Trade Operation Supervisor

Thermo Fisher Scientific · Taipei

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Job Description

As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific team, you’ll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our colleagues in bringing our Mission to life every single day to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We provide our global teams with the resources needed to achieve individual career goals while helping to take science a step beyond by developing solutions for some of the world’s toughest challenges, like protecting the environment, making sure our food is safe or helping find cures for cancer.

DESCRIPTION:
Manage logistics operations ensuring effective product movement and customer satisfaction across Thermo Fisher Scientific's network. Oversee daily warehouse operations, import/export activities, and 3PL relationships while maintaining compliance with quality standards and regulations. Implement continuous improvement initiatives to optimize efficiency and reduce costs. Work collaboratively with sales, procurement, and customer service teams to meet business objectives and maintain high service levels.

Key Responsibilities

1. Import Trade Compliance Operations (Role Holder's Own, Personal Ownership)

• Own end-to-end import compliance for Taiwan — licensing, permits, and documentation — ensuring adherence to Taiwan Customs regulations and import requirements for controlled goods (biological products, medical devices, telecommunications/wireless devices, and hazardous materials).
• Own product classification under HTS, ECCN, and export control jurisdictions, coordinating with global classification teams and maintaining accuracy as new products are introduced.
• Conduct denied- and restricted-party screening for customers, distributors, and vendors as ongoing transaction monitoring, not a one-time check.
• Own government filings, permit renewals, and compliance recordkeeping; produce compliance metrics and reporting to track program health and surface trends.
• Lead internal and external trade compliance audits, own corrective actions through to closure, and proactively identify process improvements to strengthen internal controls.
• Build and maintain working relationships with Customs and relevant regulatory authorities (e.g., TFDA, BOFT, CDC, NCC, MOA, BSMI), serving as Taiwan's primary point of contact.
• Own and maintain Taiwan's import compliance procedures and documentation as living SOPs — not one-time mapping deliverables.
• Utilize trade compliance systems and ERP platforms (e.g., SAP/Oracle or equivalent) to execute classification, licensing, and documentation workflows.
• Support third-party distributor and supplier due diligence reviews in coordination with Global Compliance and Legal.
• Provide training to internal teams (Customer Service, Distribution & Logistics, Commercial) on customs regulations, export controls, and trade policy, and serve as the escalation point for trade-related issues.

2. Import/Export Management (Team-Delivered — Supervisory Oversight)

• Oversee the overall execution quality of import/export operations (booking through clearance, documentation, delivery), ensuring the team and external service providers deliver consistently — not through personal execution.
• Establish and enforce formal governance of customs brokers, freight forwarders, and logistics service providers (scorecards, SLA audits), ensuring external resources meet service and compliance standards.
• Own import/export cost management outcomes — duty, landed cost, freight spend — as a direct contribution to the function's cost-reduction targets; lead the HS reclassification savings program.
• Establish escalation protocols for major delays, disputes, or inspection issues that the team or brokers cannot resolve, and make the call on resolution.
• Oversee peak-season capacity planning and risk management to prevent clearance disruption.

3. People Management & Team Development

• Serve as direct people manager of the Import Export Team (including the Inbound Freight function) — full accountability for hiring, performance management, coaching, and development.
• Set clear performance expectations and conduct regular review cadences with direct reports per Taiwan's competency and banding framework, actively supporting promotion pathways (e.g., B4 to B5).
• Act as the escalation and continuity backstop for the Inbound Freight function, reducing single-point-of-failure risk currently concentrated in one individual.
• Build team members' skill development plans and cross-training, reducing key-person risk while broadening team members' career scope; proactively identify and develop internal succession pipeline.
• Establish clear role clarity and accountability within the team; foster a collaborative, self-coordinating team culture that reduces reliance on case-by-case managerial intervention during peak or exception periods; regularly assess team engagement and retention risk.

4. Continuous Improvement

• Lead team-level process improvement initiatives, identifying redundancy, bottlenecks, or manual work in import/export operations and driving automation or standardization.
• Establish a best-practice sharing mechanism within the team and feed improvements back into SOPs, ensuring knowledge is retained independent of personnel turnover.
• Regularly benchmark against other markets (e.g., Japan, China, Singapore) on operational efficiency and compliance practices, identifying improvements applicable to Taiwan.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in International Business, International trade, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Law, or a related field.
• Confirmed, hands-on experience personally executing import trade compliance — licensing, permits, classification — not governance-only oversight, ideally in a high-volume regulated import environment.
• Proven people-management experience with direct reports; prior experience leading or supervising a team responsible for import/export operations.
• Experience managing import-related cost and duty spend, including broker/freight invoice validation and duty optimization or reclassification initiatives.
• Strong working knowledge of Taiwan's import customs laws, FTAs, and permit/licensing requirements.
• Expert knowledge of GMP, GDP, and international trade regulations
• Strong understanding of import/export procedures and customs compliance requirements
• Proficient in both English and Mandarin Chinese (spoken and written).

Preferred

• Working knowledge of U.S. and EU export control regulations (EAR/ITAR) — applied occasionally given Taiwan's import-dominant profile.
• Experience with ERP and trade compliance systems (SAP, Oracle, or equivalent).
• Experience leading a team through organizational transition, with a track record of supporting rather than displacing existing team members' development paths.

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