Director, Fleet Strategy and Planning

Crowley Maritime Corporation•Jacksonville, FL

13h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Fleet Strategy and Planning leads fleet and capacity planning for scheduled liner services. The role ensures vessel deployment, service strings, sailing frequency, port rotations, and long-term fleet requirements align with trade-lane demand, schedule commitments, commercial priorities, and financial objectives. It provides strategic and analytical leadership for liner network capacity, fleet utilization, service design support, and future fleet development. The Director partners with Liner Operations, Network and Capacity Management, Commercial, Finance, and Executive Leadership to evaluate service requirements, optimize vessel assignment, and support decisions about owned and chartered capacity. Through data-driven analysis and cross-functional collaboration, the role helps deliver reliable liner schedules, balanced trade-lane capacity, productive assets, and sustainable growth. The position also supports fleet investment planning, performance analysis, continuous improvement, and the development of liner fleet planning teams.

Requirements

Typically, 7 or more years of progressive experience in liner shipping, network or capacity planning, fleet planning, vessel deployment, maritime operations, chartering, or related transportation and logistics disciplines.
Experience supporting scheduled liner services, including trade-lane capacity planning, service string design, sailing schedules, port rotations, or vessel assignment.
Demonstrated success using commercial forecasts, operational data, and financial analysis to support fleet and network decisions.
Working knowledge of vessel economics, owned and chartered capacity, schedule reliability, utilization, load factors, and liner service performance.
Experience working across liner operations, commercial, chartering, finance, and planning functions.
Bachelor’s degree in Maritime Studies, Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Operations Management, or a related field required; equivalent relevant experience may be considered in lieu of formal education where applicable.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office products, including Excel, Outlook, and Word.
Ability to travel as needed.
Ability to develop liner fleet strategies that align vessel capacity, service strings, sailing frequency, port rotations, and deployment with trade-lane demand and business objectives.
Ability to evaluate short- and long-term capacity requirements and translate commercial forecasts and service commitments into practical fleet plans.
Strong understanding of liner shipping economics, schedule reliability, vessel utilization, load factors, network balance, and owned-versus-chartered capacity considerations.
Ability to analyze complex operational, commercial, and financial data to support vessel assignment, service design, capacity actions, and investment decisions.
Ability to collaborate across liner operations, network and capacity management, chartering, commercial, finance, and executive leadership teams.
Ability to anticipate capacity and schedule risks, evaluate scenarios, and influence timely decisions through analytical insight and sound business judgment.
Ability to lead continuous improvement and develop high-performing teams with strong liner planning, commercial, and analytical capabilities.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Business Administration, Maritime Management, Supply Chain, Logistics, or a related discipline.
Leadership experience managing teams, projects, or complex cross-functional initiatives.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain short- and long-term fleet plans aligned with liner network strategy, trade-lane demand, service commitments, and commercial growth priorities.
Translate service requirements, sailing frequencies, transit-time expectations, and port rotations into vessel and capacity requirements.
Evaluate owned, chartered, and alternative capacity strategies for reliable and competitive liner services.
Balance schedule integrity, asset utilization, operational flexibility, customer requirements, and financial performance in fleet planning recommendations.
Assess future fleet requirements and recommend fleet expansion, replacement, redeployment, or chartering actions.
Analyze current and projected capacity needs by trade lane, service string, and sailing schedule using commercial forecasts and operational inputs.
Align vessel capacity with demand patterns, booking forecasts, and customer commitments in partnership with Network and Capacity Management, Commercial, and Liner Operations.
Monitor utilization, load factors, slot supply, imbalances, and capacity constraints across liner services.
Recommend vessel allocations, service adjustments, and capacity actions to improve network balance and support targeted service levels.
Identify trade-lane capacity risks and opportunities and develop mitigation or optimization plans.
Lead or support vessel deployment planning for scheduled liner services, including assigning vessels to service strings and trade lanes.
Evaluate vessel size, speed, operating profile, port compatibility, and capacity mix when developing deployment recommendations.
Work with Liner Operations to ensure deployment plans support sailing frequency, schedule reliability, transit times, and port rotation requirements.
Monitor deployment effectiveness and recommend adjustments in response to demand shifts, service disruptions, maintenance needs, or market changes.
Provide analytical support for vessel substitutions, service recovery, blank sailings, extra loaders, and other capacity interventions.
Provide fleet and capacity insights for new service development, service string changes, port additions, and trade-lane growth initiatives.
Align liner capacity with customer demand, product strategy, pricing priorities, and market opportunities in partnership with Commercial teams.
Evaluate fleet implications of proposed schedule, frequency, transit-time, and port rotation changes.
Support scenario planning for peak periods, demand volatility, network disruptions, and changing market conditions.
Facilitate alignment among liner planning, operations, chartering, commercial, and finance stakeholders.
Support long-term fleet investment planning through analysis of service requirements, utilization trends, vessel economics, and future capacity needs.
Develop recommendations regarding owned-versus-chartered capacity, fleet growth, replacement strategy, and investment priorities.
Partner with Finance and Executive Leadership to evaluate operational and financial implications of fleet and service decisions.
Prepare business cases and scenario analyses for vessel acquisition, chartering, redeployment, or service restructuring opportunities.
Develop reporting and analytical tools to provide visibility into capacity utilization, load factors, schedule performance, vessel productivity, and service economics.
Monitor key performance indicators by vessel, service string, and trade lane to identify performance gaps and improvement opportunities.
Conduct scenario and sensitivity analyses to support network planning, capacity decisions, and operational recovery.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen liner fleet planning, cross-functional decision-making, and planning cadence.
Promote consistent, data-driven decisions across liner planning and related functions.
Build, lead, and develop high-performing liner fleet planning and analytical teams, where applicable.
Establish performance expectations and accountability measures aligned with service, network, and business objectives.
Provide coaching, mentoring, and development opportunities to strengthen liner planning, commercial acumen, and analytical capability.
Foster collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and strategic thinking.
Support succession planning and workforce development to sustain long-term organizational capability.