Transportation Operations Center Manager

Franklin, TN – Onsite

About the role

As our new Transport Operations Manager, you will own the execution of our day-to-day transportation and shipment activities. Serving as the vital link between our manufacturing sites, RDCs, and external partners, you will manage critical carrier relationships, champion continuous improvement, and ensure world-class customer service. Your mission is to lead our logistics specialists in high-stakes load planning, scheduling, and error resolution, transforming daily operational challenges into streamlined, productive successes.

Responsibilities

• Direct day-to-day activities for Inbound/Outbound Logistics Specialists to ensure operational procedures are followed and business needs are met.
• Oversee daily transport operations, ensuring all shipments are covered, scheduled (delivery/pickup), and tendered in a timely manner.
• Develop and maintain root-cause corrective-action procedures, including trend analysis that drives process improvements.
• Ensure daily staffing plans, including contingency plans for time-sensitive operations (unscheduled absentees, customer issues, system malfunctions, equipment issues, etc.).
• Support site operations by ensuring carrier partners adhere to shipment schedules.
• Meet or exceed performance targets (On Time Pickup and Delivery, Tender Acceptance, SRG and Check Call Compliance, Linehaul Spend).
• Support Transportation cost management—linehaul, accessorials, and Fines & Fees mitigation.
• Create lean ways of working, drivers, and measures that support key business priorities.
• Own the business relationship with TMS, CASS, and facilitate innovation of analytics and insights.
• Manage the Transportation P&L, including overheads and expenses for transportation services.
• Analyze data and build network-optimization models; identify and lead initiatives to reduce logistics costs, improve transportation service and performance, and remove non-value-add activities.
• Investigate causes for service failures to determine where changes to process or performance are necessary and take appropriate actions.
• Act as the primary interface for 3PL load-planning partners to develop and execute future-forward network strategies.
• Ensure carrier compliance with all Mars technical and business-process requirements and develop corrective plans as needed.

Requirements

• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Logistics, Supply Chain, or a highly quantitative field AND/OR 2+ years’ experience in Logistics or Supply Chain Management.
• 5–7 years of progressive experience in transportation operations, logistics, or supply chain management.
• 2–3 years of direct people-management experience (leading logistics specialists, coordinators, or dispatchers).
• Hands-on experience working with a major Transportation Management System (TMS) (e.g., Blue Yonder, SAP, Oracle, OTM).
• Proficiency in Excel for data analysis (Pivot Tables, VLOOKUPs, data modeling).
• Experience managing operational budgets, tracking logistics costs, and mitigating accessorial fees.
• Experience managing carrier relationships, tracking SLAs, and enforcing carrier compliance.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate, coach, motivate, and lead a team.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to drive positive change in processes, systems, and culture.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in a large-scale, fast-paced FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods), Food/Beverage, or retail distribution environment.
• Direct experience with UberFreight TMS and CASS (freight payment/audit system).
• Advanced analytics capability (experience with Power BI, Tableau, SQL, or network-optimization software like Optilogic/Llamasoft).
• Extensive experience managing large-scale 3PL partnerships and co-developing long-term network load-planning solutions.
• Lean Six Sigma Green or Black Belt certification.
• Proven track record of leading structured continuous-improvement projects that resulted in measurable cost savings (productivity) and service improvements.
• Experience with process optimization, task automation (using tools like VBA, Power Automate, or Python), and creating interactive visualization tools/dashboards (such as Power BI, Tableau, or custom TMS reporting) to track and optimize key transport metrics.

Benefits

• Work with over 130,000 diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles.
• Join a purpose-driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
• Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
• An industry-competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.

Mars does not sponsor visas for this role. This position is not eligible for relocation benefits.