Salary: From £33,000 per annum, depending on experience (with full experience K£36/£37)
Benefits:
Twice-yearly discretionary bonus, subject to both company and individual performance
Enhanced pension scheme with Legal & General
25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
Health scheme benefit
Life Assurance scheme, including GP access
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) with 24/7 confidential support
Location: Erdington, Birmingham. Primarily office-based, with occasional attendance at another local office to provide holiday cover (with prior notice).
Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm (one-hour lunch break)
Duties:
Account Administration and Shipment Coordination
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Create and maintain freight jobs using pro-forma invoices, purchase order information
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and supplier documentation.
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Chase suppliers and shippers for booking confirmations, shipping instructions,
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documentation and outstanding information.
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Maintain shipment trackers, schedules and customer visibility reports, ensuring
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milestones and outstanding actions remain current.
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Coordinate with the customer, suppliers, shipping lines, hauliers, warehouses and
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internal operational teams.
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Maintain accurate electronic records and upload customer-facing documents to the
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agreed platforms.
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Customs and Regulatory Compliance – Essential
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Complete and control UK import customs declarations, including the review of
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commercial invoices, packing lists, bills of lading, commodity information, origin data
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and customs valuation information.
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Check declaration accuracy, manage duty and deferment requirements and escalate
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discrepancies before submission.
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Create and manage IPAFFS notifications and CHEDs for applicable food and Products of
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Animal Origin movements.
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Manage Port Health queries, health certificate documentation and supporting
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regulatory records.
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Complete and track duty reclaims.
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Support HMRC or customer audits through accurate document collation and record
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retention.
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Support European movements and the associated customs or regulatory requirements
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where required.
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Customer Reporting, Financial Control and Billing
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Prepare weekly shipment schedules and operational status reports for the customer.
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Produce monthly management reports covering delivery activity, insurance, quay rent,
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container or shipping line information and related account measures.
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Complete weekly bulk invoicing, check charges and ensure deliveries are billed
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accurately.
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Prepare dummy costings and estimated landed cost information using complete
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commercial and shipment data.
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Respond to customer queries concerning invoices, duty and deferment, providing the
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relevant supporting documentation.
Operational Cover and Business Continuity
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Train to provide operational cover for the Account Supervisor during annual leave or
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other absence.
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Monitor vessel schedules, shipment progress and ETA changes, providing timely
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updates to the customer and internal teams.
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Liaise with shipping lines regarding releases, bills of lading, charges and operational
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exceptions.
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Coordinate hauliers, delivery bookings, warehouses, cold stores and delivery previews.
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Update landed costs, issue releases and support urgent operational decisions in
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accordance with customer instructions and Fracht procedures.
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Maintain account continuity through clear handovers, current trackers and accessible
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records.
Systems, SOPs and General Support
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Use CargoWise to maintain accurate operational, customs, costing and billing records.
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Use SharePoint, Web Tracker or equivalent platforms to maintain document control and
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customer visibility.
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Create, review and maintain account SOPs, work instructions and training records.
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Monitor shared operational mailboxes and respond to relevant customer or shipment
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requests.
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Provide account-specific presentations, process support and ad hoc reporting when
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required.
Experience required:
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Experience of deep-sea import freight forwarding.
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Practical experience of completing and controlling UK import customs declarations.
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A high level of accuracy when reviewing and processing shipment and customs
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documentation.
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Confident and professional customer communication.
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Ability to manage several live shipments and competing deadlines.
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Competent spreadsheet and reporting skills.
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Ability to identify, question and escalate incomplete or inconsistent information.
Highly Desirable
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CargoWise experience.
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Food import experience.
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Experience of IPAFFS, CHEDs and Port Health requirements.
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Experience of SharePoint, Web Tracker or comparable document management and
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customer visibility systems.
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Previous experience supporting a major key account.
Personal Attributes
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Methodical, organised and commercially aware.
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Calm and practical when working under pressure.
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Confident in questioning incomplete or potentially incorrect information.
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Proactive in identifying and escalating operational, customs or compliance risks.
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Comfortable working independently and as part of an account team.
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Willing to learn both the primary back-office role and the operational cover duties.
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Committed to maintaining accurate records, customer service and account continuity.
Performance and Conduct Expectations
records.
matters where information is unclear or incomplete.
professional manner.
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Protect customer confidentiality and commercially sensitive information.
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Support cross-training, handover and business continuity so that critical account
knowledge is not held by one person.
Additional information:
The Key Account Coordinator / Key Account Specialist will provide dedicated operational,
customs, compliance, reporting, billing and customer support for a major, long-standing food
retail import account.
This is a hands-on, detail-focused role requiring close coordination with the customer,
suppliers, shipping lines, hauliers, warehouses, internal teams and regulatory authorities.
The successful candidate will take primary ownership of the account’s back-office function and
will also train to provide operational cover for the Account Supervisor during annual leave, other
absence and business continuity requirements.
