Careers | APL Logistics

Christina Tarango

Senior Manager

United states

I am given enough autonomy and creative freedom.

Before joining APL Logistics as a senior manager supply chain solution in 2019, I was leading a micro-services implementation initiative for a major healthcare provider. I wanted to take my digital transformation experience and consulting skills to the supply chain field. Supply chain and its application of technology is something I’ve always been deeply curious about. In my current role, I get the chance to focus more on identifying opportunities and design solutions for internal processes and application improvements.

Opportunity to use my experience.

With experience in system implementation, BI development, and digital transformations in manufacturing, automotive, retail, and healthcare industries, I believe APL Logistics provides the global platform that allows me to combine my passion for problem-solving and supply chain technology on a more elevated level.

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I am given enough autonomy and creative freedom to investigate problems with stakeholders and brainstorm any internal improvements where we can become more efficient and effective in supporting our client’s requests and operations. It’s challenging and intellectually stimulating but I get tons of support from my management and peers.

What’s the latest?

When I first came here, I heard how we were one of the few early adopters of visual analytics in anticipation of a specific client’s needs. Now, it has evolved and become an integral part of our service and competitive advantage. I think that the scalable solutions that we have to offer are constantly evolving while being driven and inspired by client expectations.

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Currently, I am working with a business intelligence team, strategy team, customer service team, operation team, and service quality team to streamline the case management process using our cloud-based CRM platform.

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In it for the long haul

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Long tenure is definitely a theme that echoes with lots of associates here. I had the pleasure of attending the celebration for one of our longest-tenured employee’s retirement party after nearly 36 years of service. I think it really speaks to the internal culture that we are creating, a place where people come and stay.

Sam Eng

Senior Manager

Singapore

I’ve never encountered this in my 20 years in the IT industry.

As senior manager for Global Infrastructure Operations at APL Logistics in Singapore, I am the lead for the infrastructure operations, which includes network, storage, backup, database, and mindware, reporting directly to the Global Infrastructure Director. This role is very different from anything I’ve ever done before. It has really broadened my horizon and elevated my perspective on IT operations. I get to stay in touch with different technology to design, propose and provide forecasting technologies for the company. I am given the autonomy and creative freedom to integrate different things coming from different domains.

Don’t follow trends, make them.

Many companies hear about Cloud projects and simply think, “Okay, going cloud is the way to go, so we need to follow suit”. But we must move to the cloud in a smart way – by identifying the right processes and optimization of operations in order to fully enjoy the benefits. Right now, we’re moving away from the traditional legacy system into what we call a new, more open system. We must stay abreast of digitalization transformation. And we must push ourselves to go even further.

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We are embarking on the journey of migrating from a physical machine to virtualization and working towards creating our own private cloud on-premises. With this, we can scale our system resource within a short period as well as reduce our data center footprint. We reduce a lot of things to help the company to bring down the cost. Of course, none of this would be possible without the strong support from my team.

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Communication is key

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My team came together and said, “Okay, if we were to go virtualization, what things do we need to consider, what things do we need to configure? Then, by doing that, would it be able to meet the business requirement in a way we want it to look?” We do all this assessment, present the proposal to management, then do all the testing.

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We sometimes fail but we’ve always made it work. When we encounter challenges, this can create a lot of retakes. However, open communication is important in order to reduce this and make things run more smoothly to come up with a solution. We’ve been together through thick and thin, but we’ve always succeeded.

My proudest moment.

I remember last year, we were actually moving away from our previous company Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) and had to move its data center to our center. The apps team, infrastructure team, DBA, our system, our network, including CIO and everybody in IT, all banded together to literally help each other to succeed.

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That was something I’ve never encountered before in my 20 years in the IT industry.

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When everything and everyone else seemed to be against us, we proved that we could make it. Some of us didn’t sleep for about three days to make it work. I’m sure it’ll be difficult to find a stronger team elsewhere. This makes me proud and humbled.

Elger Postma

Director of Country Operations

Europe

I wanted to work internationally and I got the scenic route home.

I first joined this company as an intern back in 2002, when I was looking to work internationally. Since then I have changed roles multiple times. A Management Trainee in our Hamburg office, creating customer solutions as a Supply Chain Engineer in London, running Customer Service in our Rotterdam office, General Manager in Glasgow, Scotland to help our sister company, Neptune Orient Lines. While I was at our Istanbul, Turkey office, I took over the Managing Director’s role while she was on maternity leave. It was during this time that I was asked to come over to Portland, Oregon as Global Account Director to work on an account for one of the biggest sports brands in the world. From Portland I was planning to get back to the Netherlands and APLL offered me the scenic route home through Singapore. So I took on managing our global accounts for APAC & EMEA and I am now headed back to Netherlands this year – taking the scenic route home.I’ve been everywhere.

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That’s what I wanted and I got it, right?

A typical day in my life.

Every morning, I wake up with a cup of coffee before switching on my computer to support our global accounts. I need to make sure that we come up with new ideas and new services to support their supply chains; to help them manage their inventories and increase product availability. Now with my baby boss around, it adds a sparkle to our virtual meetings.

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In my role, we get to play around and experiment with stuff. It’s a little bit like operating a supply chain laboratory. We look at data and identify patterns before trying to find improvements. We’re a people first company and we have smart people everywhere who can execute ideas. We’re very agile and can try new things and roll them out quickly.

It’s like a happy marriage.

Our biggest customers have been with APL Logistics for 20+ years. The main reason why is because we’re famous in one of the niches they need expertise on: Order Management. We’ve been able to innovate continuously to always stay ahead of them.

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We also act as their hands, eyes and ears when it comes to getting their products out of the factory. We can see any challenges or issues and deal with them before they become a problem. They know we’re on the same team.

How a large multinational company runs.

In my current role, I get to see the inner workings of many multinational companies, and being able to add value to their supply chains is very exciting. It’s amazing to see how committed my colleagues are towards making things happen.Just a few years ago, I was fortunate to have had the chance to win an innovation award for our team. That was a good moment. It was very satisfying. With the people I work with, I’m sure there’ll be more to come.

Jeimy Caballero

Associate Manager

United states

We know each other on a more personal level.

Logistics was in Scottsdale. The location for me was great and the fact that this is a global company was exactly what I was looking for. I also wanted to be at a place that offered a long-term career where I could grow at my own pace and have a good work-life balance for me and my family. I have found everything I want here at APL Logistics.

Working with family.

My career journey here has been awesome. I started as a temp and became a full-time employee within two months. In my current role as an associate manager, I lead a team of about 20 people and am responsible for the execution and the management of all activity involved to move shipments from North America into Canada.

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There are customer service reps, team leads, and two supervisors who report directly to me. I get to participate in and direct process improvements by collaborating and troubleshooting together with this amazing team that’s like family.

Key to success - Trust and communication

The world of logistics is fast paced. It’s a very demanding environment but it’s what you make of it. For example, if I need something from my manager, I will go out and get it. My manager is definitely approachable with an open door policy and has told me, “I support you with whatever you decide 100%.”

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Just the other day, I sent my manager an email but couldn’t wait for her to go through her hundreds of emails to get to mine. I saw her and said, “My expense report has returned and they’re asking this. Can you take a look at it?.” She stopped everything she was doing, pulled up my email and replied right away with a solution.

We’ve grown together.

I’ve been able to put together a great team and it is my team that really motivates me. We genuinely like each other and make the effort to know each other on a more personal level. Building and maintaining relationships is important and I truly believe this is the reason why the team is seen as the epitome of collaboration.

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We’ve just launched a new system and we onboarded 10,000 vendors, which is an outrageous number.

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Having this very close, intimate and friendly relationship with my team has helped achieve our success together. It’s a very positive team environment and I can’t imagine not working with some of these guys. I value the relationships I’ve built and am so glad they are part of my day-to-day work life.

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Sam Eng

Christina Tarango

Elger Postma

Jeimy Caballero

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