Manager, Special Projects

The Special Projects Manager leads high-impact operational initiatives that improve execution, consistency, and financial performance across the LTL network. This role addresses complex operating challenges at the point of execution, translating network priorities into measurable improvements at service centers and field locations.

The position combines enterprise project leadership with hands-on operational accountability. It requires a leader who can assess performance quickly, identify root causes, align cross-functional teams, and implement solutions that improve service, safety, productivity, utilization, and cost control.

Success means delivering strategic projects on schedule, strengthening service center performance, establishing sustainable operating disciplines, and providing effective senior leadership coverage when business needs require it. The Special Projects Manager will initially focus on a comprehensive operational review and performance improvement plan for the DLS facility.

What you'll do

1. Lead network-wide operational initiatives

• Own operational projects across the LTL network from initial assessment and planning through implementation, adoption, and performance validation.
• Build clear project plans with defined objectives, milestones, accountabilities, risks, and measurable outcomes.
• Partner with Service Center Management, Regional Leadership, Linehaul, Fleet, Safety, Maintenance, Customer Service, and other Operations teams to execute strategic priorities.
• Support service center startups, expansions, restructures, and other business-critical operational changes.
• Provide concise, decision-ready project updates and performance insights to senior leadership.

2. Improve service center performance

• Analyze service center metrics to identify opportunities affecting service, safety, productivity, profitability, equipment utilization, claims, and operating efficiency.
• Conduct structured operational assessments across pickup and delivery, dock, linehaul, routing, staffing, equipment, and customer service functions.
• Identify underlying performance drivers through disciplined root cause analysis rather than short-term symptom correction.
• Develop and implement corrective action plans with clear owners, deadlines, and performance measures.
• Establish repeatable best practices that can be sustained locally and scaled across the network.

3. Provide operational leadership and continuity

• Serve as backup senior operational leadership, including Service Center Manager coverage, when business needs require.
• Lead daily pickup and delivery, dock, linehaul, customer service, and administrative operations during assigned coverage periods.
• Maintain operational continuity while protecting service commitments, employee safety, customer experience, and financial performance.
• Make timely operating decisions, resolve escalated challenges, and ensure accountability across assigned teams.
• Maintain compliance with company policies, safety requirements, DOT regulations, and established operating procedures.

4. Strengthen labor execution and team performance

• Align staffing levels, labor plans, schedules, and daily execution with freight volumes and service requirements.
• Monitor productivity, utilization, service performance, safety, claims, and cost controls, taking corrective action when performance falls below expectations.
• Coach and develop supervisors, drivers, dock employees, customer service employees, and administrative staff.
• Set clear performance expectations and reinforce consistent management routines across operating teams.
• Support local leaders through periods of change while maintaining accountability for measurable results.

5. Drive the initial DLS performance assignment

• Conduct a comprehensive operational review of the DLS facility, including staffing, dock operations, routing, service performance, equipment utilization, and financial performance.
• Identify the root causes of operational challenges and prioritize actions based on business impact, urgency, and sustainability.
• Implement a structured corrective action plan with defined goals, benchmarks, ownership, and reporting cadence.
• Provide direct leadership support to local management while maintaining accountability for project execution and operational improvement.
• Measure results, adjust the plan as needed, and establish operating disciplines that support sustained performance.

What you bring

Required qualifications

• Minimum of eight years of progressive LTL operations experience.
• Deep working knowledge of pickup and delivery, dock operations, linehaul, terminal management, labor planning, and transportation regulations.
• Proven experience leading complex operational projects from assessment through implementation.
• Demonstrated success managing service center operations and leading teams in fast-moving operating environments.
• Strong analytical capability with experience using operational and financial data to identify performance gaps and implement sustainable solutions.
• Ability to manage competing priorities, make sound decisions under pressure, and maintain execution discipline across multiple locations.
• Strong leadership, communication, organizational, and cross-functional influence skills.
• Proficiency with transportation management systems, labor management tools, reporting platforms, and Microsoft Office Suite.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 75%, including travel to service centers and field locations.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Transportation, Logistics, or a related field preferred. Equivalent relevant experience will be considered.

Preferred qualifications

• Previous experience as a Service Center Manager or in a comparable terminal leadership position.
• Experience leading multi-site operational improvement or network transformation initiatives.
• Lean, Six Sigma, or other continuous improvement training or experience.
• Advanced knowledge of network optimization, labor planning, performance management, and transportation cost control.
• Experience supporting service center startups, expansions, restructures, or operational turnarounds.

How you operate

• You think in systems, understanding how decisions at one service center affect the broader network.
• You own outcomes, not activity, and remain accountable through implementation and performance validation.
• You move quickly without sacrificing safety, operating discipline, or organizational alignment.
• You use data to define problems, test assumptions, and focus resources where they will produce the greatest business impact.
• You challenge assumptions constructively and distinguish root causes from surface-level symptoms.
• You establish clarity in complex situations and translate strategy into executable operating plans.
• You communicate directly, professionally, and decisively across frontline teams, peer groups, and senior leadership.
• You influence across functions without relying solely on formal authority.
• You lead visibly in the field and build credibility through sound judgment, consistent follow-through, and operational expertise.
• You create solutions that local teams can sustain after the project or coverage assignment ends.

Compensation & Setup

• Compensation: $125,000 - $145,000 per year
• Work Setup: Onsite, field-based role with extensive network travel
• Location: Flexible, based on business needs and proximity to company service centers
• Travel: Approximately 75%, including travel to service centers and field locations
• Benefits: Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), paid time off, and other company-sponsored benefits

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical Demands

• Heavy physical activity performing strenuous daily activities of a primarily product/technical nature.
• While performing the duties of the job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, reach/handle items, work with fingers, utilize close vision (clear vision at 20 inches or less), distance vision (clear vision at 20 feet or more), color vision (ability to identify and distinguished colors), peripheral vision (ability to observe an area that can be seen up and down or to the left and right while eyes are fixed on a given point), depth perception (three-dimensional vision, ability to judge distances and spatial relationships), ability to adjust focus (ability to adjust the eye to bring an object into sharp focus), and talk and hear others in conversations via the phone or in person.
• The employee is occasionally asks to stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, climb or balance and lift objects up to 100 lb.

Work Environment

• The noise level is moderate based on general conversation tones, ringing phones and laser printer operation.
• Works in well-lighted, heated and/or air-conditioned indoor office/shop environment with adequate ventilation.
• Minimal overnight travel (10%) by land and/or air required.
• Might be required to occasionally work in high, precarious places.
• The above statements reflect the general details necessary to describe the principal functions of the position and are not intended to be all inclusive.
• The position and any of the requirements listed above are subject to change at any time according to the changing needs of the company.
• The above statements reflect the general details necessary to describe the principal functions of the position and are not intended to be all inclusive. The position and any of the requirements listed above are subject to change at any time according to the changing needs of the company.
• Roadrunner is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind.
• We will not accept unsolicited candidates from external recruiters or recruiting agencies. Thank you!

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About Roadrunner

Roadrunner is for ambitious, smart people who excel at execution over talking about it, and who would rather invent the next standard in freight than accept the status quo.

We are looking for the Best of the Best. Action driven leaders who want to be part of real change and help design the future of LTL in the U.S. This is a place where high performers can grow, influence outcomes, and make an impact while working directly with executives and smart people from across industries.

We bring a winner mindset. We take ownership, raise the bar, and measure ourselves by results. We Run Safe. We Run Smart. We Run Together. These principles create an environment of high standards, clear ownership, and direct collaboration. We trust data over intuition, move with urgency, and hold each other accountable because winning requires it.

Roadrunner exists to prove that LTL can be better than the industry has settled for. To be the best means we need to think bigger, look outside the box, and question every assumption: too many handoffs, limited visibility, and the quiet belief that "this is just how it works." We rejected that story. We built a proprietary Smart Network for direct, long haul, metro to metro service that delivers fewer touches, faster transit, real time visibility, and genuine accountability. We are the most tech forward company in LTL, and we are not finished widening the gap.

The foundation is already strong. Recognized as one of Built In Chicago's Best Large Places to Work. Earning top marks for improvement, quality, and service. The real opportunity is still ahead: helping invent what comes next.

If you want to be evaluated among the Best of the Best and help set the new standard in LTL, we should talk.