Lead Freight Specialist

The Lead Freight Specialist supports the Global Freight Manager and oversees global freight movements, with accountability for outbound and inbound flows across the UK, Germany and France, including shipments to RS APAC and the US. The role ensures timely delivery of replenishment stock and customer orders to Distribution Centres and 3PLs worldwide, while managing freight forwarder performance and proactively addressing service issues using data and KPIs. What You Will Be Doing

• Manage and control daily volumes, ensuring sufficient carrier capacity is always available.
• Monitor performance and SLA metrics, acting as the point of contact for freight-related issues as required.
• Maintain dashboards covering spend, performance, operations, and customer experience.
• Present monthly performance overviews to the business, contributing to MBRs where needed.
• Maintain and oversee global SOPs, driving standardized processes across the network.
• Analyze business processes to identify opportunities for service improvement, as well as cost and CO reduction.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify better ways to serve customers through continuous improvement initiatives.
• Support freight-related projects across the business.
The Freight Lead Specialist will collaborate with stakeholders both within and beyond RS Group, including:
• Transport team members
• Supply Chain Optimisation team members
• Health, Safety and ESG teams
• Distribution Centre colleagues
• Colleagues across other functions
• Carriers and brokers
• Third-party logistics providers (3PL)
  
  Hands-on experience in one or more transportation modes: air, sea, or road.
• Understanding of carriers' invoices, including how they are structured and how surcharges are applied.
• Knowledge of customs clearance processes.
• Understanding of Incoterms and their application to shipments.
• Experience in data analysis, handling large volumes of data, and deriving actionable insights.
• Proficiency in all MS Office applications.
• Experience in compliance and problem-solving.
• Strong communication skills with great attention to detail.
• Ability to work effectively both in a team and independently.
• Capable of managing multiple tasks efficiently and meeting deadlines
  
  We've been solving industry problems for over 80 years. We turn the 'what ifs' into the 'why nots', the impossible into the possible.
Our purpose? Making amazing happen for a better world. We offer service and product solutions to over 1.2 million customers globally, shipping a parcel every 2 seconds to over 130 countries. With over 800,000 stocked and 3 million unstocked products, we're a trusted partner to the world's leading industries. We're looking for curious, driven, and empathetic professionals to join our journey. People who think differently, act with purpose, and want to make a real impact., Join c. 9,000 colleagues and help us shape the future of our industry. Whoever you are, wherever you are - it all starts here.

Our Reward Strategy Philosophy is designed to offer market competitive base salaries and provide all of our people the opportunity to participate in a short-term incentive, enabling them to share in the success of the Company. Our total reward package is more than just the cash; our recognition and benefit offering provide the opportunity for us to recognise, reward and enable the wellbeing of our people at all stages of their journey with RS. Our rewards and benefits vary by country, but include:
• Financial - pension/retirement; life assurance; salary finance (payroll deduction loan scheme)
• Wellbeing - medical plans; health screening; critical illness; disability insurance; holiday / paid time off; employee assistance programme; discounted gym/health club membership
• Lifestyle - transportation assistance schemes (e.g., cycle to work, travel loans, car leasing); onsite catering/lunch vouchers; retail discounts
• Spotlight - our global recognition programme provides a platform to highlight and recognise people role modelling our values