Import/Export Specialist

John Crane, a business of Smiths Group, is a global leader in mission-critical flow control solutions for energy and process industries that enable efficient and sustainable operations. Our products include mechanical seals and systems, couplings, bearings, filtration systems, and predictive digital monitoring technologies.

We have a global network of more than 200 sites in over 50 countries and employ more than 6,000 people worldwide. We partner with our customers to help them keep their operations safe, reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and meet the latest environmental standards.

John Crane is part of Smiths Group. For over 170 years, Smiths has been pioneering progress by engineering for a better future. We serve millions of people every year, helping to create a safer, more efficient, productive, and better-connected world across four global markets: energy, security & defence, space & aerospace, and general industrial. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs approximately 16,000 colleagues in over 50 countries.

Execute and manage import/export trade compliance activities across all John Crane sites in Mexico, ensuring full adherence to Mexican customs regulations while supporting John Crane’s global duty mitigation progamme and operational efficiency.

Strategy and Governance

• Help coordinate cross functional execution in Mexico to drive appropriately embedded and operationalized changes, as needed, to John Crane’s trade compliance function in Mexico.
• Help align day to day operational processes in Mexico with corporate governance policies, controls, and ethics standards from Smiths Group.
• Actively monitor, through effective processes, changes in the geopolitical climate impacting Mexico in order to help advise senior leadership on regulatory risks and mitigation strategies.

Compliance Operations

• Serve as a subject matter expert providing clear compliance advice on international trade activity matters relating to Mexico.
• Be accountable for the controls, operational processes and frameworks required to ensure John Crane meets its export control and sanctions, customs, and antiboycott compliance obligations, as applicable, in Mexico and ensure such items are firmly embedded within our Mexico operations. Actively monitor regulatory changes to ensure any warranted changes to the same are made as appropriate / required.
• Manage and assist with, as required, John Crane’s global trade compliance activities, including product classifications, export licensing, import permitting and customs clearing, restricted party screening, recordkeeping, and self-assessments, done by the business units in Mexico, and track completion of corrective measures, if any.
• Help conduct audits, investigations and remediation activities in Mexico to support Internal Audit and Ethics & Compliance.
• Monitor, measure and report on John Crane business units’ adherence to applicable laws, regulations and procedures in the conduct of trade activity in Mexico.

Tariff Mitigation

• Help devise strategy and coordinate cross functional teams to reduce current cost and risk exposure to US and other applicable tariffs in Mexico.
• Help deliver tariff modelling, forecasting and scenario planning.
• Help drive free trade zone and free trade agreement (including USMCA) utilisation and duty recovery initiatives.

Digital and Process Transformation

• Help implement the automation of classification, transaction screening and documentation workflows.
• Help implement enhanced governance for classification (export and import) and country of origin assignment and traceability in Mexico.

Risk Management and Assurance

• Assess and continuously monitor our trade compliance risk profile in Mexico and ensure its controls, processes, and frameworks to mitigate the risks are effective and fit for purpose.
• Ensure audit readiness and regulatory adherence.
• Help investigate potential compliance failures relating to Mexico, as applicable, and implement corrective actions as appropriate/required.

Stakeholder Engagement and Capability Building

• Directly report to John Crane’s Senior Regional Trade Compliance Manager, Americas, and work with a global network of other trade compliance managers and specialists.
• Help drive training, upskilling capability, tools and standardized ways of working in Mexico.
• Partner with Finance, Legal, Data, Commercial, Engineering, Operations, Procurement, Supply Chain, and, as needed, external advisors.
• A Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) required.
• Must be able to speak, read and write fluently in English and Spanish.
• Additional language skills beneficial.

Experience Required

• Significant experience with trade compliance responsibilities with a company with Mexican operations.
• Significant experience in managing international trade issues relating to Mexico within a complex global supply chain environment.
• Deep operational experience with Mexican customs processes (including under Ley Aduanera and the IMMEX program).
• Experience with Customs broker management.
• Experience in developing and implementing compliance policies, processes and procedures.
• Experience with ERP systems. Experience with SAP ERP and SAP GTS and also QAD ERP, beneficial. Experience with other TCM systems, also beneficial.
• Experience with export and import controls, economic sanctions, anti-bribery/anti-corruption and other trade laws, regulations and requirements, as applicable, administered by Mexico.
• Experience with export and import controls, economic sanctions, anti-bribery/anti-corruption, and other trade laws, regulations and requirements applicable in Mexico that are administered by jurisdictions outside of Mexico (e.g., the USMCA).
• Experience helping conduct compliance audits and drafting reports.
• Experience assisting with internal investigations of potential non-compliance.
• Track record of effective contribution to strategic programmes.
• Expertise in tariff management,
• Experience explaining complex regulations to non-expert stakeholders in a clear and understandable manner and helping turn the requirements into business actions.
• Solid financial and analytical capability.

• With colleagues stretching across the globe, we are proud of our diversity. To foster inclusivity, we run employee resource groups (ERGs) to provide a safe space for employees to connect and support each other. Our cross-business ERGs include Veterans, Pride Network, Black Employee Network, Women@Work Network, and Neurodiversity.

  Across our company, we recognize excellence, culminating in the Smiths Excellence Awards, our annual celebration of the most extraordinary activities, people, and projects that best showcase our strengths and help drive our business forward. We announce these on our annual Smiths Day, a global celebration of Smiths around our network.

  Join us for a great career with competitive compensation and benefits, while helping engineer a better future.

  According our mission, vision and Global Policies: Under no circumstances shall Staff be charged any fee or other costs in relation to their recruitment to work at Smiths, whether directly or indirectly. Any recruitment fees shall be paid by Smiths.

  Smiths will not employ anyone below the age of 18. Smiths will take reasonable steps to satisfy itself of the member of Staff’s age before that person starts work at Smiths. When persons under the age of 18 are employed, they must not do work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous or harmful or interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school.