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Vice President, Procurement

Forward Air
  • Coppell, TX
  • Full-time
  • Instant Apply
3 days ago

Job Description

The Vice President, Procurement is responsible for developing and executing the organization's global procurement function and procurement transformation initiatives. They oversee all direct and indirect categories while driving cost optimization, supplier performance, risk mitigation, and long-term value creation across the enterprise. Reporting to the CFO, they partner closely with executive leadership, Finance, Operations, IT, Legal, HR, and business stakeholders to ensure procurement and real estate strategies align with organizational objectives and support sustainable growth. They continuously improve sourcing practices, supplier governance, contract management standards, and procurement processes and infrastructure.

 

This leader also leads the Corporate Real Estate function, including lease administration, property acquisitions and dispositions, facility portfolio optimization, landlord and property management relationships, and long-term real estate planning aligned with business objectives. They will bring strategic vision, financial acumen, operational expertise, and strong relationship management skills to deliver measurable outcomes across a complex, global organization.

 

Responsibilities

 

  • Develop and execute a modern, data-driven global procurement strategy aligned with enterprise financial, operational, and growth objectives.
  • Lead enterprise-wide sourcing and procurement activities across all direct and indirect spend categories, including transportation services, logistics partners, technology, professional services, facilities, fleet-related expenditures, corporate services, and other critical business functions.
  • Drive supplier consolidation, strategic sourcing initiatives, and total cost of ownership analyses to optimize expenditures and improve enterprise value.
  • Establish and maintain a best-in-class Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) program focused on supplier performance, innovation, service excellence, and partnership development.
  • Negotiate complex, high-value contracts, commercial agreements, transportation service agreements, technology subscriptions, strategic vendor partnerships, and real estate transactions that support business objectives and mitigate organizational risk.
  • Develop and execute category management strategies that support evolving transportation, brokerage, warehousing, distribution, technology, facilities, and operational requirements.
  • Develop, implement, and enforce procurement policies, procedures, controls, and governance frameworks that ensure compliance, consistency, and operational efficiency.
  • Establish procurement metrics, scorecards, dashboards, and key performance indicators to monitor savings, supplier performance, compliance, service levels, occupancy costs, and operational effectiveness.
  • Identify and mitigate supplier, operational, financial, geopolitical, cybersecurity, real estate, and compliance risks through proactive sourcing strategies, due diligence processes, and contingency planning.
  • Partner with internal stakeholders to ensure procurement and real estate activities support regulatory requirements, internal controls, customer commitments, and corporate governance standards.
  • Collaborate with executive leadership on mergers, acquisitions, integrations, and other strategic initiatives by evaluating supplier contracts, facility requirements, identifying synergies, and aligning procurement and real estate practices.
  • Champion sustainability, supplier diversity, ethical sourcing, and responsible stewardship across all vendor relationships, procurement activities, and property investments.
  • Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing procurement and corporate real estate organization, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, collaboration, and innovation.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on procurement strategy, supplier dynamics, market trends, facility investments, and opportunities for business value creation.
  • Provide strategic leadership and oversight for the Corporate Real Estate function, including facility leasing, purchasing, property management, site selection, portfolio planning, workplace services, and real estate governance.
  • Develop and execute a comprehensive corporate real estate strategy that aligns with organizational growth objectives, operational requirements, workforce needs, and financial targets.
  • Lead negotiations for facility leases, renewals, acquisitions, dispositions, easements, and related real estate agreements to ensure favorable commercial terms and effective risk mitigation.
  • Oversee facility-related spend, occupancy costs, capital improvement projects, and real estate operating expenses to maximize return on investment and cost efficiency across the property portfolio.
  • All other duties as assigned to meet evolving business needs.

 

Qualifications

 

  • Education: Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Finance, Management, Real Estate, Operations, or a related field required; Master's degree (MBA or related advanced degree) preferred.
  • Certification/Licensure: CPSM, CIPS, CPM, CPIM, CSCP, CCIM, SIOR, or other relevant procurement, supply chain, or real estate certifications preferred.
  • Experience: 10+ years of progressive procurement leadership experience, including senior leadership responsibility within a large-scale, global, multi-site organization; transportation, logistics, brokerage, supply chain, distribution, warehousing, or related industry experience strongly preferred.
  • Proven success leading enterprise procurement organizations and driving large-scale procurement transformation initiatives.
  • Demonstrated expertise in strategic sourcing, supplier negotiations, contract lifecycle management, spend management, category management, and supplier governance.
  • Experience negotiating and managing agreements across transportation, logistics, technology, facilities, fleet, professional services, and operational spend categories.
  • Experience leading or partnering closely with Corporate Real Estate functions, including lease management, site selection, facility operations, portfolio optimization, and commercial real estate negotiations.
  • Strong understanding of real estate financial analysis, occupancy planning, capital project budgeting, facilities management, and portfolio optimization best practices.
  • Strong understanding of procurement technologies and digital procurement platforms, including tools such as Oracle Procurement, Coupa, SAP Ariba, or similar solutions.
  • Advanced business, financial, and commercial acumen with the ability to evaluate complex contracts, supplier relationships, facility investments, and sourcing strategies.
  • Exceptional leadership, communication, and executive stakeholder management skills with a demonstrated ability to influence across all levels of the organization.
  • Strong analytical capabilities and experience leveraging data, metrics, dashboards, and market intelligence to drive decision-making and organizational performance.
  • Demonstrated experience building cross-functional partnerships with Finance, Operations, Technology, Human Resources, Legal, and executive leadership teams.
  • Demonstrated discretion and confidentiality in handling and protecting sensitive information.
  • Technical: Proficient with common office technologies, including Windows PCs, Microsoft O365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and web conferencing (Teams, Zoom, Webex, etc.)
  • Environment: Comfort commuting to/from and working in a 100% on-site setting (listed in this posting), with travel for related meetings/events.

 

#LI-Onsite #LI-BT1

 

Numbers & Facts

LocationCoppell, TX
Job TypeFull-time
IndustryTransport and Storage - Materials
Company Size2,500 to 4,999 employees
Year Founded1981
Websitehttps://www.forwardair.com/content/careers-0

About Company

Since 1990, Forward Air has been a leading provider of ground transportation and related logistics services to the North American air freight and expedited LTL market. We offer surface shipping on an accelerated “time-definite” basis, delivering cargo at a specific time, but under less time-sensitive situations – supplying you with a cost effective, reliable alternative to air transportation. We work with companies of all sizes to develop tangible advantages and build the best products to meet your specific needs. Forward Air presents to the wholesale transportation community (logistics companies, freight forwarders, integrated air cargo carriers, passenger/ cargo airlines, and non-traditional shippers), a single-source provider that can deliver more supply chain services and a superior menu of choices. Throughout the years we have added supplementary lines to our linehaul service, such as full truckload operations (Truckload Services), final-mile coverage (Complete® Cartage), and an Airline Logistics program, and we will continue to expand our services to meet the changing needs and growth of our customer base.

Forward Air is structured to optimize both savings and service to our customers. Direct partnerships with owner-operators and other surface transportation providers, enable us to remain cost-competitive. The Forward Air network is designed with over 90 facilities located at or near major U.S. and Canadian airports, 12 regional sort centers and over 300 beyond points (secondary airports provided through our Complete Cartage service), creating one of the most comprehensive linehaul networks in the industry.

The foundation product for Forward Air is our expedited linehaul service, offering consistent and reliable transit and on-time, damage-free deliveries. By locating terminals on or near airports and maintaining a scheduled transportation network, we are able to arrange for convenient and consistent service with broad geographic coverage. Shipments of varying sizes (TL/LTL) are received at our terminals and transported by contracted service providers either (1) on a direct truck to the destination terminal, (2) through our Columbus, Ohio central sorting hub, or (3) through one of our 12 regional hubs, where they are unloaded, sorted, and reloaded in rapid fashion. After reloading the shipments, our contracted service providers deliver them to the destination city for early morning recovery. Through our Forward Air Complete® cartage service, customers also can have shipments picked up from the shipper, delivered to the final consignee, or transferred at the airport, simplifying the freight management processes. These options allow us to maximize handling efficiency of each shipment while minimizing freight loss and damage, improving transit times over traditional ground transportation.

Skills

  • Acquisition Integrationunmatched
  • Alliance/Partner Managementunmatched
  • Analysis Skillsunmatched
  • Aribaunmatched
  • Automotive Repair and Maintenanceunmatched
  • Best Practicesunmatched
  • Brokerageunmatched
  • Business Administrationunmatched
  • Business Planunmatched
  • Business Skillsunmatched
  • Business Strategyunmatched
  • Business Supportunmatched
  • Candidate Sourcingunmatched
  • Capital Budgetingunmatched
  • Capital Projectunmatched
  • Category Developmentunmatched
  • Category Managementunmatched
  • Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM)unmatched
  • Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)unmatched
  • Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM)unmatched
  • Coachingunmatched
  • Commercial Real Estateunmatched
  • Competitive Analysis/Strategyunmatched
  • Contingency Plansunmatched
  • Continuous Improvementunmatched
  • Contract Managementunmatched
  • Contract Negotiationunmatched
  • Contract Requirementsunmatched
  • Corporate Governanceunmatched
  • Cost Controlunmatched
  • Cross-Functionalunmatched
  • Distribution Warehousingunmatched
  • Due Diligenceunmatched
  • Easementsunmatched
  • Estate Planningunmatched
  • Expense Analysisunmatched
  • Expense Managementunmatched
  • Facilities Managementunmatched
  • Financeunmatched
  • Financial Analysisunmatched
  • Financial Operationsunmatched
  • Human Resourcesunmatched
  • Information/Data Security (InfoSec)unmatched
  • Internet Securityunmatched
  • Investment Strategyunmatched
  • Leadershipunmatched
  • Lease Negotiationunmatched
  • Leasingunmatched
  • Legalunmatched
  • Logisticsunmatched
  • Maintain Complianceunmatched
  • Management Strategyunmatched
  • Market Trend Analysisunmatched
  • Mergers and Acquisitionsunmatched
  • Metricsunmatched
  • Microsoft Excelunmatched
  • Microsoft Outlookunmatched
  • Microsoft PowerPointunmatched
  • Microsoft Product Familyunmatched
  • Microsoft Windows Operating Systemunmatched
  • Microsoft Wordunmatched
  • Negotiation Skillsunmatched
  • Occupancy Planningunmatched
  • Operational Expenditure (OPEX)unmatched
  • Operations Managementunmatched
  • Operations Processesunmatched
  • Oracleunmatched
  • Performance Analysisunmatched
  • Performance Metricsunmatched
  • Process Improvementunmatched
  • Procurement Managementunmatched
  • Procurement Softwareunmatched
  • Procurement Strategyunmatched
  • Professional Servicesunmatched
  • Property Managementunmatched
  • Purchasing/Procurementunmatched
  • Real Estateunmatched
  • Regulatory Requirementsunmatched
  • Relationship Managementunmatched
  • Reporting Dashboardsunmatched
  • Return on Investment (ROI)unmatched
  • Risk Managementunmatched
  • SAPunmatched
  • Sales Managementunmatched
  • Scorecardingunmatched
  • Sourcing Strategyunmatched
  • Stewardshipunmatched
  • Strategic Planningunmatched
  • Supplier Optimizationunmatched
  • Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)unmatched
  • Supply Chainunmatched
  • Supply Chain Managementunmatched
  • Sustainabilityunmatched
  • Technical Operationsunmatched
  • Technical Strategyunmatched
  • Total Cost of Ownershipunmatched
  • Vehicle Fleetsunmatched
  • Vendor/Supplier Diversityunmatched
  • Vendor/Supplier Evaluationunmatched
  • Vendor/Supplier Managementunmatched
  • Vendor/Supplier Planningunmatched
  • Vendor/Supplier Relationsunmatched
  • Vendor/Supplier Selectionunmatched
  • Vendor/Supplier Sourcingunmatched
  • Web Conferencingunmatched
  • WebExunmatched

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