Sr. Manager, Network Strategy & Optimization

At Dexter, we manufacture and distribute axles, accessories, and towing components primarily serving the commercial trailer, RV, marine, agriculture, and manufactured housing markets. We're building products and systems that are rooted in a culture of safety, collaboration, and innovation.

Headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana, Dexter has manufacturing and distribution locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Employing state-of-the-art robotics, precision welding equipment, and automated machining processes, Dexter has achieved over 65 years of success through a commitment to the principles of superior quality, continuous improvement, and unparalleled customer service.?

For more information about our company, access Dexter's web site at?

Essential

Duties / Responsibilities:

Summary / Statement of Work:

The Senior Manager, Network Strategy & Optimization is responsible for building and leading Dexter's logistics network strategy capability. This role develops the data-driven models, strategic guardrails, cost-to-serve analysis, network scenarios, performance tracking, and optimization recommendations that guide how freight should move across the company's logistics network.

This position partners closely with Logistics leadership, SIOP, Finance, IT/AI, Operations, Manufacturing, TWA, Distribution, Logistics Procurement, and Systems + Execution to align demand, supply, inventory, capacity, cost, and execution requirements. The role identifies network synergies, quantifies savings opportunities, develops logistics roadmaps, evaluates service and cost tradeoffs, and tracks performance against approved initiatives.

The role sets the strategic guardrails for the logistics network while working with Logistics Procurement to enable capacity and carrier strategy and with Systems + Execution to ensure approved strategies can be translated into practical transportation execution.

Role Purpose

Create a new enterprise logistics capability focused on using data, analytics, AI-enabled modeling, cost-to-serve logic, and cross-functional business alignment to determine how Dexter's logistics network should operate. This role helps leadership make better decisions about markets, zones, delivery territories, inbound and outbound flows, branch alignment, transportation capacity, service models, and savings opportunities.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

* Lead the Network Strategy & Optimization function as an enterprise logistics capability focused on network design, optimization, analytics, cost-to-serve, scenario planning, and performance tracking.

* Develop and maintain strategic logistics network guardrails, including market structure, delivery zones, service standards, network flows, cost-to-serve assumptions, lane strategies, capacity requirements, and optimization priorities.

* Identify, quantify, prioritize, and track logistics savings opportunities across inbound freight, outbound delivery, branch transfers, linehaul, fleet utilization, carrier usage, delivery territories, customer service models, and network flows.

* Lead network optimization analysis to determine how freight should move across branches, distribution centers, manufacturing sites, TWA, carriers, and customer delivery regions.

* Guide the Network Optimization Analyst in building SQL Server-based data models, Tableau dashboards, performance tracking tools, AI-enabled models, scenario analysis, and recurring logistics reporting.

* Partner with SIOP to align logistics network strategy with demand, supply, inventory positioning, production plans, customer requirements, and service expectations.

* Partner with Finance to validate cost savings, ROI, business cases, cost-to-serve models, P&L impact, and financial assumptions tied to logistics initiatives.

* Partner with IT/AI to develop data models, automation opportunities, AI-enabled analysis, predictive tools, dashboards, and scalable reporting capabilities.

* Partner with Operations, Manufacturing, TWA, Distribution, Logistics Procurement, and Systems + Execution to evaluate network scenarios and ensure recommended strategies are operationally feasible.

* Lead development of logistics performance dashboards, scorecards, KPIs, and executive reporting that provide visibility to network performance, savings progress, service impact, cost trends, utilization, and execution gaps.

* Analyze tradeoffs between service, cost, capacity, geography, inventory availability, production constraints, customer requirements, and operational execution.

* Establish governance processes for evaluating network changes, routing guardrails, market assignments, service territory decisions, cost-to-serve logic, and strategic logistics initiatives.

* Translate complex logistics data into clear recommendations, business cases, decision frameworks, and action plans for senior leadership and enterprise partners.

* Monitor performance against approved network strategies and work with Systems + Execution, Logistics Procurement, Finance, and Operations to…