Ocean Freight Procurement Manager North & Central America

Job Title: Ocean Freight Procurement Manager North & Central America
Location: Edison, NJ

Job Purpose:

The Ocean Freight Procurement Manager North & Central America assumes ownership for the whole freight negotiation process on all North America, Mexico, and Central America export lanes for Hillebrand Gori. This includes a footprint of over 45,000 TEUs of business.

If you are a dynamic and results-oriented professional with experience in managing national or global customers, we would love to hear from you! Join our team at Hillebrand Gori and contribute to our success in delivering world-class logistics solutions to our valued customers.

Key Responsibilities:

• Reporting to Group Ocean Freight Procurement, supports the North / Central America organization in securing their ocean transport needs. Work with internal departments, sales, operations, across multiple business lines to anticipate requirements and implement procurement action accordingly.
• Analyze tradelanes supply & demand, services and preferred options per trade, analyze freight indexes and anticipate market trends
• Manage and build relationship with key decision makers with the ocean carriers to run export freight negotiations and strategies.
• Run the actual freight procurement exercise, define optimum process, from actual tenders to spot buying, from mid to long term contracts with commitments, to spot and opportunistic terms.
• Proper internal communication and coordination of carrier policy adopted, of contracts negotiated, follow up on volume performances.
• Provide pricing guidance to both locally and centrally managed accounts / tenders, in coordination with the actual account owner.
• Develop annual volume and spend analysis to measure freight spend, and identify opportunities for optimization.
• Participation to Global Sales / Corporate Account tenders
• Administrative support for BECS service contracts negotiated overseas by the Group Ocean Freight team for USA import flows.
• Manage and build relationship with key decision makers with the ocean carriers to support USA import freight, free times, per diem, carrier haulages negotiations
• Develop and maintain relationships with terminal operators, develop D&D opportunities

Professional Contacts

• Internal – Global accounts team, Group Procurement team, Country, Sales, and Operational managers, North America leadership team
• External – Trade and Commercial decision makers with ocean carriers

Qualifications :

• Bachelor's degree required, preferably in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business Administration, International Trade, or a related field. 
• Minimum 5-7 years of experience in ocean freight procurement, carrier management, freight forwarding, logistics, or supply chain management, preferably within international transportation.
• Demonstrated experience negotiating ocean freight contracts, service agreements, carrier allocations, and transportation pricing with ocean carriers.
• Strong knowledge of global ocean freight markets, trade lanes, carrier networks, freight indices, and market dynamics impacting North American exports.
• Proven ability to manage carrier relationships and influence commercial decision-makers to achieve favorable business outcomes.
• Strong understanding of transportation contracts, commercial terms, risk management, and procurement best practices.
• Advanced analytical skills with the ability to evaluate market trends, supplier performance, costs, and service levels to support strategic decision-making.
• Excellent negotiation, communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across sales, operations, procurement, and executive leadership teams in global environment.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, with intermediate to advanced Excel skills. 

Required competencies

The position demands:

• Strength in problem solving, issue-resolution, ability to work in a deadline-driven work environment, attention to detail, and ability to multitask.
• Deep understanding of how a trade works, end to end, buying and selling. Ability to conduct comprehensive market research and analysis to identify potential trade opportunities, market trends, and competitor activities. This involves assessing market demand and supply, analyzing customer needs, and evaluating market risks.
• The ability to negotiate effectively with suppliers and customers to secure favorable terms, pricing, and contractual agreements. This includes strong communication, persuasion, and problem-solving skills to reach mutually beneficial outcomes.
• Proficiency in contract negotiation and management. This involves understanding legal terms and conditions, ensuring compliance, and mitigating contractual risk by use of Legal but also addressing commercial contract topics.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to build and maintain relationships with all internal stakeholders but in particular: country management, Growth Function, and Sales. This includes negotiation skills, conflict resolution, and the ability to establish trust and collaboration.
• The ability to analyze data, market trends, and supplier performance to make informed procurement decisions; this includes being data-driven, decision-making, cost analysis, and the ability to identify opportunities for cost savings and process improvements.

You’ll be rewarded in many ways, such as:

• Belong to a diverse and dynamic culture that promotes inclusion, growth, and development.
• Participate in comprehensive compensation (competitive salary and bonus incentive plan), benefits (including medical, dental, and vision), generous PTO plan (including sick days and Floating Holidays, and a 401k match.
• Enjoy a hybrid work environment.

Pay range: $110,000-145,000 total compensation, based on experience.

To learn more about Hillebrand Gori, please click HERE .