Vice President of Operations, Ocean Freight and 4PL

Skypace; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Skypace, the ocean freight division of Maxton Shipping Inc., seeks a Vice President of Operations to lead ocean freight, drayage, documentation and customer programs across US branches. The role reports to the CEO and works with CCO to ensure execution across every program and shift.

You will own the operations budget, set standards, sponsor enterprise implementations, and drive improvements in reliability, cost to serve and KPI performance.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in international logistics operations.
• 5+ years leading multi-site teams.
• Experience with ocean import/export, drayage, FMC rules for NVOCCs.
• Proven track record delivering customer scorecard metrics.

Responsibilities

• Run the operation across US branches and shifts.
• Set operating standards: SOPs, service levels, escalation paths and quality checks.
• Own the operations budget, cost to serve and productivity per operator.
• Sponsor enterprise implementations and sign off go-live and hypercare exit.
• Join customer business reviews with the CCO and address corrective actions.
• Collaborate with procurement on carrier, drayage and partner performance.
• Maintain FMC, CBP compliance and audit standards.
• Manage incident handling: claims, cargo holds, demurrage disputes, business continuity.

Skills

Executive leadership

Data analytics

TMS/Bi tools

Tools

TMS platform

BI tools

Job description

Vice President of Operations, Ocean Freight and 4PL

Pipeline role. Skypace interviews on a rolling basis and hires when a matching customer program is confirmed.

Skypace is the ocean freight division of Maxton Shipping Inc., an FMC-licensed NVOCC (OTI license 027662) headquartered in California. Skypace runs ocean freight and 4PL programs for 200+ organizations in 20+ countries, under commercial contracts with nine ocean carriers.

Enterprise shippers award ocean freight and 4PL programs on evidence: schedule reliability, charge exposure, invoice accuracy, records and speed of implementation. They confirm the award every quarter in a business review. Because the commercial promise is only as good as the operation behind it, Skypace is appointing one executive to own execution across every program, branch and shift.

The Vice President of Operations, Ocean Freight and 4PL reports to the CEO and works alongside the Chief Commercial Officer. The role leads ocean freight operations, drayage coordination, documentation, customer programs and implementation across the US branches, and coordinates execution with the Warsaw office and overseas partners.

Compensation: $180,000 to $240,000 base salary, plus an annual bonus tied to the operations scorecard and a long-term incentive.

Location: Houston, TX, on site, with regular travel to The Woodlands, the California branches and customer sites.

Operations Scorecard:

• Schedule reliability against the market figure, and booking outcome, across all programs;
• Charge exposure: demurrage, detention and accessorials per container;
• Invoice variance and dispute cycle time;
• Records complete: FMC, ISF and AMS timeliness, audit-ready retention;
• Implementation: days from award to first booking, hypercare exit on plan;
• Operator productivity and cost to serve;
• Shift and branch coverage, staffing and retention;
• Customer business reviews: SLA attainment and corrective actions closed.

What You Will Do:

Run the operation

• Lead ocean import and export operations, drayage coordination, documentation and customs interfaces across the US branches and shifts;
• Set operating standards: SOPs, service levels, escalation paths and quality checks;
• Own the operations budget, cost to serve and productivity per operator.

Deliver customer programs

• Hold program managers, implementation managers and analysts to the program scorecards;
• Sponsor enterprise implementations and sign off go-live and hypercare exit;
• Join customer business reviews with the Chief Commercial Officer and answer for corrective actions.

Carriers, providers and partners

• Work with procurement on carrier, drayage and partner performance: allocations used, service failures, corrective actions;
• Align overseas partners on process, data and documentation standards.

Compliance and risk

• Keep operations compliant with FMC, CBP and carrier requirements, and with customer audit standards;
• Own incident management: claims, cargo holds, demurrage disputes and business continuity.

Systems and process

• Work with the product team on the operating workflow in the Skypace platform: what operators need and what is automated next;
• Use operational data to remove manual steps and recurring exceptions.

People

• Hire, develop and retain branch and shift leaders;
• Staff and train the bench for new customer programs before they go live.

Operational Interfaces:

• Executive: CEO, Chief Commercial Officer, finance, product;
• Customer side: heads of logistics, supply chain and procurement, in business reviews and escalations;
• External: carrier operations and account management, drayage and warehouse providers, customs brokers, overseas partners.

You're a Fit If:

• 12+ years in international logistics operations, with 5+ years leading multi-site teams;
• One of two backgrounds: senior operations leadership at a forwarder or NVOCC, or leadership of LLP, 3PL or 4PL governance at a large shipper;
• A record of running operations to a customer scorecard: reliability, charges, invoices, records, implementation;
• Working knowledge of US ocean import and export execution, drayage, customs interfaces and FMC rules for NVOCCs;
• Experience scaling teams, shifts and branches while holding cost to serve;
• Fluency in operational data and systems: a TMS or forwarding platform, BI tools, integration projects;
• Executive presence with customer leaders and carrier management.

This role turns the commercial promise into delivered performance. Every program scorecard Skypace presents to a customer is produced by the operation this executive leads. Skypace applies structured systems to booking, tracking, documentation and audit, and relies on experienced operations leadership to run them at scale across branches, shifts and customer programs.

Professionally, the role carries full accountability for execution at an FMC-licensed NVOCC with its own platform, alongside a CEO and a Chief Commercial Officer who lead the enterprise programs.

Skypace operates in full compliance with international freight forwarding regulations.
Maxton Shipping Inc DBA Skypace is a registered NVOCC (Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier) under FMC License 027662.