Manager, Transportation FP&A

Worldpac; Oakbrook Terrace (IL); On-site; USD 110,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Worldpac is seeking a senior FP&A finance partner to own the end-to-end transportation and inbound landed cost view across all legs and 328 locations. You will manage the annual budget, rolling forecast, and accruals while modeling the financial impact of carrier changes, mode shifts, and network changes.

You will translate operational drivers into cost-per-unit metrics, maintain the landed-cost model, and support rate resets.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Supply Chain, or related field.
• 5+ years FP&A or finance with transportation exposure.
• Proven ownership of a full budget and forecast cycle.
• Strong understanding of multi-leg transportation cost structures.
• Experience with high-volume freight data from ERP/TMS.
• Multi-site distribution experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the transportation expense and inbound landed-cost budget across all four legs and 328 locations.
• Build and maintain rolling forecast with volume projections, rate cycles, surcharges, and fuel programs.
• Model financial impact of carrier changes, rate negotiations, mode shifts, and routing changes; provide cost/results guidance.
• Translate operational drivers into cost-per-unit metrics by leg, DC, and location type.
• Maintain landed cost model and support periodic rate resets.
• Support transportation capital and productivity analyses and insource-vs-outsource decisions.
• Own review and sign-off of transportation accruals for 13 fiscal periods; explain variances to leadership.
• Ensure freight is recorded to correct Oracle cost centers and departments.
• Deliver total cost to serve across inbound, middle mile, parcel, and final mile.
• Monitor avoidable costs and drive root-cause reductions; escalate risk.

Skills

FP&A

Cost accounting

Finance business partnering

Transportation costs understanding

Excel advanced

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance

MBA

Tools

Oracle ERP

Power BI

SQL

Job description

Position Summary

Owns the financial view of Worldpac's end-to-end transportation and inbound landed cost across all four legs, all modes, and 328 locations. Owns the annual budget, rolling forecast, period-end accruals, and driver-based variance reporting for transportation expense, duty, and inbound freight capitalization. Serves as the single finance partner to transportation, trade compliance, and procurement on carrier, mode, lane, and network decisions. Builds the models that connect inbound, middle mile, parcel, and final mile into one total cost to serve view, and validates that negotiated savings reach the P&L. Expected to deliver credible numbers, elevate financial risk early, and challenge assumptions constructively.

Core Responsibilities – Transportation

Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

• Own the annual transportation expense and inbound landed-cost budget across all four legs, all modes, and all 328 locations
• Build and maintain the rolling forecast, incorporating volume projections, ocean and air rate cycles, parcel GRI and surcharge changes, fuel programs, duty and tariff exposure, accessorial trends, and network or service-level changes
• Model the financial impact of carrier changes, rate negotiations, mode shifts (ocean to air, parcel to courier, LTL to dedicated), route and frequency changes, new branch or API openings, and sourcing-origin changes; provide finance recommendations on cost, service, and cash trade-offs
• Translate operational drivers (containers, TEUs, chargeable weight, packages, stops, miles, cube, lines shipped, selling days) into cost-per-unit metrics by leg, DC, region, and location type (DC / Regional / Branch / API)
• Maintain the landed cost model and the standard inbound freight rate used for inventory valuation; recommend and support periodic rate resets
• Support transportation capital and productivity initiatives, including dedicated-fleet-versus-purchased-transportation and insource-versus-outsource analyses, and the freight case for network changes

Period-End Close, Accruals & Financial Integrity

• Own the review and sign-off of transportation accruals for each of the 13 fiscal periods, working from data supplied by the Freight Audit & Invoice Manager, customs brokers, and TMS/Oracle activity
• Ensure freight is correctly recorded and allocated to the right Oracle department and cost center for each site — including the DC department range and the branch,
• Investigate and explain variances to budget, forecast, and prior year; deliver a clear driver-based variance narrative to Finance and operations leadership every period
• Maintain the accrual-to-actual accuracy metric by leg and drive continuous improvement in estimate quality
• Support external and internal audit requests, lender and sponsor reporting requirements, and controls documentation related to transportation expense, duty accruals, and inventory capitalization

Cost Analytics & Business Partnership

• Serve as the single finance point of contact for the transportation organization, attending operating reviews across all legs and providing independent financial perspective
• Produce carrier-level, lane-level, origin-level, DC-level, and location-level cost analytics; identify cost drivers, anomalies, and savings opportunities across the full network
• Deliver total cost to serve and total landed cost views that connect inbound, middle mile, parcel, and final mile into one picture rather than four disconnected budgets — including cost to serve by customer segment and by location type
• Quantify and validate savings from freight audit recoveries, rate renegotiations, route optimization, and duty mitigation; ensure claimed savings land in the forecast and the P&L rather than only in a deck
• Monitor and report avoidable cost — demurrage, detention, redelivery, expedite, air freight used to cover a supply miss — and hold the business accountable for root-cause reduction
• Challenge business assumptions constructively and elevate financial risk early, including exposure from rate increases, minimum volume commitments, fuel programs, tariff changes, and contractual commitments

Governance & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Partner with the Transportation Team on data quality, exception trends, and the financial impact of disputes, holds, and recoveries across roughly 2,500 final mile invoices per week plus broker, ocean, parcel, and linehaul billing
• Partner with Global Trade and Import Compliance on duty accrual methodology, HTS classification cost impact, broker performance, and trade-program financial reporting
• Support procurement and RFP events — ocean, parcel, LTL, dedicated, and final mile courier — with financial modeling, bid analysis, and post-award cost tracking
• Own and improve the transportation cost allocation methodology and the associated reporting hierarchy across DC and branch

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Supply Chain, or a related quantitative field.
• 5+ years of progressive experience in FP&A, cost accounting, or finance business partnering, with meaningful exposure to transportation, logistics, distribution, or supply chain cost
• Demonstrated ownership of a full budget and forecast cycle, including period close, accruals, and driver-based variance analysis
• Strong understanding of transportation cost structures across multiple legs and modes: ocean and air freight, customs duty and brokerage, TL and LTL, dedicated fleet, parcel rate and surcharge mechanics, and final mile courier economics
• Working knowledge of import cost components and terminology — Incoterms, HTS and duty rates, USMCA/CUSMA, MPF/HMF, drayage, demurrage and detention, FTZ and bonded movement
• Experience with inbound freight capitalization and landed-cost or standard-cost inventory methodology
• Experience with high-volume transactional freight data from ERP, TMS, customs broker, parcel-analytics
• Multi-site distribution or wholesale distribution experience strongly preferred; automotive aftermarket, industrial distribution, or hub-and-spoke replenishment networks especially relevant
• Intellectual honesty and the willingness to challenge assumptions - including those of senior stakeholders and suppliers - directly, constructively, and with data.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field; MBA, CPA, or CMA preferred
• Advanced Excel and financial modeling; strong Power BI skills, with SQL or comparable data tooling preferred
• Working knowledge of Oracle ERP and its cost-center and inventory structures; familiarity with stockroom-level and department-level reporting
• Working knowledge of US GAAP as it applies to expense recognition, accruals, inventory capitalization, and cost allocation
• Strong analytical rigor paired with the ability to explain results in plain operational language to branch, DC, and carrier-management leaders
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the credibility to both support and challenge the business

Posted Salary Range

USD $110,000.00 - USD $130,000.00 /Yr.