Senior Manager- Global Trade Optimization & Special Programs

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About the Role:

The Senior Manager, Global Trade Optimization & Special Programs leads the architectural design, deployment, systemic maintenance, and health-tracking of the enterprise frameworks for structural customs savings, duty avoidance, and global supply chain security alignment. This role exercises end-to-end programmatic authority over non-transactional specialized regimes-including Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs), Duty Drawback, First Sale Valuation (FSV), Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), and international trade supply chain security initiatives such as Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) and the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism(C-TPAT) programs.

Operating with a global mandate, this leader translates dense statutory mechanisms into repeatable, automated, and legally defensible corporate programs that directly maximize margin and lower the enterprise operational Cost Per Unit (CPU). Rather than clearing freight, handling transactional entry filings, or troubleshooting day-to-day port holds (which sits entirely with regional Import Operations), this position serves as a strategic internal consultant and managed service supplier relationship manager.

The Senior Manager holds ultimate decision-making authority over how outsourced FTZ, Duty Drawback, and First Sale providers format, validate, and transmit data for CBP submissions, ensuring perfect structural alignment with peer trade operations, internal technology standards, and governance pillars.

For Tariff Engineering, this role operates strictly in an expert advisory capacity to the sourcing and manufacturing organizations, who retain commercial ownership of the final landed-cost outcomes. For AEO/C-TPAT, this position owns core program maintenance, portal administration, and annual validation letters, while seamlessly routing background supply chain physical security risk assessments and foreign manufacturer field audits to the Global Trade Governance team.

What You Will Do:

Managed Service Provider & Specialist Vendor Governance

• Govern Optimization Service Providers: Manage the end-to-end performance, operational SLAs, and supplier integrity of outsourced Duty Drawback, First Sale, and FTZ administrators.
• Direct First Sale Gatekeeping: Review independent manufacturer valuation findings from external First Sale audit experts; perform high-level verification and critical cross-examination of provider calculations to author the final "Go/No-Go" operational recommendations for Global Trade Leadership.

Trade Program Leadership & Structural Architecture

• Architect Global Special Programs: Provide end-to-end programmatic design, compliance enablement, and qualification frameworks for FTZs, Duty Drawback, Free Trade Agreements, inward/outward processing regimes, and Bonded Logistics Parks across all Disney geographies and lines of business.
• Publish Guideline Frameworks: Author, distribute, and maintain specialized program guidelines, eligibility matrices, and qualification rulesets to be executed explicitly by regional Import Operations teams and external customs brokers.
• Deliver Tariff Engineering Advisory Workflows: Act as the primary internal Trade advisor to Sourcing, R&D, and Manufacturing during early-stage product design lifecycles; identify legally compliant structural duty minimization opportunities.
• Support Global Security & Compliance Certifications: Standardize and support global AEO and C-TPAT frameworks through close alignment with regional trade partners and the Trade Governance team.

Security Program Governance & Portal Administration

• Central AEO & C-TPAT Certifications: Manage the central corporate supply chain security portals, maintain active security profiles, and execute required annual certification and validation workflow letters.
• Threat Awareness: Prioritize, track, and filter supply chain risk intelligence data collected via external data sources and cross-functional partners executing front-end screening to eliminate false positives before routing high-impact threats to the Global Trade Governance team for independent validation and execution of vendor specific compliance oversight actions.

Technology, Data & Value Realization Alignment

• Define Business Technology Requirements: Identify and document high-level business logic and data requirements for optimization programs; partner with the Senior Manager of Trade Technology to translate these business rules into formal functional specifications, approve GTMS automated system configurations, and validate exception rule testing logic.
• Monitor Financial & Margin Impact: In partnership with Finance, measure and report projected and actualized duty avoidance, drawback recovery metrics, and overall program efficiency to validate total value delivery. Create and communicate KPIs for senior leadership.

People Leadership & Cross-Functional Governance

• Lead and Develop Talent: Directly lead, coach, and develop a specialized team of Duty Drawback, Trade Program, and Duty Optimization Analysts. Establish distinct performance models, career pathways, and technical competencies.
• Promote Results-Based Culture: Foster a high-performing team environment focused on interdependence, accountability, and continuous technology design and adoption.
• Corrective and Preventative Action: Partner seamlessly with Global Trade Governance & Systems, and internal/external audit teams during routine reviews, maintaining accountability for root-cause analysis, program quality and corrective actions.

Positioning Within the Trade Management Operating Model

• Responsible for programmatic architecture, vendor SLA governance, savings optimization, implementation guidelines, and structural program guardrails.
• Distinct from Compliance & Regional Ops: Sets the programmatic guidelines that regional Import Operations and external brokers execute; does not write enterprise policy, file daily entry declarations, or run independent risk audits.
• Enterprise Impact: Maximizes margin realization through structural duty avoidance and secures trade velocity via centralized AEO& C-TPAT certification maintenance.

Qualifications and Skills:

• Minimum 8 or more years of progressive experience in international trade, customs compliance, or global program management within a highly matrixed multinational corporate ecosystem or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated experience designing, configuring, and administering complex duty-savings frameworks, specifically Duty Drawback, FTZs, and multi-regional FTAs managed through co-managed service provider models.
• Solid grasp of core supply chain security certification requirements (AEO & C-TPAT), portal management workflows, and foreign manufacturer security validation protocols.
• Proven people leadership experience directly managing technical analysts or compliance specialists.
• Superior communication skills-adept at translating dense, technical statutory language into clear, business-focused strategic briefs for cross-functional leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Licensed Customs Broker (LCB) or equivalent professional trade credential.
• Functional experience administering or validating automated qualification modules within enterprise Global Trade Management Systems (GTMS) or ERPs (e.g., SAP GTS).

Scope & Impact

• Enterprise-wide accountability for a multi-faceted global 8-figure duty savings portfolio.
• Direct impact on: Enterprise P&L (via duty avoidance, drawback optimization, and tariff engineering advisory), corporate cash flow, supply chain resilience, and global systems scaling and adoption.

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