Director of Domestic Transportation (On-site)

Company Description

At Lakeshore, we create innovative learning materials and world-class guest experiences for teachers, parents and children. Since 1954, we’ve grown into a global community—with a thriving e-commerce business, multiple catalogs, 60+ retail stores, a peerless national sales force, plus international offices that support our preeminent supply chain division. But today we’re working better, smarter and faster than ever—and setting our sights even higher. We’re building an infrastructure designed for scalability, embracing data-driven decision-making and using technology to improve efficiency and ensure the best tools for the best work. Most importantly, we continue to invest in a diverse team of inquisitive top talent who fuel each other’s passions and curiosity, take risks, try new things, and believe that every new day brings opportunities for growth.

Job Description

We are currently seeking a Director of Domestic Transportation to join our team. In this role, you will develop and execute the strategy for over-the-road transportation modes across multiple distribution centers, vendors and customers. This includes LTL, FTL, Parcel and Intermodal. The Director of Domestic Transportation will partner with internal functions to improve processes and standardize transportation operations across multiple Distribution Centers and partner closely with our Sales Operations team. The Director of Transportation will lead the internal team to understand operational processes and influence change for a more efficient outcome. As a Director, the ability to influence internal functions and identify areas of risk in order to implement industry best practices will be critical. 

The position also requires managing exempt and nonexempt roles and leading a team effectively. Applicants should be extremely knowledgeable in the transportation area, especially in LTL/FTL and Parcel, and familiar with the ability to translate a business issue into transportation data and model solutions. The collaborative partnership across Sales Operations, Distribution, Transportation and Finance are critical to the success of this role. The ideal candidate also possesses strong leadership skills to foster collaboration and compliance among internal stakeholders. 

A day on the job looks like this: 

• Manage the domestic network across outbound, customer returns, vendor inbound and interfacility movements. This includes LTL, FTL, Parcel and Intermodal movements across three Distribution Centers with a heavy emphasis on LTL 
• Analyze data without a TMS to ensure capacity, service and cost commitments are met to support business objectives 
• Lead with a customer emphasis, high sense of urgency and attention to detail 
• Coach and lead the team with a focus on performance, accountability and a learning and skillset development mindset 
• Support new Transportation Management processes with SAP implementation in 2025 
• Develop strategies around peak season and anticipation of workload to enable improved network flows, carrier agreements (increased trailer pools), cost and service 
• Manage transportation provider relationships via weekly operational meetings, quarterly business reviews and regular reporting 
• Manage resolution of freight invoice inquiries and exceptions across modes 
• Ensure KPIs on freight payment remain within acceptable tolerances and act with urgency to resolve situations when metrics are out of range 
• Design and lead annual over-the-road RFP processes for domestic transportation (LTL, FTL, Intermodal) 
• Develop and maintain metrics and KPIs focused on service level and cost goals. Work with Finance to develop a dashboard view for measuring health of transportation flow 
• Coordinate special projects with Sales and Distribution Centers providing routing recommendations and service provider selection (i.e., mode shift from parcel to LTL, LTL to FTL, optimal shipping point, etc.) 
• Identify cost savings and efficiency opportunities to drive improvement 
• Support the team in all daily workload and responsibilities 

Qualifications

Got the skills and experience? Here’s what we’re looking for: 

• 5+ years of experience managing teams and vendors across multiple transportation modes 
• 10+ years within Transportation 
• Experience in Supply Chain Systems—including but not limited to SAP, TMS 
• Experience in SAP 
• Bachelor of Science degree is required 
• Proven business acumen and financial components of Supply Chain Operations 
• Strong quantitative, analytical and critical thinking skills with demonstrated use of data analyses and metrics to drive decision-making and continuous improvement 
• Must be detail oriented with strong analytical skills 
• Flexible,