Who is QLS
Europe’s fastest-growing e-commerce fulfilment provider. A family business born from a single DHL depot in Dordrecht in 1990, now handling 30 million+ parcels a year for 3,000+ webshops. We built our own WMS (my.QLS), operate a 110,000-bin AutoStore, and run sites in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK. Over 1,000 colleagues. Short lines. No-nonsense. A genuine passion for e-commerce.
The Role
As Operations Manager Parcel Services, you are the driving force behind the quality of our parcel operation. You don’t do this from behind a desk — you’re on the floor, you ride along with drivers, you see with your own eyes where things go wrong, and you fix them. Improvements happen in practice, not in a presentation.
Every day, thousands of parcels are collected from clients, scanned, sorted across hubs, and handed to the right carrier on time. You’re the person who truly understands this process — from first scan to last pallet — and who keeps raising the bar. You lead a growing team of a Quality Coordinator, Planning Coordinators, and future Team Leaders.
This is not a role for someone who prefers to manage from a distance. You are present, visible, and hands-on — every day.
What you’ll do
On the floor: see it, fix it
- Be physically present in the operation: walk the hubs, ride along with drivers, and see first-hand where quality is under pressure.
- Identify bottlenecks in the collection, scanning, sorting, and loading process and address them directly — not delegate to a note.
- Co-write work instructions and SOPs based on what you actually see on the floor, not just approve them.
- Hold drivers and warehouse staff directly accountable for quality and working methods — with respect, but without detours.
- Use KPIs daily to steer the operation, not just to report upward.
Process optimisation with Lean
- Drive structural improvements using a Lean approach: 5S, Kaizen, PDCA — applied on the floor, not in theory.
- Lead improvement projects together with the Quality Coordinator, from analysis through to implementation.
- Make improvements stick: embed them in working methods, systems, and team behaviour.
Leading a growing team
- Day-to-day leadership of the Quality Coordinator and Planning Coordinators; building the structure for future Team Leaders.
- Coach and develop your team — you are the role model for the hands-on approach you expect from others.
- Build a culture where quality is not a control mechanism but a shared sense of pride.
Planning, carriers & systems
- Ensure the daily planning of collection routes, sorting, and loading runs tightly and efficiently.
- Monitor carrier performance and make it a topic of conversation — internally and externally.
- Work with the Product Owner to test and improve my.QLS in practice.
What you bring
Must-haves
- Proven experience as a team lead or operations manager in a logistics, parcel services, or fulfilment environment — and you’re proud to still get your hands dirty.
- Hands-on mentality: you don’t wait for problems to come to you, you go and find them.
- Experience with process optimisation and Lean methodologies applied in a real operational environment.
- Analytically strong — you use data to understand what’s happening and to back up your improvements.
- Clear communicator in Dutch and English: direct, respectful, and effective at every level.
- Comfortable with WMS systems and operational IT.
- Available for an operation that partly runs in evening hours.
Nice-to-haves
- Experience in carrier management or last-mile logistics.
- Lean or Six Sigma certification (Green Belt or above).
- Driving licence (Category B) — for riding along with drivers.
What QLS offers
- A role with direct impact — your improvements are visible on the floor the next day.
- An informal, no-nonsense culture with short lines and colleagues who genuinely put their shoulders into it.
- Room to grow in a business expanding across three countries.
- 25 days annual leave + public holidays, travel allowance, and pension contribution.