Supply Chain Coordinator (Logistics,Forecasting & Freight Admin) in City of London

Location

London Office

Contract

Full-time

Reports to

Production & Operations

Working hours

09:00-17:30 UK time, with flexibility for early-morning contact with Asia-based suppliers]

Salary

Dependent on experience

About us

We are a consumer health and wellness brand selling across the UK, EU and US.

Our products are manufactured in Asia and distributed through national retailers, e-commerce marketplaces and our own DTC channels.

We move air, ocean and road freight globally, and a large part of our range is classified as dangerous goods.

The operations team is small, fast-moving and hands-on. There is no layer of middle management to hide behind - you will own your workload end to end and speak directly with suppliers, forwarders and internal stakeholders every day.

We’re looking for a motivated self-starter who is hungry to grow and learn in both this role and the business.

Competence and curiosity in how AI can supercharge productivity in this role is essential to success.

Key responsibilities

• 1. Freight and logistics execution
• Request, compare and log freight quotes across air, ocean (FCL and LCL) and road, from our nominated forwarders and carriers.
• Raise bookings, confirm pickup-ready dates with suppliers and book collections at origin.
• Prepare, collect and check the full shipping document pack before departure:

commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading or air waybill, certificate of origin, HS codes, SDS, UN38.3 test summaries and dangerous goods declarations.

• Check documents against the purchase order and against the destination country's import requirements before release. Catch errors at origin, not at the port.
• Track shipments daily from booking to delivery. Chase forwarders for milestone updates and flag delays, rolled sailings, port congestion or customs holds as soon as they appear, not after the ETA has passed.
• Hand over accurate, timely inbound data to the Operations Manager so that receipts can be announced and booked into the warehouse and into retailer routing portals correctly.
• Maintain the shipment tracker as the single source of truth: booking references, container and AWB numbers, ETD/ETA, milestone dates, costs and status.
• 2. Dangerous goods
• Our range includes lithium-ion battery products (UN3481) and essential oil based liquids

(UN3082 and similar). Getting this wrong stops shipments, costs money and creates regulatory exposure.

• Identify which shipments are regulated and under which mode: IATA DGR for air, IMDG for ocean, ADR for European road, 49 CFR for US domestic movements.
• Maintain and version-control the DG document library: SDS, UN38.3 test summaries,

DG transport reports and battery test data. Check validity and expiry dates against every booking, and request new or renewed factory documents through the Production team well before they lapse.

• Prepare and check dangerous goods declarations, packing instruction references, marks and labels, and limited quantity determinations, for internal sign-off.
• Confirm that the nominated carrier or lane actually accepts the DG class in question before booking.
• Escalate anything ambiguous. We would far rather answer a question than fix a rejected shipment.

Formal DG certification is welcome but not essential. Demonstrable, hands-on exposure to shipping batteries or flammable and environmentally hazardous liquids is.

• 3. Supplier coordination (pickup scope only)
• Act as the day-to-day pickup contact for our manufacturing partners in Asia, with contact multiple times per day where needed.
• Confirm pickup-ready dates against the PO, chase slippage, and pull the date forward before a factory volunteers that it has moved.
• Confirm the booked pickup back to the supplier and to the forwarder, and confirm that each pickup has physically happened, with quantities and pallet or carton counts as loaded.
• Escalate any pickup date movement immediately to Production and Operations. A slipped pickup is a planning problem before it is a shipping problem.
• Track supplier pickup-date accuracy over time and feed the actuals into planning lead time assumptions.
• Hand off cleanly. Anything a supplier raises that touches quality or specification goes to the Production team, with a short written handover and a check that it has landed.
• 4. Forecasting and planning data
• Build and maintain rolling demand and supply forecasts in Google Sheets: inventory cover, reorder points, lead times, MOQs, safety stock and open PO pipelines.
• Consolidate data from multiple sources (ERP exports, retailer sell-through reports, marketplace data, supplier confirmations) into clean, reliable models.
• Stress-test production plans for the things that actually break them: Chinese New Year and other factory shutdowns, port cut-offs and transit variability.
• Flag scheduling conflicts and stock-out or overstock risks with enough lead time to do something about them.
• 5. Freight invoice validation and cost control
• Audit every freight and customs invoice against the original quote line by line. Query anything that does not match.
• Verify chargeable versus gross and volumetric weight, CBM calculations, currency and

FX rates applied.

• Scrutinise accessorial charges: fuel and security surcharges, terminal handling, demurrage and detention, chassis, storage, congestion, customs entry and disbursement fees.
• Raise and pursue disputes with forwarders through to credit note. Keep a record of what was recovered.
• Maintain a live rate card and report on cost per kg, per CBM and per unit landed, by lane and by carrier.

Essential experience and skills

• 3+ years in international logistics, freight forwarding, 3PL operations or in-house supply chain.
• AI, good understanding of current models, experience in using them to create workflows, documents, and solve problems in a dynamic way.
• FMCG or consumer goods background. You understand SKU proliferation, promotional volume spikes, retailer compliance and the pace of the category.
• Hands-on experience with import and export documentation across air and ocean freight, and fluency in Incoterms 2020.
• Practical dangerous goods exposure - lithium batteries, flammable liquids or environmentally hazardous substances.
• Advanced Excel and Google Sheets. Non-negotiable. INDEX/MATCH and XLOOKUP, nested logic, pivot tables, QUERY, ARRAYFORMULA, IMPORTRANGE, data validation, and the judgement to build a model someone else can maintain.
• Numerate and sceptical. Comfortable pulling apart an invoice and telling a forwarder they have overcharged us.
• Excellent written English. Clear, short, direct messages. Most of this job is written communication across time zones.
• Reliable home working setup: stable high-speed internet, backup power or connectivity arrangement, quiet space for calls.

Desirable

• Claude/Chat GPT knowledge.
• IATA DGR certification (Category 6) or equivalent DG training.
• ERP experience - Fulfil, Net Suite, SAP, Odoo, Cin7 or similar.
• Exposure to US retail supply chain compliance: Walmart, Walgreens, Target or comparable routing portals, EDI, ASN and labelling requirements.
• Google Apps Script, Power Query, or SQL.
• Customs classification experience (HS/HTS codes, duty rates, country of origin rules).
• Experience working directly with Chinese manufacturers.
• What we are looking for in a person
• You chase without being told to chase.
• You escalate early and with a recommendation attached, not just a problem.
• You are obsessive about document accuracy, because in this category a wrong number on a form is a stopped shipment.
• You are comfortable being the one who says "that invoice is wrong" or "that plan does not work".
• You work independently across time zones and do not need to be managed daily.