Vice President, Freight Forwarding Operations

Position: Vice President, Freight Forwarding Operations

Job Description:

Forward Air is seeking a dynamic and highly motivated leader to join our team as the Vice President, Freight Forwarding Operations. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for overseeing and driving the success of our domestic freight forwarding operations, managing a team of 250 employees across the US. Your leadership will play a crucial role in ensuring operational excellence, compliance, employee development, and collaborative problem-solving.

Core Responsibilities & Duties:

• Lead and inspire a team of employees across multiple locations and a work from home environment
• Actively coach, motivate, hire, train, and manage performance of the teams towards high accountability, performance and engaged workforce
• Develop and implement key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and improve operational efficiency
• Regularly monitor and analyze performance metrics, implementing corrective actions as needed
• Ensure all operations comply with state, federal, and international regulations, and governing bodies
• Collaborate with the quality team to establish and maintain efficient and documented processes
• Analyze data to identify trends and draw conclusions to develop collaborative solutions to freight forwarding challenges
• Proactively address operational issues and implement continuous improvement initiatives
• Work closely with the sales team to understand customer needs and ensure the delivery of top-notch services
• Foster a collaborative relationship between operations and sales for seamless customer experience
• Clearly communicate the organizational strategy and direction to your teams
• Collaborate with executive leadership to align operational strategies with overall business objectives
• Establish budgets and manage Profit and Loss (P&L) to meet or exceed budgeted targets
• Make strategic decisions to optimize resources and achieve financial objectives
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

• Proven leadership experience of 5 years in managing large-scale domestic freight forwarding operations
• 2 years of leadership experience in being a leader of leaders
• In-depth knowledge of freight forwarding processes, regulations, and industry best practices
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a data-driven approach
• Demonstrated success in budget management and achieving financial targets
• Experience managing P&Ls and business financials
• Experience working directly with customers in domestic and international freight forwarding
• Previous experience working with LTL, truckload, expedite, cartage, and middle mile vendors and transportation services
• Experience in refining and building strategy for the organization, interfacing with various functions and teams across all areas of the company
• Transferable Freight Forwarding network is a plus
• Previous experience working with carriers & vendors
• Previous experience scaling / growing an organization, with proven track record of developing process and change management

Forward Air is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Since 1990, Forward Air has been a leading provider of ground transportation and related logistics services to the North American air freight and expedited LTL market. We offer surface shipping on an accelerated “time-definite” basis, delivering cargo at a specific time, but under less time-sensitive situations – supplying you with a cost effective, reliable alternative to air transportation. We work with companies of all sizes to develop tangible advantages and build the best products to meet your specific needs. Forward Air presents to the wholesale transportation community (logistics companies, freight forwarders, integrated air cargo carriers, passenger/ cargo airlines, and non-traditional shippers), a single-source provider that can deliver more supply chain services and a superior menu of choices. Throughout the years we have added supplementary lines to our linehaul service, such as full truckload operations (Truckload Services), final-mile coverage (Complete® Cartage), and an Airline Logistics program, and we will continue to expand our services to meet the changing needs and growth of our customer base.

Forward Air is structured to optimize both savings and service to our customers. Direct partnerships with owner-operators and other surface transportation providers, enable us to remain cost-competitive. The Forward Air network is designed with over 90 facilities located at or near major U.S. and Canadian airports, 12 regional sort centers and over 300 beyond points (secondary airports provided through our Complete Cartage service), creating one of the most comprehensive linehaul networks in the industry.

Ranked 3rd in Newsweeks 2022 " Americas Most Trustworthy Companies " publication