Transportation Manager

We are assisting our client, ST Paper & Tissue, with the recruitment and selection of a Transportation Manager. ST Paper and Tissue has built a reputation for revitalizing communities and delivering high-quality paper products across North America. Since its founding in 2007, the company has expanded through strategic acquisitions and state-of-the-art innovations. With a strong commitment to health and safety, environmental stewardship, customer focus, and product excellence, ST Paper continues to lead as a premier supplier of parent rolls for bathroom tissue, paper towels, and napkins.

The Transportation Manager is responsible for overseeing the end-to-end movement of raw materials and finished goods, from the transportation of inbound recycled fiber to the distribution of finished tissue products to customers nationwide. This role leads the development and execution of transportation and logistics strategies that optimize cost, service, and network performance. Key responsibilities include managing carrier relationships and freight procurement, negotiating transportation contracts and rates, implementing scalable transportation systems and processes, and partnering with procurement, sales, customer Service, finance, and plant operations to ensure logistics activities support broader business objectives.

This is a full-time, onsite position based out of ST Paper & Tissue’s Oconto Falls, WI facility.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and continuously optimize the company's inbound and outbound transportation network, balancing cost, capacity, service, transit time, and reliability while supporting plant capacity, customer geography, and supplier footprint.
• Conduct network and lane-level analysis to identify cost reduction and service improvement opportunities, including backhauls, consolidation, mode optimization (truckload, LTL, intermodal, rail), carrier mix strategies, and customer routing alternatives.
• Lead transportation sourcing initiatives, including annual and ad hoc freight RFPs, carrier selection, contract negotiations, rate management, and service agreements across all transportation modes.
• Monitor freight market conditions, carrier economics, and industry trends to develop effective transportation, pricing, and sourcing strategies that improve network performance and control costs.
• Oversee inbound transportation of recovered fiber from suppliers, brokers, MRFs, and direct generators, optimizing freight arrangements, scheduling, and transportation strategies to reduce total delivered material costs.
• Direct the nationwide outbound distribution network serving retail, away-from-home, and private-label customers, ensuring service reliability, on-time performance, claims management, and compliance with customer routing requirements.
• Partner with Sales and Customer Service to align transportation operations with customer commitments, quote-to-ship processes, pricing strategies, and margin objectives.
• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with carriers, brokers, and transportation providers to improve service performance, strengthen capacity availability, and reduce transportation costs.
• Lead the design, implementation, optimization, and ongoing management of transportation management systems, load scheduling capabilities, visibility platforms, and other transportation technologies that enhance planning, execution, and operational efficiency.
• Establish and maintain the reporting infrastructure, analytics capabilities, dashboards, and KPIs needed to provide visibility into freight spend, carrier performance, service levels, and overall network health.
• Utilize data analysis and modeling tools to evaluate transportation costs, carrier performance, network changes, contract scenarios, and operational improvement opportunities before implementation.
• Build, lead, and develop the transportation and logistics planning function by establishing performance expectations, strengthening analytical and negotiation capabilities, and fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate closely with Procurement, Sales, Customer Service, Plant Operations, and Finance to align transportation strategy with sourcing, production, customer commitments, freight budgeting, accruals, and rate variance analysis.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree in logistics, supply chain, industrial engineering, business administration, or related field required. MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 5-7 years of progressive experience in transportation, logistics, or supply chain, with at least 1-3 years in a leadership role required. 10+ years of progressive experience and 5 years in a leadership role preferred.
• Deep, demonstrated expertise in freight cost structures, carrier economics, and rate negotiation across truckload, LTL, and intermodal.
• Proven track record of leading RFPs and delivering measurable freight cost savings.
• Hands-on experience implementing or optimizing TMS platforms and load-scheduling systems.
• Strong analytical skills with proficiency in Excel and experience working with large datasets; familiarity with SQL, Power BI, Tableau, or network optimization tools strongly preferred.
• Experience managing both inbound raw material flows and outbound finished goods distribution.
• Experience in paper, tissue, pulp, packaging, or other commodity manufacturing with high freight intensity preferred.

If you would like to learn more about this opportunity, please submit your resume through our client application portal.

ST Paper & Tissue is an Equal Opportunity Employer