Transformation Principal Customs Brokerage North America

The Transformation Principal - Customs Brokerage - North America is a senior-level principal role leading the North America transformation of Customs brokerage and clearance from a transactional support function into a standardized, digitally enabled, performance-driven global product. The role leads and partners across a matrix environment of Operations, Finance, IT and Engineering focusing on modernizing, scaling, and optimizing customs operations through technology, process improvement, strategic and change leadership owning transformation and response to current and emerging Tariff and Customs complexities by providing strategic expertise and driving automation to enhance operational efficiency and compliance. This role bridges the gap between traditional regulatory compliance (CBP, PGAs) and digital innovation (AI, automation, TMS enhancement) to enhance efficiency and accuracy enabling improved productivity, profitability and growth. Provides strategic leadership and it is accountable for setting direction for the deployment, optimization, and governance of the transformation Program of the Nth America Customs clearance processes as well as digitalization initiatives including RPA, machine learning and AI for customs processes. Ensuring systems and digital solutions are effectively designed, deployed, adopted, and scaled to deliver measurable business outcomes. The role translates complex business and regulatory requirements into actionable program roadmaps, ensures disciplined execution, and advances the Nth America customs brokerage clearance strategy. The role specifically defines and drives the on time and on budget execution of the transformation program and delivering value to the business tracking KPIs to measure adoption, operational performance, customer experience impact, and return on investment such as but not limited to

• Reduction in entry processing time and cost.
• Improvement in entry accuracy rates and compliance scores.
• Increased automation percentage for document processing.
• Successful implementation of system updates and new tools.

Principle Duties, And Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Develop jointly with leadership and own execution of a multi-year operational transformation strategy roadmap, defining direction, priorities, and national deployment strategy in partnership with operations and engineering , while guiding functionality expansion and long‑term optimization aligned with digital transformation, compliance priorities, and company growth.
• Process Transformation: Work and steer Brokerage OPEX teams to evaluate, re-engineer, and standardize operating procedures (SOPs), KPIs, and workflows to improve efficiency. Provide leadership oversight for the implementation and scaling of automation solutions and capabilities, ensuring strong data governance and process alignment.
• Technology Implementation: Partner with IT/AI teams to implement automation tools, such as AI/ML classification, OCR, and API integrations to maximize TMS (e.g., CargoWise) features.
• Regulatory & Compliance Oversight: Ensure full adherence to U.S and CA regulations such as . Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations (19 CFR), PGAs, and bond management.
• Change Management: Drive adoption of new processes and technologies across the organization ensuring leadership buyin and ownership and employee adoption, Establish governance, adoption strategies, and performance metrics to maximize utilization, business value, and user effectiveness through structured training, feedback mechanisms, and analytics.
• Operational Excellence: Oversee daily execution of the transformation plan and operational and financial KPI improvements to target measuring performance and outlining improvement plans and driving the execution to reach targets
• Team Leadership: Mentor and develop staff, building a high-performance, compliant culture.
• Program and Project Management - Develop and Deliver structured transformation plans and milestones including P&L harmonization, capability mapping, digital deployment, KPI tracking and accelerated methodologies for delivery including regular updates on progress to leadership

Other

• Align regional and local leadership on strategic priorities and performance expectations.
• Establish governance forums and reporting cadence across all levels of the organization
• Drive regular communications and updates across the Customs clearance and brokerage organsiation
• Define KPIs and reporting standards ensuring transparency across project phases and lines of business including driving performance reviews and profitability optimization
• Integrate best practices into the standard operation model promoting consistency across regions, collaborate with overseas and partners to ensur