Transportation Manager

Netceed•East Brunswick, NJ

9d•Onsite

About The Position

This pivotal position reports directly to the SVP of Operations. The Transportation Manager is responsible for overseeing, coordinating, and managing the movement of goods or materials across various transportation methods, ensuring timely and cost-effective delivery while adhering to industry regulations and best practices. This role carries direct accountability for reducing total transportation spend, negotiating carrier agreements and rates, and managing carrier and team performance against defined service and cost targets. The successful candidate will be able to both envision and execute continual improvement of our daily operations with an emphasis on optimization of limited resources (i.e. space, time or personnel) and expansion of current processes to other sites.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in supply chain management, logistics, business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
Five or more years of transportation, logistics, or distribution management experience, including direct responsibility for carrier negotiation and freight spend.
Demonstrated record of delivering measurable freight cost reduction while holding or improving service levels.
Proven carrier negotiation experience, including running bid events and closing multi-year rate agreements.
Experience leading and developing hourly and salaried teams across one or more sites.
Ability to analyze transportation data and build cost models, with strong Excel and TMS or ERP reporting skills.
Working knowledge of DOT and FMCSA regulations and, where applicable, customs and international shipping requirements.
Ability to design, implement, and reevaluate department processes to meet cost, service, and safety goals.
Familiarity with rate benchmarking, freight audit, and accessorial and fuel surcharge structures.
Ability to provide strategic vision and planning for Transportation operations.
Ability to communicate effectively with senior management, team members, carriers, and customers.
Ability to collaborate and foster team-oriented solutions.
Ability to prioritize tasks based on company goals and initiatives, delegating as needed.
Willingness to take initiative and lead by example, with attention to detail, sound problem solving, and consistent reliability.

Nice To Haves

Experience selecting or implementing a transportation management system.
Experience managing dedicated fleet operations alongside third-party and brokered capacity.
Lean, Six Sigma, or comparable continuous improvement certification.
Import and export experience in a multi-site distribution environment.

Responsibilities

Monitor transportation routing, selecting appropriate carriers based on cost, delivery time, and route requirements.
Oversee transportation networks and continuously evaluate network design for cost and service improvement.
Monitor pick-up and delivery times and coordinate with warehouses and customers on shipment details, including final-mile delivery to customers in urban areas.
Monitor shipment progress across truck, air, rail, and ocean modes using tracking systems.
Identify and resolve transportation issues such as delays, damaged goods, or delivery discrepancies.
Communicate with customers regarding shipment status and address any concerns.
Oversee the Import/Export freight.
Own the transportation budget and cost per shipment, cost per mile, and freight cost as a percentage of sales, reporting variance to plan monthly.
Drive year over year freight cost reduction through lane and mode optimization, load consolidation, backhaul capture, and reduction of expedited and less than truckload spend.
Audit freight invoices, accessorial charges, fuel surcharges, and detention billing, recovering overcharges and eliminating recurring billing errors.
Build the business case for make versus buy decisions on dedicated fleet, third party carriers, and brokered capacity.
Lead annual and spot rate negotiations with truckload, LTL, parcel, intermodal, and ocean and air carriers, including RFP and bid events, rate benchmarking, and award decisions.
Negotiate and administer carrier contracts covering rates, fuel surcharge schedules, accessorial tariffs, service commitments, insurance, and indemnity terms, coordinating with Finance and Legal on final terms.
Maintain a competitive carrier base, qualifying new capacity and consolidating volume with carriers that meet cost and service requirements.
Manage carrier performance against scorecards covering on-time pickup and delivery, tender acceptance, claims ratio, and billing accuracy, holding quarterly business reviews with core carriers and escalating or replacing underperformers.
Maintain transportation KPI reporting and dashboards for senior management, using root cause analysis on service failures to drive corrective action.
Benchmark rates, service levels, and productivity against market data and prior-year performance to set annual improvement targets.
Ensure that the company is not only DOT compliant, but that our employees are safe and secure every day in every aspect of their job functions.
Ensure adherence to all relevant transportation regulations and safety standards.
Process shipping documents such as bills of lading, customs paperwork, and invoices.
Provide strategic vision and planning on Transportation operations for senior management.
Apply people management skills consistently: active and consistent communication and listening skills, conflict resolution, promoting group cohesion, continual performance feedback, problem solving, and motivating staff on a daily basis.
Set individual and team performance goals tied to cost and service targets, conduct formal reviews, and develop bench strength through cross-training and succession planning.