Role – Senior Manager – Customs & Compliance (FMCG, Food)
Location – London/Hybrid
Salary – Up to £90,000 + Car Allowance + Bonus up to 20%
We’re recruiting on behalf of a well-established, multi-market FMCG business for a Senior Manager to take ownership of customs and compliance as the function moves from an ad-hoc setup to a properly structured, group-wide capability.
This is a role for someone who wants to build rather than babysit: you’ll be the business’s go-to authority on customs risk, shaping how the function runs from the ground up while managing a network of broker and logistics partners across several European markets.
What you’ll be doing as Senior Manager, Customs & Compliance –
- Becoming the internal expert business leaders turn to before making decisions with customs implications, from where products are sourced to how supply chains are designed
- Taking a fragmented, informal customs setup and turning it into a properly governed function, covering everything from process and systems to how the team itself is structured
- Putting clear ownership and control in place across customs activities, so accountability doesn’t sit with any one person
- Protecting the business’s compliance position, from accurate classification and origin work through to safeguarding key authorisations like AEO status
- Working out the right balance between building internal capability and relying on external brokers, and making that model as cost-efficient as possible
- Setting up a proper framework for managing broker relationships, including leading the transition of broker arrangements across several European countries
- Owning the strategy for SPS and export health certification, including deciding what should sit in-house versus with a partner going forward
- Reshaping the team to match the new operating model, with a clear eye on upskilling and building longer-term resilience
What you’ll bring to the position of Senior Manager, Customs & Compliance –
- A track record of building or overhauling a customs function inside a large, multi-country business, ideally within food or FMCG
- Strong technical grounding across customs regimes and SPS requirements
- Experience putting governance and controls in place where none existed before, not just running an existing framework
- The credibility to challenge and influence senior leaders, including at COO/CPO level, on customs risk
- Hands-on experience managing brokers and third-party logistics providers, including negotiating and holding them to commercial terms
- A genuine track record of leading teams through structural change across multiple sites and functions
Why this one’s worth a look:
You won’t be inheriting someone else’s function, you’ll be building it. Real ownership, direct exposure to senior leadership, and a clear mandate to shape how this works from day one.
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