Senior Manager, BPO & Shared Services

AIT Worldwide Logistics • Itasca, IL

1d

About The Position

Join us at AIT, where we believe every day presents an opportunity to make a global impact! We’re problem solvers, driven by our curiosity and creativity, in endless pursuit of solutions for our customers. Together, we champion the strength of our global teams. And, as trusted advisors, we go above and beyond, working together in a supportive and collaborative environment to ensure customer satisfaction. Through the company's continued growth, we challenge ourselves to be better, continuously learning and growing in our dynamic environment. Helping others is at the core of our culture, join us in finding fulfillment by giving back to our local communities as the united team that is AIT.  Find out what our people deliver.® means when you come move the world with us!  Hear directly from our teammates at AIT Worldwide Logistics and make us the next stop on your career journey. Overview The Senior Manager, Business Process Optimization (BPO) & Shared Services leads a global team responsible for the strategy, governance, and performance of outsourced freight back office operations. This role provides senior leadership across multiple vendors and regions, ensuring the end to end execution of export/import documentation, bookings, confirmations, milestone management, tracking, and exception resolution with consistent SLA attainment, operational reliability, and service excellence.As a strategic partner across internal teams and external providers, the role reinforces governance, aligns outsourced operations with supply chain priorities, and ensures shared‑service capabilities mature in step with organizational growth and resilience.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in supply chain management, business administration, logistics, or a related field (required)
• 10+ years years of work experience in process improvement, operations, or a related function (required)
• 5+ years in a leadership or people-management role (required) and
• 2+ years work experience in global operations (required)
• Strong background in SLA governance, performance management, and vendor relationship management High
• Strong work experience with end-to-end process improvement High
• Must have strong leadership and communication skills High
• Specialize systems knowledge such as Cargowise Medium
• Knowledge of global compliance and regulations Medium
• Microsoft Office Medium
• Power BI Medium
• Ability to translate complex processes into clear, simple language Medium

Nice To Haves

• Master's Degree with vendor governance and enterprise-level process ownership (preferred)

Responsibilities

• Vendor and Partner Governance: Manages strategic relationships with BPO partners and service providers, ensuring alignment with contractual obligations and performance expectations. Conduct regular business reviews, performance assessments, and improvement planning with vendors.
• Strengthen governance frameworks to ensure transparency, compliance, and operational discipline.
• Continuous Improvement: Prioritize processes and identify redundancies in processes that can remove waste and reduce costs.
• Lead Kaizen events; map processes (SIPOC, value stream), remove waste, standardize handoffs.
• Partner with Automation & AI Analyst/RPA (if available) to target high volume, rule based activities.
• Core Task and SLA & Throughout Management Oversees and define daily production plans, queue priorities, and staffing rosters across BPO teams.
• Manages and monitors cycle times for bookings, HAWB/MAWB creation, arrival notices, pre alerts, and milestone updates. (all agreed outsourced functions and tasks) with all BPO teams.
• Run daily stand ups; publish EOD performance dashboards.
• Process Governance Manages a close alignment with both Global Compliance Teams and Global Quality Teams to ensure they are on target.
• Implement standard input templates (e.g., carrier booking forms, shipper instructions) to reduce rework.
• Ensure data integrity in TMS/ERP (e.g., Cargowise)
• Keeps up to date with global compliance ensuring the teams are aware of compliance changes.
• Tracks whether operational teams are meeting global standards and regulatory requirements.
• Identifies gaps early and drives corrective actions.
• Ensures audits, KPIs, and quality metrics stay on target.
• Exception & Escalation Handling: Manage internal & external Customer escalations with BPO teams, support internal escalations impacting service delivery, demurrage/detention risks. Etc. Operate tiered escalation paths with carriers, brokers, and origin/destination operations.
• Leadership and Team Management: Lead, mentor, and develop a global team responsible for outsourced freight back office operations. Set performance expectations, build capability, and foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. Ensure effective resource planning and talent development to support evolving business needs.
• Performs other duties as assigned
• Complies with all policies and standards

Benefits

• In addition to your base compensation, you may be eligible for a bonus based on achievement of business and/or individual performance metrics (dependent on position).
• Benefits offered include Medical, Prescription, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, Dental, Vision, Life, AD&D, Disability, Supplemental Health, Employee Support, Paid Parental Leave, Pet Insurance, 401(k) and Tuition Reimbursement.
• In addition, teammates may be eligible for up to 10 to 20 days of vacation (depending on tenure), 2 personal days, 1 floating holiday, 5 sick days, 5 volunteer hours, and 6 company holidays (plus Veterans Day for Veterans) annually.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior