurate completion of internal pricing templates and rate population.
• Work with trade and country stakeholders to validate service scope, routing options, carrier strategy, lead times, capacity considerations, and implementation readiness.
• Act as the voice of the customer to Trade: align & agree carrier selection, capacity allocation, and contract terms based on forecasted growth and lane priorities to meet customer requirements
• Consolidate pricing and solution inputs to support decisions on competitiveness, margin implications, strategic fit, operational feasibility and investment needs.
• Ensure all required approvals are secured prior to submission.
• Maintain visibility of assumptions, exceptions, dependencies, and decision logs throughout the tender cycle.
• Support inclusion of value-added services, digital solutions and sustainability elements where relevant to strengthen customer value proposition.
• Ensure the final offer is both commercially competitive and…