Role: Logistics & Supply Chain/ Operations Manager
Priority Location: Philippines and Latin America
Working Hours: 9am - 5pm (Mon - Fri) PST
Salary Range: $2,000 - $3,200 USD ($) base salary per month with commission.
(The final offer is at the client’s discretion and depends on the candidate’s interview result, skills, and experience.)
Type of contract: Independent Contractor
Type of job: Remote
Key Responsibilities:
- Own internal freight across the company’s network — moving raw materials and finished goods between ports, warehouses, customers, and co-packers reliably and cost-effectively.
- Manage carrier and 3PL relationships for LTL/FTL freight, negotiating rates and service levels and holding partners accountable to them.
- Plan and optimize routing, load consolidation, and scheduling of inter-facility movements to minimize cost, transit time, and handling.
- Sequence internal freight against production runs and demand so that material is in the right place at the right time, neither idle nor short.
- Troubleshoot and resolve freight and movement bottlenecks — delays, damages,
- storage constraints — as they arise.
Cost Optimization & Unit Economics
- Update costing and unit economics for all product lines — building and maintaining a clear, current view of landed cost, COGS, and contribution margin for different SKUs.
- Think strategically about total cost across the chain: continuously look for savings across vendors (sourcing, terms, packaging) and movements (freight mode, routing, consolidation, warehousing), and quantify the trade-offs between them.
- Partner with the founders to keep pricing, BOMs, and cost assumptions accurate as inputs — yuzu pricing, freight, tariffs, packaging — shift, flagging margin impacts early.
- Track operational and logistics costs, surface variances to leadership, and turn them into concrete cost-reduction initiatives.
Production & Supply Planning
- Plan and coordinate production runs across multiple SKUs, ensuring material is where it needs to be.
- Work with the Operations Director to manage inventory and storage across the network.
Finance & Systems
- Support the transition and management of accounting and operations systems that stem from our inventory records (e.g., Settle).
- Issue POs for vendors and follow up with founders for timely payments.
- Track operational costs and identify opportunities for savings.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Communicate supply chain updates, risks, and cost initiatives to leadership and cross-functional teams.
- Present updates during the weekly full-team Operations Meeting.
Required Qualifications & Skills:
- Proven experience in supply chain, procurement, logistics, or operations management (food & beverage or CPG preferred).
- Direct international import experience — managing overseas vendors, customs documentation, freight forwarders, duties, and tariffs.
- Experience managing freight and logistics — LTL/FTL, carriers, and 3PLs — including negotiating rates and service levels.
- Strong track record sourcing raw materials and managing external vendors, including negotiating pricing and terms.
- Comfort building and maintaining costing and unit-economic models, with an analytical mindset for optimizing cost across vendors and movements.
- Strong project management and organizational skills; able to manage multiple priorities and deadlines and see projects through end to end.
- Experience with inventory management, logistics, and working with co-packers.
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills.
- Proficiency with digital tools (e.g., ClickUp, Google Sheets, Slack, Front, Settle), or a willingness to quickly learn unfamiliar tools.
- Multi-lingual (Japanese / Korean / Chinese) is a major plus.
The Company’s Culture & Expectations:
- Hands-on, proactive, and resourceful — willing to “own” projects and see them through.
- Comfortable wearing many hats and stepping in wherever needed, from regulatory paperwork to warehouse visits.
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment with evolving priorities.
- Collaborative and transparent; able to work cross-functionally and communicate clearly.
- You don’t hesitate to pick up the phone to solve issues, and you thrive bringing structure and fast decision-making to where it matters.
- Committed to quality, innovation, and continuous improvement.