Head of Air Freight, South China

About Flexport:

At Flexport, we believe global trade can move the human race forward. That’s why it’s our mission to make global commerce so easy there will be more of it. We’re shaping the future of a $10T industry with solutions powered by innovative technology and exceptional people. Today, companies of all sizes—from emerging brands to Fortune 500s—use Flexport technology to move more than $19B of merchandise across 112 countries a year.

The recent global supply chain crisis has put Flexport center stage as we continue to play a pivotal role in how goods move around the world. We are proud to have the support of the best investors in the game who believe in our mission, solutions and people. Ready to tackle global challenges that impact business, society, and the environment? Come join us.

Head of  Air Freight (South China)

SUMMARY:

As Head of Air Freight you are part of the senior leadership team at Flexport overseeing the Air and business for a region of Flexport. You are a strategic thinker and a very strong change leader able to set and implement the strategic roadmap for the region. You excel at relationship building and can create strong partnerships internally and externally (carriers, customers) to support our strategy. You are a high energy, hands-on team leader able to lead and grow a team across multiple locations. You have a proven track record of driving profitable growth and deep experience managing P&Ls. You are a deep expert in freight forwarding market and processes, able to guide your team on how to execute as well as interact with our software engineering team on building a best-in-class forwarding product.

Set and implement the strategy for air freight in your region

• Set the financial targets (volume, revenue, net revenue, gross profit, etc…) working hand in hand with Sales, Finance and Regional/Global leadership
• Develop the strategy and tactics to execute against your Annual Operating Plan (AOP).
• End-to-end ownership of regional P&L including gross revenue, COGS, net revenue and operating expenses. By leveraging your core value drivers of procurement, pricing, planning and business development you will fuel growth within your region.
• Ownership of all operational metrics for your region including on-time performance, schedule quality, productivity
• Drive day-to-day the implementation of your region’s strategy, ensuring you have the right metrics in place to track performance, that objectives are well cascaded within your teams and steering execution against agreed initiatives
• Ensure we have regular reporting of your region’s progress against plan and promote visibility to the executive leadership of the company

Develop and execute your region’s procurement strategy for all trades

• Identify procurement opportunities and lead strategic negotiations to secure the most value for your region. 
• Administer a clear vendor strategy for the region identifying which airlines, handlers, and truckers we should leverage; establish service level agreements; and administer rigorous performance management.
• Formalize a long-term vision on where we want to procure ourselves vs. use a third-party and maintain an implementation roadmap.
• Establish and maintain executive-level relationships with key contacts at airlines domiciled in your region.
• Constantly monitor our end-to-end procurement cost vs. market and continuously drive improvements in our overall competitiveness

Drive product development by building service capabilities for Flexport air in your region

• Align region’s product capabilities with the market by partnering closely with regional operations on end-to-end service level agreement standardization. 
• Develop new products when gaps persist. You are identifying market needs and build end-to-end solutions to bring Flexport to market parity or exceed market expectations. 
• Operations leadership on product quality, driving best-in-class quality as measured by on-time performance, schedule quality, and other metrics as defined 
• Partner with our product and engineering teams to identify product and feature gaps. You act as a business partner to them and provide subject matter expertise in order to establish product requirements and product roadmap.

  

Lead and develop a high-performing regional air freight team

• Define the target organization required to meet the region’s strategic goals working hand in hand with Sales and Finance.
• Recruit and develop a high-performing management team. 
• Ensure team objectives and individual objectives are in place for each team member in your region and actively manage the team engagement, performance and growth
• Lead the team through the frequent transformations and re-organizations required in a high growth company, ensuring they constantly embrace change while maintaining a high performance
• Be a role model for Flexport values

Partner with Sales Organization to drive go-to-market strategies and lead regional pricing strategy

• Drive strong collaboration with sales teams in your region and the regional air team to design and implement the best end to end products for our customers.
• Ensure your team provides deep market expertise, operations expertise, technological expertise and consultative sales support to the sales organization to grow our book of business in your region.
• Ensure market intelligence, as well as sales collateral on your region’s products, are properly formalized and disseminated across the region. Enable the regional sales team on selling all air products.

 

EXPERIENCE & SKILLS:

• 10-15+ years of experience at a freight forwarder, airline or in logistics operations
• Hands on leader with experience managing and motivating a large diverse team and implementing large scale organizational transformations
• Strategic thinker and very strong day to day implementer
• Deep freight forwarding market and freight forwarding operations expertise. Previous experience in leadership role in freight forwarding operations a plus
• Inclination to think-outside-the-box to always find a better solution or alternative, while remaining grounded in numbers and metrics
• Excel to manage vendor relations and create best-in-class, innovative structures to do so
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and organizational skills
• A client service mindset; you are obsessed with client and squad happiness
• Next-level attention to detail, love to dive deep in all operational processes

Commitment to Equal Opportunity

At Flexport, our ability to fulfill our mission of making global commerce easy and accessible relies on having a diverse, dedicated and engaged workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, health status, marital and family status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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