Description
Main Purpose of the Role:
Manage and continuously improve commercial support processes related to service contracting, rate administration, sales queries, auto-rating, and booking execution. The position is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and efficiency of assigned operational activities while developing meaningful performance measurements, identifying recurring errors, eliminating unnecessary manual work, and implementing sustainable process improvements. Serving as a key liaison between Commercial, Branches, BUs, Global Sales Support (GSS), Customer Service, Finance, IT, and other internal departments, the Manager will lead cross-functional efforts to improve commercial process quality, system effectiveness, and operational productivity.
Main Tasks:
- Lead initiatives to improve the end-to-end lead-to-agreement process, including contract creation, data accuracy, workflow execution, and downstream system integration.
- Serve as the operational process owner for contract creation and DTLI improvement initiatives, coordinating with designated system owners and functional stakeholders.
- Develop methods to capture, classify, and analyze errors identified during contract auditing and preparation.
- Establish feedback mechanisms and performance reporting to improve contract accuracy.
- Identify opportunities to simplify workflows, eliminate duplicate activities, reduce manual intervention, and improve contract processing turnaround times.
- Coordinate process improvement initiatives with GSS, Commercial, Customer Service, Finance, IT, and other stakeholders.
- Monitor implemented improvements to ensure sustained results.
- Review incoming service contracts and tariff filings to ensure compliance with management policy and FMC regulations.
- Compile tariff rules/regulations and, upon request, provide interpretation/application of tariff and contract matters.
- Maintain service contract record keeping, including history of amendments and performance.
- Administer assigned commercial rate management activities within SAP, L2A, IQShip, and related systems.
- Troubleshoot FAMS/IQShip systems for internal errors and technical problems.
- Assist with special projects as requested by management.
- Address complaints and resolve problems.
- Analyze existing rate administration workflows to identify opportunities for automation, bulk processing, and improved accuracy and processing time.
- Analyze sales query volumes, auto-rating performance, and recurring rating failures to identify systemic issues and opportunities for improvement.
- Develop root-cause classifications for sales queries, auto-rating exceptions and sales correctors.
- Identify and prioritize the most frequent and impactful causes of rating failures, working with responsible departments to correct issues upstream.
- Partner with branch Sales teams, GSS, Customer Service, and technical support personnel to improve the accuracy of commercial data and rate application.
- Implement corrective actions intended to increase successful auto-rating and reduce the percentage of bills of lading requiring manual sales queries.
- Monitor query aging and turnaround times while reinforcing accountability within the responsible branches and operational teams.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of corrective actions through sustained reductions in failures and manual interventions.
Requirements
Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Information Systems, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered. Minimum 3–5 years of experience in commercial operations, sales support, business process management, logistics, or related operational functions. Demonstrated experience analyzing operational processes, identifying inefficiencies, and implementing improvements. Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including data analysis, pivot tables, complex formulas, and data transformation. Working knowledge of process automation tools such as Power Query, VBA, Power Automate, or comparable technologies.