Director, Inbound Transportation
Reports To: VP/GVP Transportation
Location: New Albany, OH
Job Summary
The Director of Inbound Transportation leads A&F’s global inbound transportation network, ensuring inventory moves predictably, efficiently, and reliably through a balanced focus on execution, provider partnerships, visibility, forecasting, cost, and business integration.
This leader serves as the primary bridge between Transportation, Planning, Sourcing, Finance, Distribution Operations, Product Management, Data Solutions, and third-party logistics partners, translating transportation performance into the insights and actions needed to support inventory and supply chain decisions.
The ideal candidate combines logistics expertise with systems thinking, data fluency, commercial acumen, executive communication, cross-functional influence, and strong execution discipline.
What Will You Be Doing?
Network Strategy, Freight Movement & Provider Leadership
- Develop and execute global air and ocean transportation strategies that balance service, speed, cost, capacity, predictability, and resiliency.
- Lead end-to-end freight movement from origin handoff through DC receipt across key international and domestic inbound modes.
- Build resilient transportation solutions that support inventory flow, business growth, launch needs, and operational continuity.
- Navigate market disruption, geopolitical risk, capacity constraints, port congestion, and changing provider dynamics with clear mitigation plans.
- Maintain strategic carrier and forwarder partnerships, positioning A&F as a customer of choice while ensuring provider accountability.
- Partner with Procurement on sourcing strategies, negotiations, network design, and provider performance expectations.
Transit Commitments, Inventory Flow, Visibility & Forecasting
- Establish and maintain transportation transit commitments that reflect network realities, provider performance, and business expectations.
- Communicate impacts to inventory flow, planning assumptions, sourcing decisions, distribution operations, and customer-facing priorities.
- Drive transportation visibility, prediction accuracy, forecast reliability, and confidence in inbound reporting.
- Translate transportation data, forecast changes, performance risks, and operational constraints into clear business insights.
- Build trust in reporting through disciplined KPI development, root-cause analysis, data validation, and consistent metric definitions.
- Partner with Data Solutions, Product Management, visibility providers, Planning, Sourcing, and Operations to improve reporting quality, automation, and decision support.
Financial Stewardship, Freight Audit & Payment Governance
- Own inbound transportation budget development, forecasting, annual operating plan inputs, and long-range financial planning assumptions.
- Manage transportation spend performance, including cost-per-unit, cost-per-container, cost-per-kilo, and total cost-to-serve metrics.
- Explain variances, identify improvement opportunities, and connect cost performance to service, inventory flow, and network resiliency.
- Partner with Supply Chain Finance and Transportation Expense Management on forecasting, reporting, variance analysis, investment decisions, and financial controls.
- Ensure rate accuracy, invoice accuracy, dispute resolution, payment transparency, and carrier accountability.
- Improve freight audit and payment processes to strengthen governance, reduce leakage, and create scalable accountability.
Business Integration, Systems Thinking & Scalable Process
- Serve as a strategic business partner to Planning, Sourcing, Finance, Distribution Operations, Product Management, Data Solutions, Procurement, and third-party logistics providers.
- Connect transportation decisions to enterprise outcomes across inventory availability, receipt flow, product launches, sourcing commitments, customer service, cost, and operational readiness.
- Create clarity from ambiguity by structuring complex problems, aligning stakeholders, and driving disciplined follow-through.
- Build scalable processes, systems, reporting, and governance routines that reduce reliance on individual heroics.
- Represent Inbound Transportation in senior leadership forums with clear communication on performance, risks, financial impacts, and recommended actions.
- Drive continuous improvement through SOPs, carrier scorecards, operational reviews, reporting enhancements, automation opportunities, and governance routines.
Leadership Effectiveness & Organizational Impact
- Lead and develop a high-performing inbound transportation organization grounded in ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Independently own major operational, visibility, planning, provider, and financial challenges while escalating clearly when executive alignment is needed.
- Build credibility with internal partners so Inbound Transportation is viewed as a trusted business partner.
- Maintain provider relationships defined by both strong collaboration and clear accountability.
- Develop future transportation leaders through coaching, stretch assignments, succession planning, and cross-functional exposure.
What Success Looks Like
- Business credibility: Planning, Sourcing, Operations, Finance, and regional teams trust Inbound Transportation and operate from common metrics and assumptions.
- Operational excellence: Network performance is achieved or proactively managed, carrier performance improves, and disruptions are communicated early with clear plans.
- Strategic provider leadership: A&F remains a customer of choice with strategic carriers and forwarders while maintaining accountability and strong executive partnerships.
- Visibility and data confidence: Forecasts, metrics, and reporting are trusted, explainable, and used to support inventory and supply chain decisions.
- Leadership effectiveness: The Director independently owns major challenges and can represent the function confidently in executive updates.
- Organizational impact: Business questions are answered through scalable processes, systems, and reporting.
What Do You Need To Bring?
- Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Business, Engineering, or related field preferred.
- 10+ years of progressive supply chain, retail operations, planning, inventory management, logistics, transportation, or network strategy experience.
- 5+ years leading teams, cross-functional initiatives, and/or strategic service provider relationships.
- Retail, apparel, omnichannel, consumer products, or high-volume distribution experience preferred, including exposure to retail planning, inventory management, and related systems and processes.
- Working knowledge of global air and ocean transportation, including carrier and forwarder management, market dynamics, disruption management, and resiliency planning; direct transportation expertise can be developed in role.
- Proven ability to build strategic provider partnerships while balancing collaboration, commercial discipline, and accountability.
- Strong commercial and sourcing acumen, including provider performance management, network design, transportation sourcing, and negotiation support.
- Strong partnership orientation with Planning, Sourcing, Operations, Finance, Product Management, Data Solutions, Procurement, and third-party logistics partners.
- Ability to translate transportation challenges into business impacts across inventory flow, forecast confidence, receipt timing, cost, service, and operational readiness.
- Strong data fluency, including forecast interpretation, KPI development, root-cause analysis, visibility platforms, and reporting confidence.
- Systems thinking with the ability to connect transportation execution to enterprise outcomes.
- Financial acumen across budgeting, forecasting, variance explanation, transportation cost metrics, freight audit, payment governance, and controls.
- Executive communication skills with the ability to simplify complexity, create clarity from ambiguity, and influence through clear recommendations.
- Strong execution leadership, including ownership, structured problem solving, prioritization, accountability management, change leadership, and disciplined follow-through.
- Experience with transportation systems, visibility platforms, TMS solutions, reporting tools, analytics capabilities, and process automation preferred.
- Willingness to travel and build strategic provider relationships.
