Director, Transportation & Trade Compliance

Finning•Edmonton, AB

15d

About The Position

As Director, Transportation and Trade Compliance, you will lead a critical, high impact function that supports Finning Canada’s business across Western Canada and the United States. This role offers the opportunity to shape and optimize a complex transportation network while influencing how products and equipment move efficiently, compliantly and cost effectively to serve customers and internal partners. You will operate at a strategic level, driving long term value through transportation network design, technology enhancements and performance metrics, while providing hands on leadership to teams responsible for daily operations. With strong visibility across Sales, Parts, Service and Aftermarket, this role offers broad exposure and the ability to partner closely with senior leaders to elevate customer service and operational excellence. As the functional lead and subject matter expert for trade compliance, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring regulatory adherence while accelerating import and export velocity, recovering duty costs and enabling profitable growth. This position is ideal for a leader who thrives on accountability, enjoys solving complex cross border challenges and wants to make a measurable impact at scale.

Requirements

Post secondary education in Transportation, Logistics, Business Management, or a related discipline, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management or equivalent experience
Certified and licensed Canadian and United States Customs Broker; professional certifications in transportation, international trade or export controls are an asset
Minimum 15 years of progressive leadership experience in transportation, logistics, and trade compliance within a complex, multi site organization
Proven senior leader with the ability to translate strategy into executable plans, measurable results, and sustained cost reduction
Demonstrated success leading and developing high performance teams and driving cross functional change initiatives
Extensive experience designing, optimizing, and managing transportation networks for heavy equipment, parts distribution, projects, and reverse logistics
Deep expertise in international trade and multimodal transportation, including TL, LTL, FCL, LCL, incoterms, freight forwarders, letters of credit, and cargo insurance
Strong working knowledge of customs regulations, harmonized classification, export controls, trade compliance audits, free trade agreements, and duty recovery programs
Experience working directly with Canadian and foreign government agencies and managing regulatory reporting and compliance
Advanced financial and business acumen, including budget ownership, cost modeling, KPI reporting, and business case development
Highly effective communicator and influencer, capable of collaborating across all business units and stakeholder levels
Proven change management and project leadership capabilities with a results oriented, action focused approach
Ability to balance complex operational detail with enterprise level strategy and long-term business objectives

Responsibilities

Responsible for the design and implementation of the realignment of Transportation strategy to balance Service Level requirements with a strong Cost Management focus.
Educate, collaborate and influence business stakeholders, such as Service and Parts operations on transportation network strategy.
Modernize, transform, continuous improvement, cost reductions, project management and managing daily operations.
Responsible for all International and National inbound equipment, component and parts transportation (>$100M annually / 250 Transportation Vendors).
Associated customs clearances and duty recoveries (> $10M annually).
Customer parts and equipment distribution across Finning network and customers, parts and cores return process functional areas, with heavy focuses on continuous improvement of Customer Service levels, and decreased Operating cost.
Directs Transportation operations and interacts with suppliers of transportation to ensure that all relevant requirements of delivery, cost and quality are governed appropriately
Seeks opportunities to automate manually repetitive processing tasks.
Create value add initiatives to improve service levels and decrease costs.
Set the direction for the entire department, providing guidance and mentorship to employees, and taking responsibility for overall team performance.
Coach, train, mentor and develop a team.
Actively map out forward-thinking career development plans addressing strategic business needs to position the transportation and compliance team for success.
Build highly effective and strategic relationships with business partners and suppliers to provide a reliable, responsive and cost-efficient supply chain which supports Finnings best in class initiatives.
Partner and collaborate with other business functions to support and align all the action plans regarding our strategic initiative “Transforming the Supply chain” for Finning.
Partner with Caterpillar to maintain strong business relationships through partnership on best practices.
Develop, implement and update the Company's Trade Compliance Program to ensure a standard methodologies program consistent with Canadian Export/Import laws and regulations and other trade-related requirements of Canada and non-Canadian government agencies.
Craft trade compliance training programs for employees and third-party agents, and appropriately identify and prioritize high-risk practices by geography or country.
Provide and demonstrate strategic and tactical trade compliance leadership within the organization.
Stay ahead of regulatory changes related to trade compliance and provide regulatory interpretation and implementation guidance to impacted geographies and businesses.
Analysis, budgeting, strong cost reduction focus.
Manages development of capital plans, infrastructure, fleet, transportation, delivery vehicles, warehousing and other facility related spend.
Create department budgets ($100M+ responsibility) and objectives and manage all logistics related costs while ensuring customer expectations are being met.
Accountable for the overall performance, logistics spend, and structure of inbound and outbound national and international freight, maximizing fleet and carrier utilization to deliver reliable, cost‑effective service
Create and execute the strategic vision for the Transportation and Trade Compliance department, aligned with business requirements and customer needs
Enable on‑time product availability, improved customer service, and reduced operating and capital costs through effective planning and delivery of logistics services
Drive lean, flexible logistics networks aligned with regional stocking strategies and transportation routing to support service, cost, and speed objectives
Serve as the single point of accountability for end‑to-end logistics performance against Supply Chain and corporate KPIs, including on‑time delivery, service quality, lead time, safety, and cost
Act as the primary point of contact for business leadership, branches, and customers on inbound and outbound transportation opportunities and issues
Plan, design, and execute projects and process improvements to modernize and optimize Finning’s delivery network
Provide strong people leadership through goal setting, performance management, and development planning, building organizational capability and a high‑performance culture
Build sustainable Transportation, Customs, and Trade Compliance capabilities that improve speed to market and operational effectiveness
Partner with cross‑functional teams to innovate and deliver cost‑effective, efficient, and best‑in-class transportation solutions
Champion a world‑class safety culture that meets or exceeds all safety targets and embeds safety as a core value
Drive employee engagement and target engagement outcomes through clear leadership, accountability, and continuous improvement
Measure performance against KPIs and provide regular reporting and insights to leadership and external vendors
Oversee financial performance and annual spend for Transportation and Trade Compliance, including transportation costs and duty and tax exposure
Develop, document, and enforce trade compliance policies, procedures, and governance across all business units
Establish governance and reporting structures within the analytics hub to support priority value drivers and informed decision making
Support go‑to‑market execution through effective logistics enablement, including refined quoting and delivery processes
Represent the company in a professional and ethical manner with external partners, regulators, and industry associations