Ocean Logistics Procurement Lead

The Ocean Logistics Procurement Lead is the regional subject‑matter expert for marine logistics capacity sourcing, strategy, and commercial execution. Primarily supporting Georgia‑Pacific Packaging and Cellulose—and extending support to all Georgia‑Pacific businesses within the region—this role owns carrier service contract negotiations, bid management, ongoing carrier performance oversight, and operational reviews, ensuring contractual alignment, capacity availability, and effective commercial execution across ocean freight programs.

Success in this role relies on delivering stakeholder‑centric solutions and operational excellence while applying Koch Vision PBM® principles and disciplined economic decision‑making. The Lead must collaborate proactively with commercial, operations, and carrier partners to secure reliable, cost‑effective ocean capacity, manage risk, and drive continuous improvement in service and cost performance.

What You Will Do

• Customer-centric & Stakeholder Management
• Serve as primary contact for businesses within scope on business needs for container shipping and market intelligence.
• Foster strong relationships with all stakeholders: mills/plants, sales and customer service team, freight forwarding teams, and other internal and external stakeholders.
• Rate Sourcing & Contract Management
• Negotiate effectively for mutually beneficial outcomes, assess needs through economic thinking, analyze markets, and maximize market advantage.
• Maintain accuracy and consistency across systems and platforms
• Ensure that offers and agreements are executed upon in accordance with negotiated terms.
• Bids & Capacity Sourcing (Lead semi-annual export bid)
• Pre-bid: define schedule/timelines, obtain forecasts, capture business requirements.
• During bid: manage bid system data, review offers, engage carriers and stakeholders across multi-round processes.
• Post-bid: present outcomes to stakeholders, update financial systems, and ensure agreed upon terms are executed
• Continuously monitor performance variances at the root cause.
• Lead carrier commercial and operational reviews: prepare agendas, performance analysis, share service feedback
• Drive carrier compliance and manage escalation processes
• Liaise through claims processes
• Analyze financial performance and lead action plans for variances
• Systems, Reporting & Process Improvement
• Maintain continuous and accurate updates in all systems
• Maintain and update SOPs for businesses and carriers; capture business requirements, contacts, and deliverables.
• Drive value-creation
• Compliance, PBM & Economic Decision-making
• Act as a compliance and ethics champion; ensure integrity in decisions and actions.
• Embed Koch Vision PBM® and performance-based management principles in decision-making, cycles of mutual benefit, and contract terms.
• Ensure decisions are supported by sound economic analysis.

Who You Are (Basic Qualifications)

• 5+ years’ experience in ocean logistics, freight procurement, and/ or carrier management
• Demonstrated experience freight sourcing, contracts management, and successful negotiations
• Strong Excel skills and comfort with data-driven analysis and reporting
• Proven stakeholder management, cross-functional collaboration, and written/verbal communication skills
• Experience with carrier performance management and claims processes

What Will Put You Ahead

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, logistics, finance, or related field
• Experience in commodity logistics or working with mills/plants within complex supply chains
• Advanced Excel, Power BI / Tableau, or experience building operational dashboards
• Prior experience working in a matrixed environment with multi-site stakeholders

At Koch companies, we are entrepreneurs. This means we openly challenge the status quo, find new ways to create value and get rewarded for our individual contributions. Any compensation range provided for a role is an estimate determined by available market data. The actual amount may be higher or lower than the range provided considering each candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and geographic location.

If you have questions, please speak to your recruiter about the flexibility and detail of our compensation…