Head of Pricing

Airspace•Carlsbad, CA

3d•$165,000 - $180,000

About The Position

Airspace is a tech-enabled freight forwarder specializing in time-critical package delivery, leveraging AI and machine learning across a global network. Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, with European headquarters in Amsterdam, the company delivers mission-critical items such as organs for transplant and parts for critical machinery. Airspace has been recognized as a top Startup Employer, a CNBC Disruptor 50 company, and an Innovation and Disruption leader by CBS News, having raised over $140M from leading investors. The company is rapidly growing and seeks passionate individuals to reshape time-critical logistics. The Global Head of Pricing leads Airspace’s pricing function, owning models, processes, and governance frameworks for margin optimization across all service lines and geographies. This role involves building and maintaining pricing structures, reviewing customer margin performance, ensuring pricing accuracy with Yield Management and Rate Administration, and developing strategies for margin improvement through operational enhancements, cost-savings, or price increases. Reporting to the EVP of Pricing & Procurement, the role operates cross-functionally with Commercial, Operations, Finance, and Product teams. It requires maintaining analytical rigor in pricing model development while acting as a practical business partner to ensure pricing decisions lead to accurate, executable outcomes. The Global Head of Pricing will inherit and refine existing pricing and cost infrastructure, including profitability databases and invoice validation systems, with an expectation to improve margin and pricing accuracy at scale. This hands-on position offers a platform to reimagine ways of working, establish new processes, and engage cross-functional teams across Domestic US and International markets, directly impacting 100% of the customer base by building financial metrics, optimizing business performance post-award, and identifying profit enhancement opportunities.

Requirements

8-10+ years of experience in a combination of Pricing, Logistics, Strategy Consulting, and/or Finance.
3+ years of experience managing a team of analysts or pricing professionals.
Direct experience owning pricing processes in a transactional logistics or high-frequency B2B services environment.
Strong analytical foundation with demonstrated proficiency in data tools (Excel/Sheets, SQL, Python, or BI platforms).
Proven ability to build and operationalize processes end-to-end—from design through cross-functional implementation.
Experience partnering with C-suite and senior leadership as a trusted thought partner on pricing and margin strategy.
Comfort operating in existing systems and infrastructure, with a bias toward improving and extending what exists rather than rebuilding.
Strong cross-functional leadership and coordination skills—this role succeeds through influence, not authority.
Deep understanding of time-critical logistics, B2B operations, and margin economics.
Humble, service-oriented leadership style with a bias toward action and ownership.

Nice To Haves

MBA or equivalent experience preferred
STEM background a plus given close partnership with technical functions

Responsibilities

Build and maintain margin estimation models across service lines and geographies, ensuring they accurately predict profitability at the shipment, lane, and account level.
Calibrate models against actual margin performance on a regular cadence, updating inputs and structural assumptions as the business evolves.
Execute market research for new service types and geographies to develop pricing frameworks as Airspace expands into new markets.
Drive medium-term (6–12 month) margin improvement initiatives with accurate sizing of opportunity at the account level.
Partner with Operations and Finance to catalog current cost expectations across service lines, with as much granularity as possible, as structured inputs for pricing models.
Drive cross-functional initiatives and governance processes to formalize cost expectations across driver, airline, and vendor cost categories.
Identify the highest-impact opportunities for cost improvement and partner with operational leadership to create initiatives that address them.
Build and manage Go/No-Go recommendation processes in partnership with the Commercial team for new logos and expansion opportunities.
Evaluate expected implementation requirements against Airspace’s operational expertise and service capabilities to identify potential execution risks before deals are committed.
Establish safeguarded discounting methodologies and approval workflows that protect margin while supporting Commercial velocity.
Ensure that pricing improvement initiatives and annual rate increases are accurately incorporated into revenue forecasts in coordination with Revenue Operations.
Own the review of margin performance as aligned to pricing model expectations at a regular cadence.
Identify gaps between modeled and actual margin, diagnose root causes, and update model structures or inputs accordingly.
Surface operational changes that could improve margin and partner with relevant stakeholders to drive execution.
Partner with Yield Management Rate Administration and Close-Out functions to ensure all clients are billed with precision against contracted rates and pricing structures.
Establish KPIs for billing accuracy and build exception reporting to identify and resolve discrepancies.
Support the development of well-governed processes that connect pricing decisions to downstream billing execution.
Support vendor cost benchmarking, rate analysis, and contract rate management as inputs to the broader pricing function.
Partner with Procurement leadership on cost-side data and analysis that informs vendor negotiations and rate structures.
Partner closely with Analytics and technical teams to identify and implement scalable automated processes wherever possible.
Extend in-product pricing capabilities in coordination with Product teams.
Support the EVP and senior leadership in strategic negotiations with analysis, modeling, and pricing scenario development.