Bulk Load Planning Team Leader

Position Summary

The Bulk Load Planning Team Leader reports to the Transportation Manager and provides day-to-day leadership and oversight to the Bulk Transportation Coordinators responsible for executing bulk outbound loads within the United States and Canada.

This role oversees the planning, scheduling, tracking, and successful completion of outbound bulk deliveries by aligning customer demand with raw material and finished-goods availability, manufacturing and loading capabilities, carrier capacity, driver availability, and specialized transportation assets. The Team Lead coordinates priorities across geographic regions, ensures consistent planning and communication practices, and serves as the primary frontline escalation point for operational constraints and customer-service risks.

The role is responsible for team leadership, workload management, planning optimization, service recovery, performance monitoring, and continuous improvement. The Team Lead maintains the technical capability to provide direct load-planning support during significant disruption, elevated demand, or staffing constraints but is not intended to carry a standard full-time planning region.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide daily direction, coaching, and operational support to Bulk Transportation Coordinators, establishing clear priorities, expectations, and accountability for planning and service execution.
• Manage team capacity, regional workload distribution, training, cross-functional coverage, performance feedback, and employee development.
• Provide operational oversight of outbound bulk load planning, ensuring customer demand is appropriately balanced with manufacturing capabilities, product availability, carrier capacity, and transportation assets.
• Lead significant service-recovery efforts and serve as the primary frontline escalation point for outbound bulk transportation disruptions requiring broader coordination or leadership intervention.
• Provide frontline oversight of bulk carrier operations and capacity, addressing recurring service concerns and supporting carrier performance discussions and corrective actions.
• Oversee and monitor the effective allocation and utilization of bulk transportation assets across the network, escalating material capacity and equipment positioning constraints.
• Establish consistent load-planning standards, decision-making practices, escalation protocols, system usage, communication expectations, and standard operating procedures across the team.
• Monitor service levels, planning efficiency, asset-utilization, and cost performance, taking action to address recurring gaps, inefficiencies, lost revenue, and preventable failures.
• Partner with Customer Support, Sales, Finance, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and other stakeholders to resolve operational constraints and support new or changing customer, product, lane, and network requirements.
• Lead continuous-improvement efforts related to load-planning practices, transportation systems, carrier processes, asset utilization, standard operating procedures, and cross-functional workflows.
• Support the Transportation Manager with operational analysis, budgeting inputs, carrier-performance information, emerging risks, and recommendations related to outbound bulk transportation.
• Provide interim frontline leadership continuity for package transportation, freight payment, and claims when the Team Lead, Package Freight and Claims is unavailable, escalating technical or authority-based decisions appropriately.
• Promote adherence to applicable safety, quality, environmental, transportation, and company requirements and ensure significant concerns are immediately escalated.

Qualifications

• Minimum of a high school diploma or equivalent required; bachelor’s degree in logistics, supply chain, business, operations, or a related field preferred.
• Minimum of 5–8 years of experience in transportation logistics, including experience in bulk transportation or load-planning operations.
• Experience in bulk liquid transportation, tank-truck operations, chemical manufacturing, construction chemicals, or concrete admixtures preferred.
• Previous experience leading employees, coordinating team workloads, providing operational direction, or serving in a senior transportation-planning capacity required.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple time-sensitive priorities and operational disruptions in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong leadership, coaching, planning, analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to remain composed, establish priorities, and lead coordinated responses during significant service disruptions.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence outcomes and build productive relationships across employees, internal teams, carriers, and leadership.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and experience working with ERP, transportation-management, routing, order-management, telemetry, or shipment-tracking systems preferred.
• Familiarity with transportation cost drivers, carrier performance management, asset utilization, specialized bulk equipment, and applicable safety and regulatory requirements preferred.

Key Performance Measures

• On-time pickup and delivery performance
• Customer inventory protection and service reliability
• Carrier capacity fulfillment
• Shipment planning and scheduling accuracy
• Equipment utilization and lane efficiency
• Premium freight, detention, empty miles, and avoidable transportation costs
• Timeliness and effectiveness of service recovery
• Consistency of planning, escalation, and communication practices
• Reduction in recurring and preventable service failures
• Team productivity, capability, cross-training, and development
• Completion and effectiveness of corrective actions and process improvements

Travel Minimal to no travel required for this position.

Work Environment

This position is based in the Beachwood, OH office with a discretionary hybrid remote schedule. Remote work allowed up to 2 days each week. All employees expected to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. Please see the supervisor on specific work hours required to support business operations. For most roles, standard office operations hours: Monday to Friday from 8:00am-5:00pm

Master Builders Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer that recruits and hires qualified candidates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, disability, veteran status, or other memberships protected by federal, state or local law.