About the Role
Our client is an established international freight forwarding and logistics organization with a strong presence in Japan and an extensive global network.They are seeking an experienced
Country Product Manager – Air & Ocean Freight
to lead the development, commercial performance, procurement strategy, and overall competitiveness of the Air and Ocean Freight products in Japan.This is a senior product leadership position with responsibility for driving profitable growth across both products. The successful candidate will work closely with country leadership, sales, operations, procurement, and regional/global product teams to ensure competitive pricing, appropriate capacity, strong carrier relationships, and effective commercial execution.
The role requires a combination of freight forwarding expertise, procurement capability, commercial acumen, operational understanding, and leadership skills.Key ResponsibilitiesAir &
Ocean Product Strategy
- Own the overall performance and development of the Air and Ocean Freight products within Japan.
- Develop and execute the country product strategy in alignment with regional and global objectives.
- Translate broader product strategies into initiatives appropriate for the Japanese market.
- Identify key trade lanes, industries, customer segments, and growth opportunities.
- Work closely with Sales and Operations leadership to ensure product priorities support commercial growth.
- Monitor product performance, gross profit, yield, volume, and profitability across customers and trade lanes.
- Identify opportunities to improve margins, optimize procurement costs, and expand value-added service offerings.
- Develop annual and seasonal volume and capacity forecasts for Air and Ocean Freight.
Carrier, Airline & Vendor Management
- Develop and maintain strategic relationships with shipping lines, airlines, consolidators, co-loaders, trucking providers, and other transportation partners.
- Determine appropriate carrier and vendor strategies based on service quality, pricing, capacity, network coverage, and customer requirements.
- Negotiate commercial terms, capacity agreements, rates, credit conditions, and service commitments.
- Evaluate carrier and airline performance against agreed service levels and commercial objectives.
- Conduct regular performance reviews with strategic transportation partners.
- Address service failures, capacity constraints, operational issues, and other vendor-related escalations.
- Conduct root-cause analysis and implement corrective action plans where supplier performance does not meet expectations.
- Ensure appropriate diversification of suppliers while maintaining strong relationships with strategic partners.
Procurement, Pricing & Rate Management
- Lead country-level Air and Ocean Freight procurement activities.
- Negotiate competitive freight rates and capacity with airlines, shipping lines, consolidators, and other suppliers.
- Support rate negotiations for strategic customers, tenders, project opportunities, and high-volume accounts.
- Manage and maintain appropriate buying and recommended selling rate structures.
- Ensure competitiveness of freight rates, surcharges, local charges, pickup and delivery costs, and related logistics services.
- Support spot pricing requirements and non-standard commercial opportunities.
- Monitor market rate movements and take appropriate action to maintain competitiveness and profitability.
- Ensure pricing decisions appropriately balance customer competitiveness, capacity requirements, and margin expectations.
- Support contract and rate management processes to ensure commercial agreements are accurately implemented.
Commercial & Business Development
- Act as the primary Air and Ocean Freight product partner to the country's commercial organization.
- Work closely with Sales leadership to identify and develop new customers, trade lanes, and business opportunities.
- Provide commercial teams with product expertise, market information, buying guidance, and recommended selling strategies.
- Participate in strategic customer meetings where product expertise can increase the likelihood of securing or expanding business.
- Support major RFQs, tenders, and strategic account opportunities.
- Lead product-related tender strategy, including procurement approach, capacity considerations, risk assessment, and profitability recommendations.
- Identify opportunities for cross-selling between Air Freight, Ocean Freight, Customs, Inland Transportation, Warehousing, and other logistics solutions.
- Support sales teams in developing customer solutions based on operational feasibility, market conditions, and commercial attractiveness.
- Maintain close alignment with country management on product performance, growth priorities, and commercial opportunities.
Air Freight Product Management
- Develop relationships and commercial strategies with key airlines, GSAs, and air freight partners.
- Manage air freight capacity and allocation requirements across strategic trade lanes.
- Monitor airline schedules, capacity developments, rate movements, peak-season conditions, and market disruptions.
- Support procurement of block space, allocations, consol services, spot capacity, and other capacity solutions where appropriate.
- Develop competitive import and export air freight solutions for priority markets.
- Work closely with operations to ensure commercially viable solutions can be delivered consistently.
- Identify opportunities to improve consolidation, routing, utilization, and gross profit performance.
Ocean Freight Product Management
- Develop strong relationships with key shipping lines, NVOCCs, consolidators, and co-loaders.
- Manage procurement and capacity strategies across both FCL and LCL products.
- Monitor vessel capacity, blank sailings, equipment availability, port congestion, schedule reliability, and market developments.
- Manage allocation requirements based on commercial forecasts and customer commitments.
- Develop competitive FCL and LCL solutions across priority trade lanes.
- Review local charges, freight rates, surcharges, inland transportation costs, and other associated cost components.
- Work closely with commercial and operational teams to improve Ocean Freight volume, yield, and profitability.
Market Intelligence
- Continuously monitor developments within the Japanese and international Air and Ocean Freight markets.
- Track carrier and airline capacity, pricing trends, trade developments, competitor activity, and supply chain disruptions.
- Provide regular market intelligence and product updates to commercial, operational, and management teams.
- Translate market information into actionable recommendations relating to pricing, capacity, procurement, and commercial priorities.
- Identify emerging market opportunities and risks that may impact customers or the business.
Product Training & Capability Development
- Develop the Air and Ocean Freight knowledge of commercial and operational teams.
- Conduct regular product, pricing, market, and trade-lane training.
- Provide guidance on freight procurement, capacity management, pricing strategy, and solution development.
- Promote effective collaboration between Product, Sales, Operations, and other supporting functions.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement and strong product ownership.
Regional & Global Collaboration
- Act as the key interface between the Japan organization and regional/global Air and Ocean Freight product teams.
- Coordinate cross-border opportunities and strategic trade-lane initiatives.
- Share market intelligence, customer opportunities, capacity requirements, and procurement information across countries.
- Support regional procurement initiatives and multinational customer opportunities.
- Ensure appropriate alignment between local market requirements and broader network strategies.
- Promote consistency in product management, pricing, procurement, and operational execution across the network.
Operational & Financial Performance
- Monitor Air and Ocean Freight performance across volume, revenue, gross profit, yield, and other key performance indicators.
- Work with Operations to address service, productivity, quality, or cost issues.
- Ensure appropriate data quality and reporting to support product and commercial decision-making.
- Identify opportunities to improve processes, productivity, service quality, and financial performance.
- Act as a senior escalation point for significant product, carrier, airline, pricing, or capacity-related issues.
Experience & Qualifications
- Approximately 10+ years of experience within international freight forwarding, logistics, shipping, or air cargo.
- Strong knowledge of both Air Freight and Ocean Freight products.
- Significant experience in freight procurement, pricing, carrier or airline management, or product management.
- Good understanding of international freight rates, capacity management, trade lanes, surcharges, and market dynamics.
- Experience managing FCL and LCL products as well as international air freight.
- Demonstrated ability to negotiate effectively with airlines, shipping lines, consolidators, and other transportation providers.
- Proven experience supporting strategic accounts, RFQs, and large-scale tenders.
- Strong commercial understanding with demonstrated experience improving gross margin and product profitability.
- Good understanding of freight forwarding operations and the relationship between product, procurement, operations, and sales.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret market, pricing, volume, and profitability data.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and negotiation skills.
- Comfortable operating within an international and matrix organization.
- Strong sense of ownership and ability to operate independently.
- Proactive, commercially minded, and solutions-oriented.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities within a fast-moving freight environment.
- Strong English communication skills, both written and spoken.
- Japanese language capability appropriate for working with local customers, suppliers, and internal stakeholders.
- Previous people leadership or team management experience strongly preferred.
- Willingness to travel domestically and internationally when required.
Ideal CandidateThe successful candidate will be an experienced freight forwarding professional who understands both the commercial and operational dynamics of Air and Ocean Freight.T
hey will be equally comfortable negotiating with airlines and shipping lines, reviewing pricing and profitability, supporting sales teams on major opportunities, discussing operational challenges, and presenting product strategy to senior management.This role will suit someone who wants broad ownership of the freight product portfolio and the opportunity to directly influence growth, procurement, pricing, service quality, and profitability within the Japan business.
