Director of Transportation

Thorne•Summerville, SC

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Transportation serves as the strategic owner and lead analyst for the company’s transportation network across LTL, FTL, and Parcel. This role is accountable for transportation analytics, forecasting, carrier strategy and governance, executive reporting, service performance, cost management, compliance, and network optimization to ensure products move safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively across the network. The Director of Transportation leads transportation analysis and strategic execution across inbound, outbound, and intercompany freight, with direct ownership of spend, service, market trend monitoring, capacity planning, and forecasting. The role serves as the transportation analytics and market intelligence lead for the organization, translating carrier performance and external market conditions into actionable recommendations that improve service, cost, and network decisions. The role partners with warehouse, customer service, procurement, finance, and supply chain leaders while maintaining a regular communication cadence with carriers to review performance, capacity, issues, and improvement opportunities and support data-driven planning decisions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required in Supply Chain, Logistics, Business, Transportation, or related field.
10+ years of progressive transportation, logistics, fleet, or distribution experience required, including substantial leadership experience with transportation operations, carrier networks, freight strategy, transportation analytics, forecasting, executive reporting, RFP leadership, and multi-site or network-level accountability.
Strong experience with Microsoft Excel and Word and transportation-related systems including TMS, WMS, ERP, routing, EDI, and reporting tools.
Demonstrates strong knowledge of transportation operations, carrier management, routing, freight processes, and service execution.
Maintains working knowledge of DOT, FMCSA, and other applicable transportation safety and compliance requirements.
Demonstrates sound judgment, strong leadership, and effective decision-making.
Builds strong cross-functional partnerships with operations, customer service, procurement, finance, and other departments.
Communicates clearly and presents transportation performance insights effectively to leadership.
Applies strong analytical, reporting, and continuous improvement skills to business decisions.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.
Candidates who are not local must be based on the East Coast with an expectation of 25–50% onsite travel each month.

Responsibilities

Owns transportation strategy, analysis, and performance across LTL, FTL, and Parcel for inbound, outbound, and intercompany freight both domestic and international.
Establishes operating priorities, service expectations, spend targets, and forecasting assumptions aligned with business objectives.
Directs transportation execution through leaders and ensures disciplined escalation, issue resolution, and service recovery.
Aligns transportation strategy with warehouse capacity, customer requirements, and network priorities.
Leads transportation managers and functional leaders across planning, execution, analytics, carrier management, and compliance.
Builds organizational capability through clear accountability, talent development, succession planning, and leadership coaching.
Sets a high-performance culture focused on safety, compliance, execution, and continuous improvement.
Partners with senior leaders to align resources, priorities, and organizational structure with business needs.
Owns carrier strategy, service governance, transportation analytics, and transportation system effectiveness, including TMS adoption, shipment visibility, reporting, and process discipline.
Leads carrier selection, performance management, scorecards, and escalation processes for third-party transportation providers and maintains a weekly communication cadence with carriers to review performance, capacity, issues, and opportunities.
Ensures compliance with applicable governing bodies, safety, environmental, and company transportation requirements.
Partners with safety, HR, legal, and operations leaders on audits, incident review, corrective actions, and regulatory readiness.
Leads transportation capacity planning and forecasting across carriers, lanes, equipment, and seasonal demand patterns using internal data and market intelligence.
Drives LTL, FTL, and Parcel mode, route, consolidation, and tender optimization to improve service, carrier performance, and total transportation cost.
Leads transportation RFPs, bid events, and carrier-related network optimization projects from analysis and recommendation through implementation and performance validation.
Maintains contingency plans for disruptions, capacity shortages, and service exceptions.
Owns transportation KPIs including on-time pickup, on-time delivery, OTIF, freight cost, cost per mile or shipment, tender acceptance, claims, and carrier performance.
Leads performance reviews with internal stakeholders and external partners, including weekly carrier reviews, and ensures corrective actions are executed.
Prepares and delivers weekly executive-level transportation reports that summarize KPIs, service performance, spend, market insights, risks, and recommended actions for leadership review.
Uses internal and external data to monitor market conditions, identify trends and root causes, and support transportation forecasting, planning, and continuous improvement opportunities.
Develops transportation strategy aligned with business growth, customer requirements, and supply chain objectives.
Owns freight budget performance and partners on rate strategy, contract terms, and cost-improvement initiatives.
Evaluates transportation network changes, new lanes, customer programs, facility expansions, and enabling technologies.
Ensures the transportation organization is scalable, resilient, and positioned to support future business demand.