AME Customs Manager

Role Overview

The Customs Manager will lead the customs and trade compliance functions throughout the Africa and Middle East (AME) region. This position ensures import and export processes are compliant, efficient, and cost-effective, while mitigating risks such as delays, penalties, and extra costs.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee compliance with all relevant customs, import, export, and international trade regulations in the AME region.
• Lead and manage the customs team through prioritization, responsibility allocation, and daily operations supervision.
• Provide mentorship, coaching, and performance evaluations to enable team member growth and skill enhancement.
• Manage workload distribution to guarantee operational coverage and continuity in customs activities.
• Coordinate customs clearance procedures, serving as the primary escalation contact for issues like delays, inspections, disputes, and other complex customs challenges.
• Ensure customs declarations, tariff classifications, valuations, origin rules, and supporting documents are accurate.
• Stay informed on regulatory changes and translate them into applicable operational procedures and controls.
• Create, uphold, and update regional customs policies, standard operating procedures, and compliance monitoring measures.
• Develop strong partnerships with customs brokers, freight forwarders, consultants, and customs authorities.
• Evaluate service provider performance based on clearance times, declaration accuracy, costs, and compliance incidents.
• Identify cost-saving opportunities utilizing free trade agreements, duty exemptions, bonded warehousing, and other customs schemes.
• Support regulatory customs audits, inspections, and investigations, ensuring timely corrective action implementation.
• Advise on customs requirements for new products, suppliers, clients, trade routes, contracts, and business models.
• Lead customs training programs for Logistics, Supply Chain, and associated teams.
• Prepare and present regular reports covering customs performance metrics, risks, expenses, penalties, audits, and improvement projects.
• Promote process standardization, digital transformation, and ongoing improvements within customs operations regionally.

Candidate Profile - Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in International Trade, Logistics, Supply Chain, Business Administration, Finance, or a related discipline.
• Extensive expertise in customs operations, international trade, import/export procedures, or trade compliance.
• Prior experience holding a senior customs or regional coordination position is essential.
• Comprehensive knowledge of tariff classifications, customs valuation, origin rules, free trade agreements, customs documents, and special customs procedures.
• Proven history collaborating with customs authorities, brokers, freight forwarders, and logistics providers.
• Experience participating in customs audits, dispute resolution, compliance assessments, and corrective action initiatives.
• Strong analytical, negotiation, problem-solving, and stakeholder management abilities.
• Ability to function well within multicultural and matrix organizational environments.
• Exemplary integrity, precision, accountability, and professional judgment.
• Fluency in spoken and written English is required; Arabic language skills are advantageous.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with SAP, ERP platforms, or specialized customs compliance software is a plus.
• Background managing customs functions across multiple nations, ideally within Africa and the Middle East regions.
• Readiness to travel within the AME region as business needs dictate.

About the Company

Guardian Glass, part of the Koch companies, ranks among the world’s top manufacturers of float, value-added, and fabricated glass products. Their portfolio serves architectural, residential, commercial, transportation, and technical glass markets. Guardian Glass products appear in homes, offices, vehicles, and high-profile global developments.

Koch companies foster an entrepreneurial environment, encouraging innovation and rewarding individual contributions. Their compensation philosophy considers market data alongside candidate expertise and location specifics.

Work Environment

The organization embraces customized work solutions that balance individual and business needs to optimize performance and results.