Freight & Logistics Manager

Create Joy. Protect Wildlife. Build for Growth. At Elizabeth Scarlett, we believe work should feel meaningful. We exist to create joyful living while raising funds to protect the world’s most precious wildlife. By 2030, our goal is to contribute £2 million to conservation.

As our next Freight & Logistics Manager, you will own our international freight operations and ensure seamless product flow from manufacturing partners to our UK and US warehouses. You will be the operational expert managing our Asia-UK/US shipping lanes, owning freight forwarder relationships, and ensuring every container arrives on time, cleared through customs, and ready for our customers.

This role is critical to maintaining supply chain efficiency as we scale profitably to £30M over the next 2 years. You will work closely with our Merchandising, Operations, and Finance teams to balance cost efficiency with delivery reliability - ensuring we never run out of stock while optimising every pound spent on freight.

This position is ideal for a detail-oriented logistics professional who thrives on solving complex shipping puzzles, loves negotiating with freight partners, and wants ownership over a critical supply chain function.

What you will be doing:

• Own the relationship with freight forwarders across Asia-UK and Asia-US lanes, acting as primary point of contact for all operational matters.
• Negotiate freight rates including ocean, air, trucking, and service level agreements.
• Conduct quarterly business reviews with freight forwarders analysing performance against KPIs: on-time departure, transit time, documentation accuracy, and issue resolution speed.
• Manage day-to-day freight forwarder performance including escalation of delays, booking errors, or service failures.
• Evaluate and onboard backup freight forwarders for business continuity and competitive benchmarking.
• Coordinate container bookings based on purchase order schedules and inventory requirements.
• Plan shipping schedules accounting for production lead times, transit times, and customs clearance.
• Track vessel schedules and port conditions to proactively identify delays.
• Provide suppliers with shipping forecasts to enable better factory planning and container booking.
• Maintain accurate shipment records in NetSuite.
• Manage end-to-end customs clearance process for all UK and US imports working with customs brokers and freight forwarders, including reviewing all documentation.
• Ensure accurate HS code classification and compliance with import regulations.
• Handle and resolve customs holds, inspections, and documentation queries to ensure on time delivery.
• Stay current on regulatory changes affecting imports.
• Submit accurate ASNs to 3PL warehouses and coordinate warehouse receiving appointments with 3PL partners, ensuring dock availability and labor scheduling.
• Monitor container drayage from port to warehouse, tracking delays and coordinating with drayage carriers on delivery timing.
• Resolve receiving discrepancies and quality control holds.
• Own freight budget, tracking actuals vs forecast and investigating significant variances.
• Reconcile freight invoices and manage accessorial charges.
• Analyse freight by lane, supplier, and product category spend to identify optimisation opportunities.
• Provide monthly freight cost reporting to Finance.
• Generate weekly shipment status reports for Merchandising and Operations teams highlighting delays, issues, or priority shipments.

Who we are looking for:

• 4-6 years of experience in international logistics, freight forwarding, or supply chain management.
• Proven experience managing Asia-UK and Asia-US shipping lanes including ocean freight, air freight, and multimodal transportation.
• Hands-on experience with customs clearance processes for UK and US imports including HS code classification and duty calculation.
• Strong understanding of incoterms, particularly FOB, CIF, and DDP as applied to international purchasing.
• Demonstrated ability to manage freight forwarder relationships including rate negotiations, performance management, and issue resolution.
• Strong analytical skills with experience managing freight budgets, calculating cost per unit, and variance analysis.
• Excellent organisational skills with ability to manage multiple shipments simultaneously across different lanes and modes.
• Proficiency in Excel for data analysis, cost modelling, and performance reporting.
• Exceptional attention to detail and problem-solving abilities.
• Clear communicator who can work effectively across time zones with suppliers, forwarders, and internal stakeholders.

Nice-to-have skills:

• Experience with ERP systems for shipment tracking and inventory management (NetSuite strongly preferred).
• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, or related field.
• Experience in the fashion, accessories, or consumer goods sector.

Mindset:

• Detail-driven and commercially minded, with pride in high-quality execution.
• Proactive and accountable — spots issues early and takes ownership to fix them.
• Curious and motivated to learn, improve, and grow within eCommerce.

Culture fit:

• Kind, collaborative, and reliable — someone teams trust.
• Action-oriented and comfortable moving at pace.
• Excited to work for a brand blending creativity, commerciality, and purpose.

What we offer:

• Salary and bonus +10% discretionary performance bonus.
• Flexibility and time - Hybrid working (minimum 2-3 days in-office).
• Annual L&D budget (3% of salary).
• Annual summer retreat (e.g. 42 Acres in Somerset).
• 60% team discount.
• 25% friends and family discount code.

Ready to join a purpose-driven brand and help us scale joy and conservation impact? Apply now and bring your talent to Elizabeth Scarlett.