Senior Ocean Import & Key Account Operations Lead

Location: Manhattan, New York

Workplace: On-site

Employment: Full-time

Beeontrade is seeking a hands-on freight forwarding operator to take ownership of our key U.S. Ocean Import and BCO accounts and help build the next generation of Beeontrade USA operations.

This is not a monitoring or administrative management role. It is an ownership-and-execution mandate
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You will personally manage important customer accounts and shipments, solve operational exceptions, protect gross profit, coordinate U.S. inland and warehouse execution, and ensure customers receive proactive, reliable service from origin through final delivery.

Our core U.S. business is concentrated around Ocean Imports, strategic BCO accounts, international forwarding, project cargo, inland transportation, warehousing, and selected Air Freight solutions.

Initially, you will be a senior individual contributor and account owner. As Beeontrade builds its U.S. team, you will help train junior operators, establish operating standards, build customer SOPs, and develop a scalable U.S. operations structure.

• Take direct operational ownership of assigned U.S. importer and BCO accounts.
• Manage Ocean Import shipments from pre-alert and origin coordination through customs release, final delivery, empty return, billing, and file closeout.
• Develop deep knowledge of each customer's lanes, SOPs, service expectations, shipment patterns, and commercial requirements.
• Build strong customer relationships through proactive communication and fast problem resolution.
• Identify operational and customer risks before they become escalations.
• Ensure customers receive proactive updates with no surprises
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• Work directly with steamship lines, origin agents, customs brokers, terminals, CFS facilities, truckers, warehouses, rail providers, and customers.
• Coordinate drayage, pre-pulls, chassis, transloading, storage, appointments, warehouse services, and final-mile delivery.
• Monitor vessel schedules, terminal availability, free time, customs releases, delivery appointments, empty returns, and other critical milestones.
• Step directly into high-risk files involving demurrage, detention, customs holds, exams, damaged cargo, rollovers, missed appointments, carrier issues, and other operational exceptions.
• Maintain accurate milestones and shipment data inside Cargo Wise and Beeontrade operating systems.
• Review HBL/MBL, arrival notices, commercial invoices, packing lists, delivery orders, and other import documentation.
• Coordinate ISF, customs-clearance, exam, and release requirements with appropriate parties.
• Maintain complete and audit-ready shipment files.
• Work with offshore documentation and shared-services teams while maintaining full accountability for shipment quality.
• Understand the quoted buy, sell, and expected gross profit of assigned shipments.
• Monitor supplier costs and unexpected accessorial exposure throughout execution.
• Protect Beeontrade and customers from avoidable demurrage, detention, storage, chassis, waiting time, prepull, redelivery, and other operational leakage.
• Obtain proper approval for additional customer charges where required.
• Ensure all vendor costs and accruals are captured before billing.
• Review expected GP versus actual GP before file closeout.
• Identify recurring margin leakage and operational cost problems.
• Work closely with billing to ensure completed shipments are invoiced quickly and accurately.
• Participate in customer reviews and identify opportunities to expand existing accounts.
• Coordinate inland, warehouse, and project requirements where needed, including FTL/LTL, transload, devanning, project staging, flat rack/open-top, and OOG movements.
• Help establish U.S. operating procedures, account SOPs, escalation rules, and Cargo Wise standards.
• Train and develop junior U.S. operations employees as the organization grows.
• Help build a small, high-performing U.S. freight operations team around strong operational ownership and customer accountability.

• Own assigned strategic BCO and Ocean Import customer accounts.
• Protect customer retention through proactive service and operational ownership.
• Manage shipment exceptions before they become customer escalations.
• Coordinate port, customs, drayage, warehouse, rail, and final-delivery execution.
• Protect…