Senior Program Manager, Visibility Source

Flexport is on a mission to make global trade easy for everyone. Today, we help the world's fastest-growing brands manage their international supply chains, providing a fully-managed service for moving products between any two places on the planet. In time, we will give this same help to any company, no matter their size and where in the world they are.  At the center of Flexport’s many services is the fundamental need to provide visibility into where our clients’ stuff is, where it’s going, and most importantly, when it will get delivered. We call this the Visibility Product.

The Visibility Product’s mission is to deliver universal visibility of our client’s freight across all transportation modes (Ocean, Air, Rail, Truck, Barge, etc.) with unmatched accuracy and reliability. Our product powers nearly everything Flexport does, serving as the underlying utility for our business. But because of the siloed and inconsistent data that pervades the freight industry, accomplishing our mission is no simple thing. We are constantly searching for better ways to get the data our clients need so they always know the status and location of their shipments. 

A critical lynch pin in helping us accomplish this mission and keep delighting our customers is working with the hundreds of sources that supply us data. Whenever sources don’t provide fast, accurate, and reliable data, Flexport’s operations teams must track down the status manually. This hurts customer experience and slows us down. We know that our sources are hungry for deeper partnerships with Flexport and want feedback on their data’s performance. In this role, you’ll be in charge of building and maintaining relationships with those sources, helping them improve the quality and quantity of what they share with us. This is a critical, cannot-fail role for the team and the entire company. You will work in a cross-functional environment, partnering closely with the software product, engineering, program management, sales, and operations across the company to achieve our goals. You’ll get substantial leadership exposure, focus on the highest priority business issues, and be plugged into critical business functions. If you’re the kind of person that says “put me in coach, I want the ball”, this is your kind of role. 

• Own building and maintaining relationships with sources for Visibility data     
• Be responsible for monitoring performance of the data that comes from those sources, understanding the reasons why things change, and working with the sources and internal teams to improve the speed, accuracy, and reliability of the data we get
• Partner with Visibility Product Managers and Engineers to improve the methods of collection they use to ingest data from our sources
• Lead expansion efforts by identifying new sources to partner with, prioritizing those that are most beneficial to Flexport’s roadmap 
• Build constructive feedback loops with sources, including performance reports that helps them understand what is and isn’t working well with their data, which in turn helps improve Flexport
• Work with other teams at Flexport already engaged with our biggest service providers to help promote concerns specific to the Visibility 

• Energy, great communication skills, and a sense of relentlessness as you engage with sources with varying degrees of technical capability to improve their data sharing with Flexport. You must be able to evangelize Flexport’s long-term vision, helping other parties better understand what we are building and how it benefits them to deepen their partnership with us. A background in account management is ideal. 
• Dive Deep skills. You must be naturally curious and want to understand how Flexport’s software functions. You must know the “5 Why” framework or similar paradigms. You happily get your hands dirty and sweat details to find root causes. 
• Data-driven - the Visibility team’s product is data and you will be expected to eat, drink, and breathe it. You must care about (better yet, enjoy!) knowing the definition of metrics, how they get measured, the nuances in what they fail to capture, and more. With hundreds of sources, you must be able to operate at scale and self-service investigate into performance issues.
• Bias for Action: Once you’ve dived deep through data to find key insights, you build a plan and go on the offense to drive improvements. You’re not someone who needs things spelled out for them or is uncomfortable with ambiguity. You abhor being told what to do because you’ve already started doing it.
• Proven ability to thrive in a multicultural environment, and deeply understand differences of doing business in different regions
• Domain knowledge of Ocean and Air freight so you can have intelligent discussions with the other parties and understand what challenges they face in supplying Flexport with data
• Mature and independent self-starter. You will be a “n of 1” with no one else at Flexport doing the same role, with no pre-existing SOPs or templates. Semi-regular travel is expected for this role. 
• Nice to Have: Possess enough technical knowledge to read API documentation and examine a sample payload so you can have calls with the source’s IT team without requiring a Flexport engineer to attend

Flexport believes global trade can move the human race forward. Our mission is to make global trade easier for everyone. To achieve this, we’re building the “Operating System for Global trade” — a combination of modern, internet era technology & data analytics; logistics infrastructure; and supply chain expertise. 

Flexport connects ~10k clients and suppliers across >100 countries, including established global brands like Georgia-Pacific as well as emerging innovators like Sonos. Founded in 2013, we've raised >$1.3B from SoftBank, Founders Fund, GV, First Round Capital and YC. We’re excited to start seriously scaling up after our recent $1B investment from SoftBank’s Vision Fund early this year.

• Don’t be! We’re building the first Operating System for Global Trade. That’s why it’s incredibly important for us to bring people from diverse backgrounds and experiences together with our industry veterans to help move the freight forwarding industry forward.
• What’s freight forwarding and why does it matter? Freight forwarding is the coordination and shipment of goods from one place to another and it’s what makes global trade possible. Flexport is on a mission to make global trade easier for everyone because we believe it can help connect the world and break down economic barriers.
• We know this industry is complex. That’s why we invest in education starting day one with Flexport Academy, a one week intensive onboarding program designed specifically to set every new Flexport employee up for success. 

At Flexport, our ability to fulfill our mission of making global trade easy for everyone relies on having a diverse, dedicated and engaged workforce. That is why Flexport is committed to creating and nurturing an environment where anyone can be their authentic self. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, health status, marital and family status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.