Senior Vice President, Marketing and Product Development

Job Description

Position: Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Development

Job Description:

Reporting to the Chief Commercial Officer (“CCO”), the Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Development will be responsible for shaping the company's brand strategy, enhancing industry recognition, and driving product development.

This includes creating and executing brand plans, generating leads, developing communications strategies, and building a high-performance team. They will also be involved in content creation, competitive analysis, and customer experience analytics to drive strategic decisions and improve market penetration. This role requires strong leadership skills, industry expertise, and a results-oriented approach to drive growth and innovation in the transportation and logistics sector.

Core Duties And Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute a comprehensive brand strategic plan, including stakeholder mapping, brand promise, positioning, personality, and overall brand experience.
• Evaluate branding components to better align with our company's purpose and vision.
• Establish a clear pathway for enhancing industry recognition and leadership.
• Collaborate with the business to leverage customer experience analytics for strategic decision-making.
• Provide actionable competitor updates and analysis to commercial teams, offering valuable perspectives and creating action plans for improvement and evolution.
• Build alignment of our services to deliver insightful content and media campaigns.
• Identify and engage in aligned events and speaking engagements to showcase our expertise.
• Deliver insights and analysis to support proactive marketing and sales initiatives.
• Create and execute a robust lead generation strategy.
• Maximize the use of tools to expand market segmentation.
• Continue targeted messaging to inbound and outbound customers.
• Co-create and implement a comprehensive communications plan, both externally ("Outside In") and internally ("Inside Out").
• Develop and execute a multi-year communication strategy to support company objectives.
• Craft a change management deployment strategy to effectively implement strategic changes.
• Establish and nurture relationships with media outlets and industry associations.
• Continue to build pre and post pricing analysis for targeted value approach.
  
  

Professional Experience/Qualifications:

The ideal candidate is a seasoned professional with over a decade of senior-level experience in the transportation and logistics industry.

They possess a strong track record in brand strategy development, including stakeholder mapping and positioning, and have a proven ability to lead and mentor high-performing teams. This candidate is a strategic thinker with exceptional communication skills, adept at crafting comprehensive communications plans and executing change management strategies. They have a deep understanding of market segmentation, data-driven decision-making, and customer experience analytics. Additionally, their extensive knowledge of the LTL transportation industry, competitors, and market trends equips them to drive product innovation and develop industry-leading services effectively.

The perfect candidate is a visionary leader who thrives on challenges and is passionate about taking Forward to new heights in the ever-evolving transportation and logistics landscape.

The Successful Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Development will have:

• Experience within and a wholesome understanding of the Supply Chain & Logistics industry.
• Ability to develop and implement innovative product development strategies.
• In-depth knowledge of the LTL transportation industry, including competitors, trends, and customer needs.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Proficiency in data-driven decision-making and market segmentation.
• A minimum of 10 years of senior-level marketing experience within the transportation and logistics industry.
• Proven success in brand strategy development, including stakeholder mapping and brand positioning.
• Strong leadership skills with a track record of building and leading high-performing teams.
• Proficiency in leveraging customer experience analytics for strategic decision-making
• Superior written and verbal communication skills and interpersonal skills to foster relationships.
• Proven ability to blend high level, strategic brand building skills with short-term, growth-focused initiatives
• Ability to travel intermittently.
• Ability to synthesize data and inputs into insightful, decision supportive reporting for an executive audience, including visualizations.
• Demonstrated ability to strategize and build a staff strategy and forecast labor needs. Additionally, a proven ability to build, mentor and develop that team, as well as attract and retain talent.
• Advanced experience working with Microsoft Office applications.
• Strong strategic, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
  
  

Leadership Characteristics:

The ideal leader will be an engaging and collaborative executive with excellent listening skills, along with a decisive style. With all of this must come a hands-on, detailed, action-oriented personality and style. S/he will have delivered a compelling marketing plan that was successfully implemented using wise judgement and inspiring trust. Stylistically, this person should be savvy, highly credible and collaborative, and have a partnering mindset across the company.

This Individual Will Possess The Following Characteristics And Skills:

• Proven Change Agent: Desire and ability to lead by bringing bold thought leadership to the Product and Marketing team. An inspiring leader who communicates passion, energy, and excitement with high emotional intelligence.
• Broad Business Perspective: Exceptional strategic skills and the ability to balance the intuitive and analytical. Has the proven ability to blend high level strategic skills with short-term focused initiatives.
• Strong Relationship Builder, Communicator, and Influencer: An outstanding relationship builder with strong communication skills who can articulate concepts, initiatives, and goals with clarity to a range of constituents. Significant team-building experience with proven success in developing strong relationships throughout an organization and achieving buy-in across various constituencies.
• Innovation Mindset: Providing support and vision for the Product & Marketing group’s relationship with IT, ultimately driving precise cross department collaboration with proper resourcing, vision, and aligned goals.
  
  

Forward is an Equal Opportunity employer.

About Us

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.

Ranked 3rd in Newsweeks 2022 " Americas Most Trustworthy Companies " publication