Director of Transportation

* This position is on-site - Relocation assistance not offered. *

Summary:

The Director of Transportation will lead the North America transportation strategy and operations to ensure timely, cost-effective delivery of products, while managing carrier and port partnerships and aligning closely with Sales and Supply Chain to meet customer and business objectives.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop and lead the North America transportation sourcing strategy, including carrier portfolio design, contract negotiation, and rate benchmarking against market indices, to optimize cost, service reliability, and network resilience while supporting margin growth and commercial expansion.
• Oversee end-to-end transportation planning and execution across North America, forecasting capacity needs in alignment with production, demand planning, and customer commitments to consistently meet service-level agreements for time-sensitive, perishable products.
• Provide executive oversight of transportation exception management, including service failures, delays, rejections, overweight incidents, and accidents, ensuring rapid issue resolution, minimal customer impact, and continuous improvement through root cause analysis and carrier accountability.
• Lead transportation continuity and risk-mitigation planning for disruptive events such as extreme weather, port congestion, government actions, and supply chain disruptions across sourcing and destination regions, ensuring preparedness, policy alignment, and proactive communication with internal stakeholders and carrier partners.
• Identify, evaluate, and deploy innovative transportation solutions and enabling technologies (e.g., optimization tools, visibility platforms, alternative modes, network redesigns) to improve efficiency, enhance service performance, and reduce delivered freight costs across the North America network.
• Serve as a strategic partner to Sales, Operations, Production, DOCE, and external carriers, aligning transportation capabilities with commercial priorities, customer requirements, and operational constraints to maximize asset utilization, improve on-time delivery, and support growth initiatives.
• Govern third-party freight billing and payment processes, ensuring accuracy, policy compliance, and minimal days outstanding, while strengthening controls and transparency across transportation spend.
• Set strategic direction for routing, load planning, and capacity allocation, ensuring execution teams align daily and weekly transportation plans with customer service expectations, network efficiency goals, and cost targets.
• Ensure full compliance with Dole's Risk Management standards, including carrier insurance, interchange agreements, and contractual obligations, while mitigating operational and financial exposure across the transportation network.
• Monitor and optimize container utilization and turnaround performance, partnering with carriers and internal teams to reduce dwell time, improve asset velocity, and ensure data accuracy for performance reporting and decision-making.
• Own the North America transportation budget and financial performance, integrating freight rates, fuel trends, capacity dynamics, and operational efficiencies to deliver disciplined cost control, accurate forecasting, and alignment with Dole's financial objectives.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree required in Business, Logistics, Transportation, or Supply Chain Management.
• 10+ years of experience required in transportation routing, negotiating, and customer relations.
• 5+ years of experience required managing 10+ direct reports.
• Complete understanding of transportation regulations and laws, 3PL industry, container and warehouse operational knowledge.
• Advanced proficiency with MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, and Word).
• Ability to travel up to 50%

Dole Fresh Fruit Company is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status, age or any other federally protected class.