Department Lead (m/w/d)

To continue fueling Swappie’s profitable growth and advance our mission of making refurbished electronics mainstream, we are seeking a strategic leader ready to shape the future as

Department Lead (m/w/d) for our Leipzig Operations

In this pivotal role, you will own the daily operational performance across multiple departments and shifts, leading through Team Leads to drive efficiency, quality, and a high-performing culture.

If you’re ready to bridge strategy and execution, build strong teams, and contribute to environmental sustainability — this is your chance to leave your fingerprint on Swappie’s core operations.

This is a permanent opportunity based at our site in Leipzig (Wahren).

Role Purpose: Operational Leadership & Departmental Ownership

As Department Lead, you will be responsible for leading and coordinating the daily operations of your assigned operational areas across shifts within a semi-automated warehouse environment. Acting as the critical link between strategic direction and operational execution, you will ensure safe, efficient, and high-quality delivery while developing your Team Leads, strengthening leadership capability, and serving as operational proxy for the Site Manager when required.

What You’ll Work On

Your role is to drive performance of the employees through your 5 Team Leads, ensure operational excellence across two shifts, and build long-term capability in your department of around 100 employees altogether.

• Operational Performance & SLA Delivery: Own throughput, quality, and SLA targets across your departments. Monitor KPIs daily, address bottlenecks proactively, and ensure consistent execution across shifts and teams.
• People Leadership & Team Development: Lead, coach and develop a team of Team Leads. Build leadership capability, strengthen accountability, and support relatively new leaders in their development journey while creating a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.Conduct regular performance evaluations, support onboarding, and build a culture of ownership, engagement, and continuous growth.
• Planning, Scheduling & Capacity Management: Partner with the planning team to ensure weekly resources align with volume forecasts. Anticipate capacity constraints, flex staffing, and adjust plans to keep operations running smoothly.
• Safety & Quality Standards: Champion a proactive safety culture across your departments. Ensure adherence to 6S, safety protocols, and quality standards — intervening swiftly when needed.
• Cross-Functional Communication & Alignment: Serve as the operational voice for your departments. Provide timely, structured updates to stakeholders, ensure smooth shift handovers, and escalate risks before they create downstream impact.
• Continuous Improvement & Root Cause Analysis: Drive and embed a CI culture across your teams. Initiate and lead improvement projects, apply root cause methodology, and ensure measurable, sustained performance gains.

We Would Love to Hear From You If You Have…

• Leadership and operational experience: Proven experience in leading teams in a warehouse, logistics, or operations environment, ideally with experience managing other leaders or supervisors. Strong understanding of warehouse operations, capacity planning, and performance management in a high-volume, fast-paced setting.
• People Development Skills: Demonstrated ability to coach, develop, and hold people accountable; creating an environment where Team Leads and their teams can thrive.
• Vendor & facility communication: Experience managing site-related stakeholders and external partners. As operational owner of the Leipzig premises, you will support with coordination of local service providers, facility partners, authorities, maintenance providers and site-related projects. — requiring confident communication in German (min. B2 level).
• **Problem-solvin