Vice President, International Freight Forwarding

Odyssey•Fife, WA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Vice President of Freight Forwarding & International Services will lead the transformation and growth of Odyssey’s international freight forwarding organization, driving strategy, operational excellence, and scalable processes. This role is responsible for developing and executing freight forwarding strategies across import/export, ocean, air, customs brokerage, and cross-border trade, while evaluating and onboarding profitable clients to support strong commercial performance. The VP will oversee operations and customer service functions to ensure high-quality, compliant, and efficient service, rebuild and optimize processes from the ground up, and lead, inspire, and develop high-performing teams to deliver best-in-class results.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
10+ years of experience in freight forwarding, international logistics, import/export operations, air and ocean freight, and customs brokerage.
7+ years of experience leading and developing operations teams, including multi-branch or multi-location operations.
Strong hands-on experience leading import and export operations across ocean freight, air freight, customs brokerage, and cross-border trade, with ocean freight experience strongly preferred.
Proven experience rebuilding, transforming, scaling, or optimizing freight forwarding operations, with the ability to operate in a hands-on, high-growth environment.
Demonstrated success developing and securing new international freight business, not just managing existing accounts.
Prior P&L management experience, ideally with responsibility for a sizable business unit, branch network, or regional operation.
Ability to build strong customer relationships, improve operational performance, develop teams, and support profitable business growth.
Working knowledge of key international and domestic regulatory programs and agencies, including TSA, C-TPAT, FMCSA, FMC, and IATA.
Established industry relationships and a strong understanding of international logistics strategy, global trade flows, and freight forwarding market dynamics.
Strong executive presence with the ability to lead confidently, communicate effectively, influence across teams, and drive change.
Intermediate to advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Excel, and Word.
Ability to travel as needed to support branch operations, business transformation, and customer growth.

Nice To Haves

ocean freight experience strongly preferred

Responsibilities

Redesign and standardize all operational processes to deliver efficiency, scalability, and exceptional customer service.
Build a best-in-class freight forwarding platform covering import, export, ocean, air, and customs brokerage services.
Develop robust cross-border solutions (Mexico-USA) that differentiate Odyssey in the market.
Drive operational excellence across all functions including vendor management, customs compliance, technology, and process improvement.
Assess the current organization and reshape the team structure, roles, and capabilities to support growth and innovation.
Drive cultural change to foster accountability, customer focus, and continuous improvement.
Oversee Odyssey’s existing offshore teams, ensuring alignment with global operations and customer expectations.
Expand offshore team headcount strategically to meet growing business demands, balancing cost efficiencies with service quality.
Design and implement performance measurement frameworks to track offshore team productivity, accuracy, and contribution to business objectives.
Drive training, integration, and cultural alignment to make offshore operations a seamless extension of the core organization.
Review Odyssey’s current freight forwarding operating system to assess its capabilities and fit for future growth.
Lead the evaluation of alternative platforms, driving the selection of the best-in-class system to support operations, compliance, and customer needs.
Serve as executive sponsor for any system migration, guiding vendor selection, contract negotiation, and overseeing successful implementation and adoption across all functions.
Partner with the commercial teams to aggressively pursue and close new business opportunities, including large, complex international accounts.
Leverage personal industry relationships to open doors and grow Odyssey’s presence in key markets.
Oversee customer onboarding and implementation, ensuring seamless transitions and high satisfaction.
Own P&L responsibility, setting and achieving ambitious revenue and margin targets.
Oversee pricing strategy, vendor tariffs, and procurement activities to ensure profitability and competitive advantage.
Deliver accurate forecasting and budgeting, with a focus on long-term sustainable growth.
Attract, develop, and mentor top operational talent.
Create a culture of high performance, innovation, and operational discipline across all freight forwarding teams.
Guarantee adherence to all global trade regulations, customs laws, and company policies.
Anticipate and mitigate operational and compliance risks in a fast-moving international environment.
Champions and fosters employee involvement, high collaboration and teamwork.
Hands-on leadership; regularly engages with all employees.
Upholds Odyssey Logistics culture and values.
Ability to effect change and implement new ideas to support business operations.
Demonstrated passion for customer service.
Establishes and frequently reviews developmental action plans that promote growth for the individual and strengthens succession planning initiatives.
Conducts performance evaluations and recommends promotion, wage increases and other performance related actions such as verbal and written counseling notices, discipline, and termination of employment.
Strong leadership skills include a collaborative, decisive, and engaging leadership style.
Build strong, trust-based, positive relationships with internal and external constituents.
All other duties and projects assigned.