Director, Global Trade and Duty Optimization
This role is an office position based in Louisville, KY.
What the Role Is
The Director, Global Trade and Duty Optimization is accountable for Heaven Hill's enterprise duty drawback program and related global trade tax opportunities. This role leads the strategy, governance, compliance, financial reporting alignment, and execution of the program with the objective of maximizing lawful recovery while establishing a strong control environment and audit readiness.
This role will partner closely with Tax, Accounting, Legal, Compliance, and other business stakeholders to ensure drawback recoveries are properly identified, documented, claimed, reconciled, and appropriately reflected in the Company’s financial records and reporting.
Success in this role requires balancing value creation with financial stewardship. The Director serves as the enterprise leader responsible for converting trade and customs complexity into measurable business value while maintaining a strong compliance and control environment. The role requires an individual who can both shape strategy and drive execution, ensuring recovery opportunities are identified, pursued, documented, reconciled, and appropriately reflected in the Company's financial reporting.
How You Will Spend Your Time?
Lead Enterprise Drawback Strategy and Recovery Optimization
- Own the enterprise duty drawback strategy, roadmap, and operating model. Identify and prioritize recovery opportunities and establish the governance required to move opportunities from identification through documentation, claim submission, recovery, and ongoing compliance.
Maximize Lawful Tax and Duty Recovery
- Evaluate import, export, manufacturing, inventory, and supply chain activity to identify opportunities to optimize duty and excise tax recovery within applicable law and company risk standards. Translate opportunities into quantified business cases, forecasts, and executable plans while preventing overclaims, underclaims, and avoidable leakage.
Lead Customs, Drawback, and Compliance Governance, and Financial Reporting Alignment
- Serve as Heaven Hill's internal subject matter leader for duty drawback and associated customs requirements. Establish policies, procedures, controls, approval processes, and audit protocols that support compliant claims and a defensible position with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other relevant authorities. Partner with Accounting to support appropriate accounting treatment of drawback recoveries, documentation of accounting conclusions, and alignment among customs documentation, drawback claims, accounting records, and financial reporting.
Build an Audit-Ready Documentation and Data Environment
- Establish and maintain documentation, data, and record-retention standards necessary to support drawback eligibility, claim substantiation, audit readiness, and financial reporting requirements. Drive reconciliation, data quality, and traceability across systems and functions.
Integrate Global Trade into Supply Chain Decisions
- Partner with operational and commercial teams to evaluate how sourcing, manufacturing, inventory, import, and export decisions affect drawback eligibility and recovery opportunities. Ensure drawback considerations are incorporated into business decisions early enough to influence outcomes.
Coordinate Cross-Functional Execution
- Create clarity around responsibilities, requirements, timelines, and decisions across the enterprise. Motivate and influence process owners without relying on formal authority, remove barriers to execution, escalate issues appropriately, and build shared accountability for program success.
Manage External Expertise and Regulatory Interfaces
- Direct the work of customs brokers, drawback specialists, freight forwarders, external advisors, and counsel as appropriate. Ensure external expertise is integrated into Heaven Hill's operating model while maintaining clear internal ownership of decisions, controls, documentation, and program performance.
Measure and Communicate Program Performance
- Establish dashboards and management routines covering eligible opportunity, claims submitted, recovery realized, forecasted recovery, claim cycle time, documentation completeness, exceptions, compliance risk, and potential leakage. Monitor and reconcile submitted claims, approved recoveries, cash receipts, and recorded balances to ensure completeness, accuracy, and audit readiness. Translate technical issues into clear business implications and recommendations for senior leadership.
Who You Are…