APAC Logistics Talent in 2026: What Attracts Professionals and Makes Them Stay

For logistics employers expanding in APAC, the strength of a hiring opportunity depends on how clearly business growth translates into an individual’s career. An experienced commercial professional wants to understand what they can build, which decisions they will own, and where success could take them.

In DSJ Global’s conversations with freight forwarding professionals across the region, several factors consistently attract interest: greater P&L responsibility, regional exposure, opportunities across products and customer verticals, and leadership that gives people the authority to deliver. Competitive compensation remains part of that assessment.

For employers, this creates a clear opportunity. A well-defined role can give a successful professional a strong reason to move. Following through on those commitments can also help retain them once they join.

APAC growth is creating a broader range of career opportunities

Growth in APAC logistics is creating new opportunities for employers and experienced professionals. Freight forwarding and contract logistics continue to expand, while investment in specialist areas such as healthcare logistics is creating new areas of business and new career paths.

37% of global freight forwarding activity is concentrated in APAC	Air freight forwarding has recorded 7.4% growth
Asia Pacific Accounted for more than a third of the global freight forwarding market in 2025.	APAC's air freight forwarding market grew 7.4% in real terms in 2025.
Contract logistics is forecasted to grow by 6.6% annually in APAC	More than US$562 million has been invested in specialist healthcare logistics
APAC's contract logistics market is forecast to grow 6.6% annually through 2030, compared with 2.6% in North America and 1.8% in Europe.	Industry leader DHL announced $562 million investment in APAC life sciences and healthcare logistics through 2030, including infrastructure, technology and cold chain capabilities.

For employers, the value of this growth lies in what it means for the person joining. Will they build a new customer portfolio, launch a service, lead a larger team or take responsibility for another market?

A clear answer makes the role more compelling. It also supports retention. Existing employees need to see how business growth can translate into their own progression.

For workforce planning, this activity points to growing demand for product knowledge, customer expertise and the ability to work across services. For professionals, continued investment across the region may also create routes into new areas of the logistics sector.

A credible growth plan gives candidates something to join

“An expanding business” is a starting point for a hiring conversation. Experienced candidates need to understand the opportunity behind it.

A business developing its healthcare offering, for example, should be able to explain its target customers, current capabilities, investment plans and what the new hire will be expected to deliver. A forwarder opening a new branch should also make clear how much of the role involves building the business, rather than managing an established operation.

The strongest proposition connects three things:

• The commercial objective: the market, service, or customer segment the business intends to develop.
• The resources: product expertise, operational capacity, systems, and leadership support available.
• The individual mandate: what the person will own and how their role could develop.

This also gives employers a stronger basis for assessing candidates. Someone who can build a service from an early stage may bring different experience, skills and expectations from someone joining a mature business with established accounts.

Smaller providers can compete effectively by offering direct access to decision makers, meaningful ownership and a clear opportunity to shape the business.

Regional scope needs to come with regional responsibility

Moving from a country role into a regional position is a common ambition among experienced APAC logistics professionals. Employers need to define what that broader scope means in practice.

Will the person manage customers across several countries? Will they lead local teams, shape commercial strategy or own a regional budget? Which decisions will they control, and which will remain with country management?

Candidates are often comparing opportunities with very different structures. A country sales leadership role may compete with a position offering responsibility for several markets or a new service line. The decision is therefore not based on job title alone. Candidates are also assessing which role will broaden their experience, increase their influence and give them greater ownership.

For employers hiring an experienced country leader, the key question is whether the new role represents a meaningful increase in scope. A regional title with limited authority may be less attractive than a clearly defined country role with significant autonomy.

The same principle applies to retention. When an employee takes on additional markets, teams or stakeholders, their authority, resources and reward should develop alongside those responsibilities.

Access to other products and verticals can make a move attractive

Our team observes that ambitious forwarding professionals are drawn to businesses where they can develop beyond their existing specialization.

An Air Freight leader may want exposure to Contract Logistics. A commercial professional may want to work with Healthcare customers. Someone established in sales may be interested in a future move into Product Management or General Management.

For hiring employers, this creates a way to distinguish an opportunity even when the immediate title is similar to the candidate’s current position. The relevant question is what experience the move adds.

Explain how that exposure will happen. It might involve responsibility for a customer opportunity spanning several services, participation in a vertical strategy, or a defined assignment with another product team.

For existing employees, access needs to be equally credible. If their involvement depends on informal introductions or repeatedly postponed approvals, the external market may offer a clearer route forward.

Employers should also resolve how shared work is recognized. Account ownership, sales credit, targets, and incentives need to support collaboration between products and countries.

Matthew Monaghan, SVP at DSJ Global in APAC, sees this issue regularly in conversations with mid- to senior-level logistics professionals:

Leadership and operating support make the opportunity believable

A wider remit becomes more attractive when candidates can see how they will succeed.

For commercial hires, employers should be ready to discuss pricing support, access to product specialists, operational delivery, and the process for resolving customer issues. For branch and country leaders, the discussion should cover staffing, investment decisions, and P&L accountability.

These details help substantiate claims about culture and empowerment. During the hiring process, meetings with relevant product and operational leaders can give candidates a clearer view of how the business works.

After joining, employees should encounter the level of access and decision authority discussed during recruitment. A gap between the advertised opportunity and the working reality is something employers should examine when reviewing early departures or repeated candidate concerns.

Compensation should reflect the opportunity and the risk

An experienced professional evaluating a move will consider both the potential reward and the uncertainty involved.

Building a new customer portfolio, launching a service, or taking over a branch presents different conditions from inheriting an established business. Employers should make the compensation structure understandable in that context.

Clarify base salary, sales incentives, annual bonuses, and longer-term rewards where applicable. Explain how targets are set, what support is available during the initial period, and which results the individual can reasonably influence.

For retention, revisit the package when the role changes. Someone who takes on people management or regional coordination may have less time for personal selling. Their performance measures should reflect that change.

Benchmarking should therefore account for product coverage, customer complexity, geographic remit, and leadership responsibility alongside the job title.

Our APAC Supply Chain Compensation Guide 2026 is a useful starting point for benchmarking pay across supply chain roles, particularly when reviewing whether compensation has kept pace with growing responsibilities.