Director, Global Customs, Design & Implementation

DSV•Kent, WA

1d•$176,200 - $264,000•Onsite

About The Position

We are looking for a senior, highly experienced leader to build and lead the Global Customs Design & Implementation function. This role owns the global methodology, governance framework, and execution quality for all customer implementations across Global Customs. The Director acts as the strategic owner of end-to-end solution design and implementation delivery, ensuring that customer requirements from RFI/RFQ through go-live are translated into clear, executable, and scalable solutions. The Director also directly leads implementations for high-visibility, high-complexity global customers, serving as the senior point of accountability. In addition to handling strategic implementations, the Director will lead a team of E2E Implementation Managers, provide senior stakeholder alignment, and drive continuous improvement of the global implementation approach. The ideal candidate combines strong leadership, deep operational/technical understanding, and the ability to influence at senior levels across the organization.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in customs, logistics, supply chain, or similar operational environments.
Proven leadership experience managing high-performing teams in multinational settings.
Demonstrated success delivering large-scale, complex customer implementations.
Strong understanding of data, reporting, system integrations, and control tower concepts.
Experience driving governance, project controls, and scalable methodologies.
Strong senior stakeholder management and customer-facing capabilities.
Ability to navigate ambiguity and bring structure to evolving or undefined environments.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with commercial processes (RFI/RFQ solutioning) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor, and develop a team of E2E Implementation Managers.
Build and own the global Design & Implementation methodology, standards, and best practices.
Define governance structure for implementation delivery, project controls, documentation, and stakeholder management.
Establish quality assurance mechanisms across all projects to ensure global consistency.
Drive alignment between Global Customs, regions, IT, product, BI, legal, and commercial teams.
Manage workload distribution, prioritization, and capacity planning for the team.
Represent the function in senior management forums and provide strategic guidance.
Lead solution design for high-complexity, global customers and strategic pursuits.
Review and approve solution blueprints created by team members.
Ensure solution consistency, technical feasibility, cost alignment, and operational viability.
Support commercial teams with solution strategy, scope definition, and customer presentations.
Validate that all proposed solutions reflect global standards and realistic delivery capability.
Identify structural service gaps and feed them into the global gap management process.
Personally lead high-visibility and large-scale customer implementations.
Act as senior single point of contact for strategic customers.
Manage executive-level customer communication, steering committees, and escalations.
Oversee cross-regional mobilization, ensuring smooth execution across multiple countries and functions.
Drive resolution of complex technical, operational, or compliance challenges.
Ensure delivery is aligned with customer commitments and contract scope.
Provide leadership support during go-live for high-complexity implementations.
Ensure that all customer-facing activities during early life are coordinated and professionally managed.
Drive rapid issue resolution, escalating cross-functional support where needed.
Validate that all contracted performance, reporting, and service requirements are functional and stable.
Ensure a clean, documented, and verified transition into steady-state operations.
Act as the senior link between Global Customs Commercial, Global IT, Regional Ops, and Product teams.
Identify patterns, root causes, and systemic issues across implementations.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen global delivery capability.
Maintain and enhance standard templates (project plans, SOPs, reporting structures, UAT scripts, etc.).
Provide feedback into solution design guidelines and tender processes.
Support capability development and training for internal teams.