Operational Excellence Manager – Freight Forwarding

Operational Excellence:

• Lead and coordinate operational excellence initiatives across the U.S. network, aligned with regional priorities and the Regional Head of Operational Excellence – Americas.
• Plan and support operating model changes, including country-to-regional in-sourcing and the transition from end-to-end (A–Z) workflows to defined front-end and back-end responsibilities.
• Monitor data quality at the branch and country levels; investigate recurring issues with operations teams and implement corrective actions.
• Review, document, standardize, and improve operational processes in coordination with commercial, finance, IT, and other support functions.
• Develop and maintain operational KPI reporting covering productivity, efficiency, data accuracy, compliance, and customer service; translate findings into improvement plans.
• Gather and assess branch requests for process and application enhancements; prioritize and escalate proposals through the regional demand-management process.
• Coordinate resources and stakeholders for approved process, system, documentation, and KPI changes, ensuring clear ownership and timely execution.
• Apply the regional operational audit framework to evaluate process compliance, documentation quality, data integrity, and service performance.
• Benchmark branch performance, identify root causes of gaps, and share proven practices across the network.
• Partner with regional leadership to define short-, medium-, and long-term operational excellence priorities and track progress against agreed objectives.
• Lead cross-functional improvement projects, support change management, and help teams adopt new standards and ways of working.

System Rollout:

• Assess business requirements, process gaps, and operational readiness before introducing new systems or functionality.
• Partner with Operational Excellence and IT leadership to define rollout standards, scope, milestones, and success measures.
• Plan and coordinate system rollouts across branches, including testing, training, implementation, and post-launch support.
• Align operations, IT, and other stakeholders on rollout timelines, responsibilities, and process impacts.
• Provide clear project status updates, risks, and action plans to regional leadership and key stakeholders.
• Monitor adoption, system performance, and operational KPIs after launch; address issues and identify further improvements.
• Support implementation of new application features and ensure consistent use of approved tools and workflows.
• Act as a point of contact for branch teams during rollout, coordinating issue resolution and ongoing process support.

• Bachelor’s degree in business, logistics, supply chain, engineering, IT, or a related field; an advanced degree is an asset.
• 5–10 years of experience in freight forwarding or logistics operations, including hands-on process improvement or operational excellence responsibilities; strong air and ocean freight knowledge preferred.
• Experience leading cross-functional improvement projects, process standardization, and change management across multiple teams or locations.
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills, with experience using operational KPIs, data quality measures, and root-cause analysis to drive results.
• Ability to balance operational efficiency, customer requirements, and commercial priorities when evaluating process improvements.
• Effective stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence branch teams and regional leadership.
• Experience supporting transportation management or freight forwarding system implementations, testing, training, or process rollouts.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects, work independently, and deliver measurable improvements; Lean Six Sigma or similar training is an asset.
• Fluent written and spoken English; additional languages are an asset. Willingness to travel as business needs require.