How to Apply to Dachser SE

13 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 801 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Dachser SE is a ~€8 billion family-owned German logistics group headquartered in Kempten im Allgäu, with roughly 34,000 employees across ~387 locations in 31 countries and three business units: Road Logistics Europe, Air & Sea Logistics, and Dachser Food Logistics.
  • The careers portal at careers.dachser.com runs on SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting (tenant: dachserse; served from career5.successfactors.eu). All applications for corporate, operational, and apprenticeship roles flow through this single ATS.
  • Five hiring tracks exist: Ausbildung (apprenticeships), Duales Studium (dual study), Werkstudent/internships, Direkteinstieg (experienced hire), and blue-collar hiring for drivers, operatives, and dispatchers. Choose the right door before you apply.
  • German-based roles, including almost all headquarters positions, are primarily German-speaking. International Air & Sea, APAC, Americas, and larger UK/Benelux contract logistics roles are typically English-speaking. Submit your application in the language of the posting.
  • CEO Burkhard Eling has led the company since January 2021, with public priorities including decarbonization (electric and HVO-powered trucks, emission-free delivery zones), the 2024 DACHSER Go! parcel product, and expansion through the NVL acquisition and growth in Turkey and the UK.
  • Interviews are structured, evidence-based, and respectful of German business formality. Quantify your work, know what Dachser actually does, and engage naturally with the works-council and Tarifvertrag context for German roles.

About Dachser SE

Dachser SE is one of Europe's largest family-owned logistics providers, headquartered in Kempten im Allgäu, Bavaria, where it has operated since Thomas Dachser founded the company in 1930. Nearly a century later, the Dachser and Schaile families still own the business, which has grown into a global network of roughly 387 locations across 31 countries with around 34,000 employees and annual revenue in the neighborhood of €8 billion. That combination of family ownership, German Mittelstand culture, and global scale shapes almost every aspect of what it is like to work there. Decisions are made with longer time horizons than a publicly traded peer would tolerate, investment in apprenticeships and internal training is treated as strategic rather than discretionary, and the company tends to grow organically with occasional targeted acquisitions rather than through aggressive roll-ups. The business is organized into three core business units. Road Logistics Europe runs the European groupage and contract logistics network, moving industrial and consumer goods across a dense grid of terminals under the European Logistics brand. Air & Sea Logistics is the global forwarding arm, handling ocean freight, airfreight, and intercontinental project logistics out of hubs in Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, China, Singapore, and elsewhere. Dachser Food Logistics is a specialized German network for temperature-controlled food distribution, serving manufacturers and grocery retailers with a dedicated chilled and ambient infrastructure. The units are deliberately interconnected, and IT systems like the in-house Dachser Enterprise Application and the Othello transport management platform stitch them together so that a single shipment can move seamlessly from a food plant in Bavaria, through a European groupage hub, onto an ocean container in Hamburg, and out to a customer in Southeast Asia. Leadership sits with CEO Burkhard Eling, who stepped into the top role on 1 January 2021 after serving as CFO. The executive board also includes long-tenured operators across road, air and sea, and corporate functions, and it reports to a family-dominated supervisory board. Strategic priorities announced in recent years include a significant decarbonization push, with investments in battery-electric trucks, biogas and HVO-powered fleets, and emissions reporting that aligns with the GLEC Framework. In 2024 Dachser launched DACHSER Go!, a direct parcel and small-shipment product aimed at e-commerce and small business senders that extends the network beyond its traditional industrial groupage roots. The company has also expanded its contract logistics footprint in markets such as Turkey and the United Kingdom, and it acquired the Dutch forwarder NVL (Navigator Logistics) to deepen its air and sea capability in the Benelux region. For candidates, the honest framing is this: Dachser is a stable, technically serious logistics operator with a strong engineering and IT culture for a forwarder, a deep apprenticeship pipeline, and a reputation for retaining people for decades. It is not a startup, not a private-equity roll-up, and not a tech company that happens to move freight. Pay at the corporate center is competitive with the German logistics market but not with Frankfurt investment banking or Munich software salaries, and the logistics industry itself is cyclical — freight rates, fuel, and global trade flows move earnings year to year. What you get in return is a long runway, meaningful cross-border mobility inside one of Europe's densest logistics networks, and the rare experience of working inside a company where the family name on the building still belongs to the people running it.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Start at the Dachser careers portal at careers

    Start at the Dachser careers portal at careers.dachser.com (the consumer-facing URL dachser-career.com redirects there). The site is powered by SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting on the tenant 'dachserse' and is organized by job family — Administrative & Logistics Staff, Facility Management, Finance, Controlling & Legal, HR, Strategy & Transformation, IT (ITD), Logistics Operatives, Sales, Marketing & PR, and Truckers — as well as by region (dachser_europe, dachser_americas, dachser_apac, dachser_africa).

  2. 2
    Decide which door to enter through

    Decide which door to enter through. Dachser hires through five distinct tracks: Ausbildung (vocational apprenticeships for school leavers, typically 2.5–3 years), Duales Studium (dual study programs combining a bachelor's degree with paid work at a Dachser branch), Werkstudent and internship roles for university students, Direkteinstieg (direct entry) for experienced hires, and blue-collar hiring for drivers, warehouse operatives, and dispatchers. Each track has its own application windows and requirements, so filter early rather than applying to everything.

  3. 3
    Read the job ad carefully in its original language

    Read the job ad carefully in its original language. German-based roles, including nearly all headquarters positions in Kempten, are posted and conducted primarily in German. International roles in the Air & Sea network, the Americas, APAC, and larger UK or Benelux contract logistics sites are typically conducted in English. Mixing up the expected language of the application is one of the most common reasons qualified candidates are filtered out.

  4. 4
    Create a candidate profile in SuccessFactors

    Create a candidate profile in SuccessFactors. You will be asked to register an account, upload documents, and complete a structured profile. Use the same email you plan to monitor for months — Dachser, like most German employers, often takes three to eight weeks to respond to corporate roles and may contact you again later for a different position.

  5. 5
    Prepare a complete Bewerbungsmappe (application packet) for German roles

    Prepare a complete Bewerbungsmappe (application packet) for German roles. This traditionally includes a one-page Anschreiben (cover letter), a tabular Lebenslauf (CV) with a professional photo, Zeugnisse (school, university, and prior employment reference letters / Arbeitszeugnisse), and relevant certificates. For international English-language roles, a conventional CV and cover letter without a photo are the expected norm.

  6. 6
    Upload everything as PDFs with clean filenames (for example, CV_Mustermann_Anna

    Upload everything as PDFs with clean filenames (for example, CV_Mustermann_Anna.pdf). SuccessFactors parses PDF text well but struggles with scanned images and heavily designed templates. Keep formatting simple and text-based.

  7. 7
    Complete any required questionnaires

    Complete any required questionnaires. Apprenticeship and dual-study applications frequently include short-answer questions about motivation and logistics interest, and some IT and commercial roles include pre-screening knowledge questions. Answer them yourself — coached-sounding responses are easy to spot.

  8. 8
    Expect an initial acknowledgement from SuccessFactors and then a human review by

    Expect an initial acknowledgement from SuccessFactors and then a human review by the responsible branch HR business partner or the central HR function in Kempten. Recruiting is decentralized: a warehouse role in Hof, a Werkstudent position in Munich, and a corporate IT role at headquarters will be handled by three different people.

  9. 9
    If you are a good fit, the first substantive contact is usually a phone screen w

    If you are a good fit, the first substantive contact is usually a phone screen with HR, 20–30 minutes, often in German for DE-based roles. Interviews then progress to on-site conversations at the branch or headquarters, sometimes with a tour of the cross-dock terminal or the data center, depending on the function.

  10. 10
    For Ausbildung and dual-study candidates, expect an Einstellungstest (aptitude t

    For Ausbildung and dual-study candidates, expect an Einstellungstest (aptitude test) covering basic math, logic, German language, and logistics-specific reasoning, plus a structured interview. Assessment centers with group tasks are used for the more competitive dual-study intakes.

  11. 11
    Final offers come from HR with input from the hiring manager and, for senior rol

    Final offers come from HR with input from the hiring manager and, for senior roles, from the relevant Works Council (Betriebsrat) consultation process required by German co-determination law. Onboarding packages typically arrive as signed PDFs; your start date will almost always be the 1st or 15th of a month, in line with German payroll conventions.

Resume Tips for Dachser SE

recommended

Match the language of the posting

Match the language of the posting. If the ad is in German, submit a German Lebenslauf. If it is in English, submit an English CV. Submitting the wrong language signals that you did not read the requirements and is a strong negative signal to German HR.

recommended

Use a tabular, chronological Lebenslauf for German roles

Use a tabular, chronological Lebenslauf for German roles. Start with Persönliche Daten (personal data), then Berufserfahrung (reverse-chronological work experience), Ausbildung (education), Weiterbildung (continuing education), Sprachen (languages with CEFR levels — B2, C1, etc.), and EDV-Kenntnisse (IT skills). A photo top-right is still customary, although it is legally optional.

recommended

Quantify logistics experience the way the industry talks about it: number of shi

Quantify logistics experience the way the industry talks about it: number of shipments per day, tonnage, pallet positions managed, SKUs, dock doors, OTIF / on-time-in-full percentages, cost per shipment, CO2 per ton-kilometer. Vague bullets like 'managed warehouse operations' underperform specific ones like 'supervised 42 warehouse operatives across two shifts moving 1,800 pallets per day at 99.2% OTIF.'

recommended

Name the systems

Name the systems. Dachser is a heavy user of its in-house Othello transport management system and Mikado warehouse management system, plus SAP ERP and EDI standards such as EDIFACT and the GS1 family (GLN, SSCC). Mentioning prior experience with TMS, WMS, OMS, CargoWise, SAP TM, SAP EWM, or customs software like ATLAS (Germany) and NCTS will help recruiters route your CV correctly.

recommended

List your language levels honestly using CEFR (A1–C2)

List your language levels honestly using CEFR (A1–C2). For HQ and European Logistics roles, German at B2 or higher is effectively required; English at B2 is a near-universal baseline for corporate roles; additional European languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Czech) are highly valued given the network's geography. For Air & Sea Logistics, Mandarin, Japanese, or Spanish add real value on the right desks.

recommended

For driver and operative roles, put the regulatory qualifications first: Führers

For driver and operative roles, put the regulatory qualifications first: Führerschein Klasse CE, Fahrerkarte, Module 95 / BKrFG, ADR for hazardous goods, Staplerschein (forklift license), and any temperature-controlled or food-safety certifications (HACCP, IFS Logistics). Recruiters filter on these before they read anything else.

recommended

For Ausbildung and dual-study applicants, lead with your Schulabschluss (Abitur,

For Ausbildung and dual-study applicants, lead with your Schulabschluss (Abitur, Fachhochschulreife, Mittlere Reife), grades in Mathematik, Deutsch, and Englisch, and any Praktika (internships) or Nebenjobs that show work readiness. Strong performance in math and German matters more than a polished design.

recommended

For IT and digital roles at the Kempten headquarters or the Dachser Enterprise S

For IT and digital roles at the Kempten headquarters or the Dachser Enterprise Solutions unit, highlight Java, Kotlin, cloud platforms, data engineering stacks, SAP Basis or SAP development, and experience with logistics domain modeling. The ITD organization runs a significant in-house engineering estate rather than outsourcing everything, so real engineering depth is rewarded.

recommended

Keep formatting ATS-safe

Keep formatting ATS-safe. SuccessFactors parses single-column PDF text reliably. Two-column Canva-style templates, text inside images, and unusual fonts can lose content during parsing. Use standard section headers and avoid header/footer-only information.

recommended

Include references to sustainability and efficiency where they are real

Include references to sustainability and efficiency where they are real. Dachser has publicly committed to decarbonization through its DACHSER emission-free delivery zones, HVO and biogas trucks, and solar installations on terminal roofs. If you have worked on Scope 3 reporting, electric or alternative-drive fleet rollouts, or warehouse energy optimization, put it on the CV — it maps directly to active investment areas.

ATS System: SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting

Dachser uses SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting as its applicant tracking system, served from career5.successfactors.eu under the tenant identifier 'dachserse' and exposed publicly through careers.dachser.com. The career site is split into a global portal plus regional sub-sites for Europe, the Americas, APAC, and Africa, and job postings are tagged by category (Logistics Operatives, Truckers, ITD, Sales & Marketing, Finance & Legal, HR, Administrative & Logistics Staff, Facility Management) so that internal routing inside HR works cleanly. SuccessFactors is a mature, widely used ATS across the DAX and European Mittelstand, which means its parsing, search, and filtering behavior is well understood — and well exploited — by experienced logistics recruiters.

  • Register a candidate profile once and keep it updated; recruiters can and do search candidate pools for future roles, and Dachser fills many positions from a warm pipeline rather than a single requisition.
  • Upload a clean, text-based PDF CV. SuccessFactors parses contact details, education, and employment history into structured fields. If parsing fails, correct the extracted fields by hand before submitting rather than accepting whatever it guessed.
  • Use exact job-title keywords from the posting in your CV and profile. SuccessFactors search ranks on term frequency and proximity, so a CV that uses 'Disponent Landverkehr' or 'Speditionskaufmann/-frau' when the ad does will surface first.
  • Fill in every mandatory and non-mandatory field you reasonably can, especially languages, work authorization, notice period (Kündigungsfrist), and preferred locations. Incomplete profiles are deprioritized by recruiters sorting through high-volume requisitions.
  • Apply through the official careers.dachser.com portal rather than third-party aggregators. Aggregator-sourced applications sometimes arrive without attachments or with broken field mappings, and they are more likely to be filtered out at the first pass.
  • Check the candidate portal and your email — including spam folders — regularly. SuccessFactors-generated notifications from successfactors.eu and sapsf.com domains are frequently misrouted by consumer email providers.
  • If you apply to multiple Dachser roles, keep your answers consistent. Recruiters can see all of your applications against the same candidate record, and inconsistencies between cover letters or role preferences are an obvious red flag.
  • For internal candidates, the same platform powers the internal job market. A strong internal profile, with completed development goals and current manager information, makes internal transfers between country organizations noticeably faster.

Interview Culture

Dachser interviews are German-formal in tone, substantive in content, and evidence-driven.

Expect to be addressed with Sie and your surname in German-language interviews unless the interviewer explicitly switches to du, which is more common in apprenticeship and IT contexts than on the commercial or executive side. Punctuality is treated as a prerequisite rather than a virtue — arriving five minutes early is neutral, on time is acceptable, late without immediate notice is nearly disqualifying. The first round is almost always a 20 to 30 minute phone or video screen with HR, focused on your motivation, your understanding of what Dachser actually does, your Kündigungsfrist (notice period), your salary expectation as a gross annual figure in euros, and your language levels. German HR tends to ask about salary early and expects a concrete number or narrow range rather than an evasive answer. Do your homework on market bands for your role in the relevant region before the call. Second-round interviews are typically on-site at the responsible branch or at the Kempten headquarters, and they are structured rather than conversational. You will meet the hiring manager and often a second stakeholder, for instance a future peer, an HR business partner, or a cross-functional lead. Questions are competency-based and drill into specific situations: how you handled a missed delivery window, a labor shortage on a Friday night shift, a customs escalation, a failed IT deployment, or a difficult customer conversation. 'What would you do in general' answers underperform concrete stories with names, numbers, and outcomes. For operations and warehouse roles, expect a tour of the cross-dock terminal, the pick face, or the chilled facility, often in safety boots and a high-visibility vest that will be provided. Interviewers watch how you observe — candidates who ask about dock door utilization, pallet flow, or temperature zones demonstrate genuine interest in a way that a rehearsed answer cannot. For IT and engineering roles, there is usually a technical exercise: a take-home coding task, a system design discussion, or a pair-programming session depending on the team. The stack is pragmatic Java and Kotlin on the backend, SAP where SAP is the right tool, and modern cloud and data platforms where those are. Candidates who can reason about long-running operational systems, legacy integration, and idempotency do well. Candidates who can only talk about greenfield microservices often do not. For Ausbildung and Duales Studium candidates, the process includes an Einstellungstest covering math, logic, German, English, and general knowledge, plus a structured interview and, for the competitive dual-study intakes, an assessment center with group exercises. The evaluators look as much for reliability, teamwork, and authentic interest in logistics as for raw aptitude. Final-round conversations almost always include a discussion of the Betriebsrat (works council) framework, collective agreement (Tarifvertrag) where relevant, working-time accounts (Arbeitszeitkonto), and holiday entitlement (typically 30 days for corporate roles). These are not negotiation tactics; they are the legal and cultural fabric of a German employer, and engaging with them naturally signals that you understand where you are joining.

What Dachser SE Looks For

  • Genuine interest in logistics. Dachser leadership has repeatedly said in public interviews and company communications that they prefer candidates who want to work in logistics specifically, not candidates who are treating the role as a generic corporate job. Knowing the difference between groupage and full truckload, understanding why Incoterms matter, and being curious about supply chains is a real differentiator.
  • Long-term thinking. As a family-owned business with a multi-generational ownership structure, Dachser values candidates who make decisions with a 5-to-10-year time horizon rather than optimizing for the next quarter. Job-hoppers with six roles in five years face a higher bar unless the story is clearly coherent.
  • Language capability that matches the role. German at B2 or higher for HQ and European Logistics roles is effectively non-negotiable. For Air & Sea Logistics, English at C1 is the working language; additional languages (Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish) are real assets on the relevant desks.
  • Domain tooling and standards knowledge. Comfort with TMS and WMS systems, EDIFACT and GS1 standards, customs frameworks like ATLAS (DE) and NCTS (EU), ADR for hazardous goods, IFS Logistics and HACCP for food, and sustainability reporting frameworks like the GLEC Framework all signal seriousness.
  • Reliability and Zuverlässigkeit. German hiring culture weighs dependability heavily. Clean Arbeitszeugnisse (reference letters) with the right coded language, stable employment histories, and verifiable references carry more weight than a flashy personal brand.
  • Cross-cultural fluency for international roles. The network spans 31 countries, and Dachser has consciously built a culture of moving people between country organizations. Candidates who can show they work effectively across German, Anglo, and Asian business cultures are favored for roles with regional scope.
  • Engineering depth for ITD roles. The in-house IT organization runs operational systems that the business genuinely depends on, so 'I have built toy projects in X' does not land. Experience with real production systems, operational incidents, long-running integrations, and data consistency problems matters.
  • Sustainability mindset. Decarbonization is a declared corporate priority — alternative-drive fleets, emission-free city delivery zones, Scope 3 reporting, solar on terminal roofs. Candidates who have done real work in this area, rather than talking about it in the abstract, stand out.
  • Cultural fit with a Mittelstand family business. That means modest, collegial, direct, detail-oriented, and skeptical of hype. Candidates who over-sell, over-promise, or treat interviews like sales pitches tend to underperform against quieter candidates who bring concrete evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dachser still family-owned?
Yes. Dachser SE remains wholly owned by the Dachser and Schaile families, descendants of founder Thomas Dachser who started the business in Kempten in 1930. The company is organized as a Societas Europaea (SE) with a family-dominated supervisory board, and the family has publicly stated its intention to keep the business in family ownership rather than pursue a public listing or private-equity sale.
Do I need to speak German to work at Dachser?
It depends on the role. For headquarters positions in Kempten, Road Logistics Europe branch roles in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and almost all Dachser Food Logistics roles, German at B2 or higher is effectively required. For Air & Sea Logistics roles in international hubs, roles in the Americas or APAC, and many UK and Benelux contract logistics roles, English is the working language. The job ad's language is the single best indicator of the language the interview will be conducted in.
What ATS does Dachser use, and where do I apply?
Dachser uses SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, with the tenant identifier 'dachserse' served from career5.successfactors.eu. The public-facing careers site is careers.dachser.com (the older dachser-career.com URL redirects there). All open roles — apprenticeships, dual-study, Werkstudent, corporate, operational, and driver positions — are posted on that single portal, filtered by region and job category.
How competitive is a Dachser Ausbildung or Duales Studium program?
Dachser is one of the larger apprenticeship employers in German logistics, hiring hundreds of Auszubildende each year primarily as Kaufleute für Spedition und Logistikdienstleistung, Fachkraft für Lagerlogistik, Fachlagerist, IT, and Berufskraftfahrer. Dual-study places, especially in logistics management and computer science with partner universities like DHBW, are meaningfully more competitive and typically require strong Abitur grades, demonstrable interest in logistics, and a clean performance in the Einstellungstest and assessment center.
What is the salary range at Dachser?
Salaries vary significantly by country, role, and whether a Tarifvertrag applies. As a directional guide for Germany, Auszubildende typically earn Tarif-level apprenticeship pay that rises each year of the program, entry-level Speditionskaufleute earn in the low-to-mid €30,000s gross annually, experienced dispatchers and team leads in the €45,000–€65,000 range, and specialist headquarters roles in IT, finance, and strategy can reach well into six figures for senior positions. Dachser pay is competitive for German logistics but not at the level of Frankfurt banking or top-tier software firms; the implicit trade is stability, training, and long tenure.
How long does the Dachser hiring process take?
Plan for three to eight weeks from application to offer for standard corporate and operational roles, longer for senior or dual-study roles. A typical sequence is: application via SuccessFactors, automated acknowledgement within a day or two, initial HR screen within two to three weeks, on-site interview one to three weeks after that, and an offer within one to two weeks of the final interview. Apprenticeship cycles follow the German school calendar, with applications typically opening nearly a year before the 1 August or 1 September start date.
Does Dachser sponsor work visas for non-EU candidates?
For roles at German and EU locations, Dachser can and does sponsor visas under the EU Blue Card and the Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz (skilled immigration act) for qualifying specialist and managerial roles, particularly in IT, engineering, air and sea forwarding, and senior operational management. Apprenticeship and entry-level operational roles are generally filled from the local labor market. If you need sponsorship, state this clearly in your application; German HR prefers direct disclosure to late-stage surprises.
What is the work-life balance like at Dachser?
Corporate roles generally follow the standard German 38.5–40 hour week with Arbeitszeitkonto (working time account) flexibility, 30 days of holiday, and strong Betriebsrat involvement in working-time policy. Operational roles in terminals, warehouses, and transport are shift-based and can include nights, weekends, and peak-season pressure, compensated with shift premiums and overtime in line with the applicable Tarifvertrag. Air & Sea Logistics roles can involve after-hours coordination with Asian and American counterparts. Overall, Dachser is considered a stable, humane employer by German logistics standards, but logistics itself is an operational industry and the pace reflects that.
Is logistics a stable industry to build a career in right now?
Logistics is cyclical. Freight rates, fuel prices, global trade flows, and geopolitical disruptions all move industry earnings year to year, and 2022–2024 demonstrated both the highs (post-pandemic ocean freight) and the reversion (2023–2024 rate normalization). Family-owned operators like Dachser tend to weather the cycle better than leveraged or publicly traded peers because they can invest through downturns and retain staff. For candidates, the practical implication is that a career at Dachser is stable in the medium term but will not be insulated from the industry's natural rhythm — and the company's own sustainability, digitalization, and network expansion investments are explicitly aimed at structural rather than cyclical outperformance.

Open Positions

Dachser SE currently has 801 open positions.

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Sources

  1. Dachser SE — Company Information —
  2. Dachser Careers Portal (SuccessFactors tenant: dachserse) —
  3. Dachser Career Management (dachser.com career entry) —
  4. Dachser Executive Board and CEO Burkhard Eling —
  5. Dachser Annual Report and Facts & Figures —
  6. Dachser LinkedIn Company Page —
  7. DACHSER Go! parcel and small-shipment product launch —
  8. SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting product documentation —
  9. Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz (German Skilled Immigration Act) —
  10. GLEC Framework for logistics emissions accounting —