Import Compliance Specialist

The Opportunity:

At Avantor, people are the most important part of our success because they drive our global performance. That’s why our Operations, Lab Services, Sales, and many other Avantor teams rely on our talent acquisition initiatives to attract, engage and hire the right talent. Avantor’s Trade Compliance vertical is a crucial part of this mix, enabling all our internal teams worldwide to grow beyond their limits.

The Import Trade Analyst is responsible for supporting the oversight of key import operational activities.   This role is a subject matter expert on import regulations, ensuring efficient and compliant controls and processes are in place.  This role focuses on the AMR region (North and South America, Mexico, and Canada). 

 What we’re looking for:

• Education: Bachelor's Degree in a science-related field or equivalent experience
• Experience: 3+ years’ experience in a dynamic Trade Compliance or Brokerage environment
  • Licensed Customs Broker highly preferred.

Who you are:

• Demonstrated solid analytical skills and a history of identifying and reducing complex and systemic risks within systems or large organizations. 
• Strong command of Free Trade, Duty Drawback, and other relevant trade programs.
• Strong knowledge of HTS, origin rules, recordkeeping, export regulations, and a broad understanding of risk assessment and mitigation processes.
• Demonstrated intermediate computer skills, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access
• Demonstrated knowledge of US and Canadian product regulations, including but not limited to FDA, Health Canada, EPA/CEPA, DEA, and TTB.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver quality results and a high level of compliance while managing multiple projects, priorities, and daily workflow.

How you will thrive and create an impact:

• Support the customs compliance program for US business units to ensure compliance with US and international customs regulations, internal/external controls, operating policies, and procedures.
• Interface with custom brokers, forwarders, carriers, etc., to resolve day-to-day operational issues impacting imports and exports.
• Deliver cost-saving and duty avoidance through continuous improvement.
• Resolve issues pertaining to documentation discrepancies, valuation, import of record, etc., to ensure successful and timely customs clearance.
• Conduct compliance reviews, custom entry audits, and export audits. Perform after-action review for root cause determination. Developing key KPIs to measure against and establishing QBRs with current brokers.
• Participate in Quarterly Business Review (QBR) with custom broker to evaluate performance, review compliance to broker SOP, review trends, and identify continuous improvement opportunities.
• Acts as an SME for Trade Compliance systems, specifically within SAP- GTS, offering guidance to the team on troubleshooting, setup, and maintenance.
• Act as an SME within the operations team, helping to remediate operations errors and eliminate border delays and risks.
• Determines HTS and ECCN classifications while ensuring proper maintenance within internal systems.
• Analyze import and export data to identify trends, minimize risk, and identify cost-saving/duty-avoidance opportunities.
• Implement internal and external SOPs to document policies and procedures and deliver training to internal stakeholders and providers.
• Execute procedures, best practices, and internal controls to ensure compliance and minimize risk.
• Manage record-keeping program to ensure compliance with governmental record retention policies and procedures.
• Participate in due diligence, post-acquisition assessments, and other efforts to build trade compliance programs for new acquisitions.
• Provides operational support to the business units on matters pertaining to imports and exports.
• Monitor changes in the trade and supply chain communities, identify risks and/or opportunities, and communicate the impact of environmental changes on the business.
• Interfaces with governing agencies, suppliers, and customers and responds to inquiries and requests.
• Complies with federal, state, and local requirements by studying existing and new security legislation, enforcing adherence to requirements, and advising management on needed actions.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Disclaimer:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of employees assigned to this