Director, Air Freight

Job Title

World Group is seeking a strategic leader to join our UWL family. This role will focus on air freight operations, commercial leadership, and team development.

About World Group:

World Group was founded over 60 years ago as a pioneer in vessel agency services on the Great Lakes. Today, we are home to a portfolio of globally trusted brands that deliver customers end-to-end supply chain and logistics solutions, backed by innovative technology to provide visibility and data like never before. With industry-leading products in ocean drayage, domestic trucking, freight forwarding, air freight, customs house brokerage, vessel husbandry, and warehousing and distribution…customers around the globe use the services of our family of brands:
Container Port Group, UWL, and World Shipping, Inc. to simplify supply chains and reliably move freight.

We move the world with people who care. Our award-winning, industry-recognized culture is anchored in our people across the country, and the passion they bring to each day. We're growing - join our World Group family today!

About UWL:

UWL® is a top 20 American-owned NVOCC and leading provider of global 3PL services. We take pride in delivering seamless supply chain solutions backed by a team of creative problem-solvers. We specialize in ocean transportation, air freight, project cargo, warehousing and distribution, road and rail, bulk liquid logistics, and customs house brokerage. Our proof is in our owned assets: a national network of distribution centers, dependable trucking capacity, and a user-friendly data management platform that delivers transparency and data you can count on.

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Strategic Leadership and Financial Performance:

• Develop and execute the air freight strategy, annual budget, operating plan, forecasts, and growth priorities.

• Own revenue, gross profit, volume, yield, working capital, and trade lane profitability; establish KPIs and drive corrective actions.

• Monitor market trends, capacity shifts, geopolitical impacts, rates, and competitive activity to guide product and pricing strategy.

• Identify and drive priority trade lanes and growth opportunities based on customer demand, market potential, and network capability.

Commercial Leadership and Sales Support:

• Partner with commercial leadership on go-to-market plans, target customers, priority trade lanes, and sales strategy.

• Support strategic pursuits, prospect meetings, RFPs, quotations, and solution development to help secure new business.

• Lead executive-level customer engagement, business reviews, retention efforts, and growth plans for strategic accounts.

• Develop and expand air freight offerings, aligned to annual plan, customer need and market trends.

• Provide product training, market intelligence, pricing guidance, and conversion support.

• Lead new-business handoffs and identify cross-selling opportunities across air freight and related services.

Carrier, Vendor, and Agent Management:

• Develop and execute procurement and capacity strategies, including carrier diversification, allocations, and long-term sourcing initiatives.

• Lead airline and vendor sourcing, rate negotiations, capacity commitments, service agreements, and escalations.

• Manage the global agent strategy, including selection, onboarding, commercial terms, service standards, and performance reviews.

• Build strong partner relationships through scorecards, business reviews, joint opportunity development, and corrective actions.

Operational Excellence and Customer

Experience:

• Provide governance for end-to-end import and export operations, customer SOPs, service commitments, and exception management.

• Drive process standardization, productivity, cargo optimization, shipment visibility, billing accuracy, and continuous improvement.

• Serve as the senior escalation point for major customer, service, vendor, and agent issues; lead recovery and root-cause actions.

• Partner with Technology and Process teams to improve systems, automation, data quality, and scalability.

Compliance and Team Leadership:

• Ensure compliance with company policies, customer requirements, and applicable…