Job Description

Zipdev is looking for a Logistics Manager owns the movement of material and finished product between our client, their Mexico manufacturing operations, their vendors, and their customers. This person books and manages every mode we use — air, ocean, and ground — runs all cross-border traffic between the United States and Mexico, and keeps customs brokers, carriers, and freight forwarders working to our dates instead of theirs.

Our client builds custom retail fixtures, store environments, convention booths, and specialty builds, manufactured both domestically and in Mexico, and shipped nationwide on fixed install dates. A load held at the border or a missed sailing costs a rollout, not just a shipment. This role exists so that crossing a border is a planned, documented, repeatable step in our schedule rather than a recurring emergency.

Key Responsibilities

Cross-Border Operations (US / Mexico)

• Own every northbound and southbound movement between our Mexico operations, partner plants, and the US facility, from pickup to final delivery.
• Plan crossings around plant schedules, border hours, carrier capacity, and install dates; build the lead time into the project schedule instead of discovering it late.
• Manage US and Mexican customs brokers, transfer carriers, and bonded or in-bond moves, and hold each party to committed crossing times.
• Coordinate the hand-off at the border: drayage, trailer transfers, yard staging, and the paperwork that has to travel with the load.
• Track loads through the crossing and escalate holds, inspections, or document discrepancies the same day they happen.
• Keep a crossing playbook current — which broker, which crossing, which carrier, what documents, how long it actually takes — so the process does not live in one person’s head.
• Coordinate temporary imports and returns (IMMEX / tooling, fixtures, and display samples moving both directions) with the broker and the plant.

International Freight — Air, Ocean, and Ground

• Quote, book, and manage all international freight across modes: air for date-critical fixtures, ocean for volume and overseas sourcing, and ground for Mexico and North American lanes.
• Pick the mode by what the date and the budget actually require, and bring the trade-off to the project team early rather than defaulting to expedited freight at the end.
• Manage freight forwarders and NVOCCs: book space, confirm cutoffs, monitor sailings and flights, and hold forwarders to their transit commitments.
• Handle container planning and receiving: loading plans, container utilization, drayage, chassis, demurrage and detention exposure.
• Manage air freight details that drive cost — chargeable weight, dimensional factors, crate build, and hazardous or oversized restrictions.
• Maintain a lane-by-lane view of standard transit times and realistic buffers, and update it from what actually happened, not what was quoted.

Domestic Freight and Carrier Management

• Manage domestic outbound and inbound freight in every mode we use: parcel, LTL, full truckload, flatbed, hotshot, and white-glove or final-mile delivery.
• Build and maintain the carrier and broker bench; negotiate rates, service terms, and accessorial charges, and hold carriers accountable to them.
• Schedule deliveries and dock appointments with stores, general contractors, and install crews, and confirm receiving requirements before a truck rolls.
• Plan multi-store rollouts and phased deliveries so product lands in the right sequence, not all at once.
• Track shipments in transit, communicate status and exceptions to project management before the customer asks.
• Coordinate closely with the Warehouse Manager on pack-out readiness, staging, loading, and pickup windows.

Customs, Trade Compliance, and Documentation

• Own the accuracy and completeness of every shipping and customs document: commercial invoices, packing lists, certificates of origin, BOLs, pedimentos, and carta porte.
• Work with customs brokers on HTS classification, country of origin, valuation, duties, and applicable trade program treatment (USMCA and any duty-deferral or temporary-import programs we use).
• Keep broker instructions, product classifications, and entry records organized and auditable.
• Monitor changes in tariffs, duties, and border requirements that affect our lanes, and tell the team what it means for cost and lead time before it hits a job.
• Maintain cargo insurance coverage appropriate to shipment value, and confirm coverage on high-value loads.
• Keep a clean, retrievable record trail for every international shipment.

Supplier, Plant, and Internal Coordination

• Serve as the single point of contact between our Mexico operations, partner manufacturers, brokers, forwarders, and the Vista shop.
• Communicate directly in Spanish with plants, drivers, and brokers so nothing is lost in translation or delayed waiting on one.
• Pull ship dates and readiness from the plants, confirm what is actually built and packed, and hold partners to committed dates.
• Translate the project and install calendar into a transportation plan, and tell project management early when a date will not hold.
• Verify that inbound product is packed, labeled, and documented to our standard before it leaves the origin facility.
• Support new vendor and plant onboarding: routing guides, labeling and documentation requirements, packaging standards, and expectations for communication.

Cost Control, Reporting, and Claims

• Own total landed cost on international moves: freight, duties, brokerage, drayage, demurrage, detention, and accessorials.
• Audit freight and brokerage invoices against quotes, dispute errors, and stop recurring overcharges at the source.
• Report monthly on freight spend by mode and lane, cost per shipment, expedite spend, on-time delivery, and border dwell time.
• File and pursue freight and cargo damage claims to resolution, and feed damage patterns back into packaging and crating standards.
• Flag the cost of a schedule decision before it is made — what air costs versus ground, what a two-day slip saves — so the trade-off is a choice, not a surprise.
• Build quoting support for estimating: reliable freight numbers for bids, by lane and product type.

Continuous Improvement

Our client runs on Paul Akers’ 2 Second Lean. We expect every leader to improve their own area every day, not once a quarter.

• Make and document small daily improvements in how shipments are planned, documented, tracked, and closed out.
• Apply 3S — sweep, sort, standardize — to logistics documentation and workflow so files, templates, and trackers are where anyone can find them.
• Record short before-and-after improvement videos and share them with the team.
• Remove waste from the flow: re-keying the same data, chasing status, waiting on documents, repeat border holds, and avoidable expedites.
• Write and maintain simple standard work for booking, crossing, documentation, and claims so the process survives turnover.
• Measure the problem before the change and after it, and bring the numbers.

Requirements

• 5+ years in logistics, traffic, or supply chain, including direct ownership of international freight.
• Hands-on experience with US–Mexico cross-border shipping: brokers, crossings, transfer carriers, and the documents each move requires.
• Working knowledge of all three modes — air, ocean, and ground — and the judgment to pick the right one for the date and the budget.
• Experience with customs documentation and trade compliance, including HTS classification, country of origin, and USMCA treatment.
• Proven record negotiating rates and managing carriers, brokers, and forwarders.
• Strong with spreadsheets and comfortable in an ERP or TMS; able to pull and use numbers, not just read them.
• Clear written and verbal communication with plants, carriers, customers, and the shop floor.
• Valid passport and willingness to travel to Mexico and the border as needed.

Preferred

• Professional fluency in Spanish, written and spoken.
• Background in custom manufacturing, millwork, metal fabrication, store fixtures, or retail rollouts.
• Experience with multi-store rollout logistics and phased delivery schedules.
• Familiarity with IMMEX, temporary import, or duty-deferral programs.
• Experience managing oversized, fragile, or high-value crated freight.
• Exposure to lean manufacturing, 3S, or 2 Second Lean.
• Customs broker or trade compliance certification, or equivalent coursework.

Benefits

• Work remotely Monday - Friday, 40 hours a week (no weekends)
• Vacation: 10 business days a year
• Holidays: 5 National Holidays a year
• Company Holidays: 5 Company Holidays a year (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Zipdev Day)
• Parental Leave
• Health Care Reimbursement
• Active Lifestyle Reimbursement
• Quarterly Home Office Reimbursement
• Payroll Deduction Purchase Plans
• Longevity Bonus
• Continuous Learning Bonus
• Access to Training and Professional Development Platforms
• Did we mention it's REMOTE?!!

One of our core values at Zipdev is "Be authentic." that's why we encourage you to answer the application form in your own words; we are interested in getting to know you, not a digital assistant.

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