Fleet Management & Operations Director

About the role

Cooper Fitch is supporting a confidential client in the Middle East with the appointment of a Fleet Management & Operations Director. This is a senior transformation mandate for an experienced leader who will take ownership of a large, asset-intensive fleet and professionalise the function across structure, systems, maintenance, lifecycle management, cost and operational performance. The role oversees a mixed fleet of 1,000+ assets, including heavy construction and earthmoving equipment, trucks, tankers, specialist vehicles, trailers and site machinery.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and transform the fleet, plant and equipment function
• Establish the operating model, structure, governance, SOPs and KPIs
• Improve fleet availability, reliability and utilisation
• Move maintenance from reactive to planned, preventive and condition-based
• Review and optimise outsourced, in-house or hybrid workshop models
• Own asset lifecycle, replacement strategy, CAPEX planning and technical specifications
• Drive fleet standardisation, total cost of ownership and unit cost reduction
• Implement fleet management systems, CMMS/FMMS, telematics and data-driven reporting
• Lead large teams of drivers, operators, technicians and supervisors
• Manage supplier, dealer and maintenance contractor performance
• Strengthen HSE, compliance, asset controls and operational discipline

Required profile

• 15+ years of relevant experience in fleet, plant, heavy equipment or asset management
• Significant leadership experience at Head / Director / Department Head level
• Strong exposure to heavy construction equipment and mixed asset fleets
• Proven experience building, restructuring or transforming a fleet or equipment function
• Demonstrable improvements in uptime, reliability, utilisation or operating cost
• Strong maintenance and reliability background
• Experience across CAPEX, lifecycle planning, asset replacement and TCO
• Experience leading large operational and blue-collar workforces
• Middle East experience strongly preferred

Candidates based anywhere in the Middle East are welcome to apply. Applications are made through the recruiter's LinkedIn or by sending a CV directly to the recruiter at Cooper Fitch.