Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, Germany
David Schmidtheisler was appointed Head of Logistics Retrofit at Alstom effective April 1, 2026, marking his transition to the rail industry after nearly 14 years within the Volkswagen Group. Previously, he served as Head of Rail Network Europe at Volkswagen Group Logistics, leading strategic network operations across Europe. Prior to this, as Head of Logistics Optimization, he drove performance transformation initiatives, enhancing efficiency, resilience, and cost effectiveness across the organization. He gained international leadership experience during a three-year assignment at Volkswagen de México, where he served as Executive Assistant to the Head of Production Control and Logistics and steered cross-regional logistics alignment across North America. He began his career at Volkswagen Group Logistics as a product owner and logistics planner, building a strong foundation in end-to-end logistics management.
Functional and disciplinary leadership of employees and teams within logistics, overseeing all Retrofit-related activities. Identification and implementation of improvements in operational logistics processes, including warehousing, transport organization, and material supply across all Retrofit activities. Oversight and management of all logistics activities, including at external Retrofit sites. Leadership and execution of projects aimed at optimizing logistics processes within the Retrofit area.
Disciplinary leadership of logistics planners, transport managers, and dispatchers. Planning and control of the cross-brand European rail network. Planning and control of the wagon pool. Advancing the digitalization and automation of rail transport.
Disciplinary leader of an internationally oriented team of logistics experts. In-house consulting on cost and CO2 reduction throughout the entire logistics process in the Volkswagen Group's factories worldwide. Governance function of cross-departmental and synergy-oriented collaboration between different areas.
Project leader of 15 cross-departmental sub-projects with 50 employees of various levels from specialist to upper management. Technical support to the Head of Production control and Logistics in strategy development and ensuring the operational implementation of projects and tasks in the areas of pre-series logistics, logistics planning, in-house logistics, inbound logistics, outbound logistics, CKD and production program planning. Analysis, evaluation and creation of decision papers for top management.
Coordination of material logistics for the Volkswagen factories in Puebla, Silao and Chattanooga as well for the Audi plant in San José Chiapa. This includes the planning and optimization of cross-plant, standardized logistics processes for the transport and container network in the entire North American Region (NAR).
Project manager for IT systems in Logistics. Agile system development. Responsible for the roll-out of the systems throughout Europe.
Process responsibility for the cross dock in Eastern Europe. Tender responsibility for transports between the cross dock and the European plants of the Volkswagen Group.
Transport and logistics management with practical assignments in Plant-, Brand- and Volkswagen Group Logistics.