Ocean Planning Manager

The Opportunity

The Ocean Planning Manager plays a critical role in Flexport's mission to make global trade easy for everyone. Flexport today connects almost 10,000 clients and suppliers across 109 countries. In this role, your direct customers are the partners within your region — account management, customs teams, subcontractors, carriers, terminals, and trucking providers — and your work directly supports Flexport's end customers in achieving their logistics goals.

This role is designed to hire, coach, and develop a team of planning and booking experts while navigating the complex world of freight forwarding. You'll work cross-functionally to establish a world-class planning and booking function, balancing tactical execution with adaptive, strategic leadership as Flexport builds its next operational model.

What You'll Do

Team Leadership

• Hire, coach, and develop a 5–10 person team responsible for end-to-end planning and booking of ocean freight shipments (imports and exports, including intermodal movements)
• Manage team performance and evaluation, guiding the team to meet OKRs and SLAs
• Provide direction on training and onboarding for new team members
• Empower the team to prioritise key initiatives and maintain strong on-the-job motivation

Planning & Booking Operations

• Oversee execution of end-to-end planning and booking across Ocean FCL and LCL imports and exports
• Manage and optimise overall allocation and SO (Shipping Order) utilisation
• Design and maintain scalable operational infrastructure and procedures to ensure the team delivers the highest levels of efficiency and productivity for customers
• Manage the Fulfilment Management Tool (FMT) and support feature development and enhancement

Partner & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary relationship manager for internal and external partners in your region, including ocean, intermodal, and drayage vendors, Account Management, Ocean Execution, Allocation, and Procurement
• Act as the primary point of contact for major carrier and client escalations
• Maintain long-term relationships with carriers and gateway carrier offices across Sales, Booking, Customer Service, and Documentation functions
• Collaborate with Procurement, Allocation, and ROM teams to inform carrier strategy and drive revenue maximisation

Strategic & Cross-Functional Contribution

• Work with gateway and global management to ensure the right metrics and data are in place to empower the team
• Monitor and improve overall cost-to-serve while maintaining high client satisfaction
• Act as a strategic consultant to global counterparts, product and engineering, and the operations excellence team on ocean planning and booking processes
• Represent Flexport's value proposition by recommending planning solutions for new clients and opportunities to the account management team
• Identify and execute on process improvement opportunities, contributing to the development of technology and systems that differentiate Flexport's operations from the industry
• Live and act with integrity guided by Flexport's values, maintaining a high bar for operational quality and service

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor's degree with a strong track record of success
• 7+ years of experience in logistics, freight forwarding, supply chain, or ocean carrier operations; experience in a startup or top consulting firm, NVOCC pricing, procurement, or hands-on experience with main ocean trade lanes is a plus
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams in day-to-day execution and process improvement
• Hands-on, process-oriented, structured thinker with strong problem-solving capabilities
• Strategic vision paired with ground-floor execution ability
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and organisational skills
• A client-first mindset, with a strong focus on both client and team satisfaction
• Courage to challenge the status quo and drive meaningful change when needed
• A genuine desire to lead, train, and develop the next generation of industry talent

What You'll Gain

• The opportunity to build and lead a team from the ground up, shaping Flexport's next-generation operational model
• Deep, cross-functional experience working with global teams to execute quickly and optimise for scale in an ambiguous, fast-growing environment
• A path toward becoming a "leader of leaders" — developing the coaching skills to apprentice future team leads
• The chance to build deep expertise in a specific area of supply chain management, positioning you as a go-to advisor for clients, partners, and internal teams
• Exposure to client advisory and account management, with the potential to lead a team of advisors as Flexport grows its book of business