Head of Customs

Head of Customs – Global Express Delivery Industry -Essex

Salary: C: £81,900K to £86,900K Base (Inclusive of car allowance) plus excellent Benefits

Our Client:

Our Client is entering an exciting phase of growth and are looking for an experienced Head of Customs to protect and scale our cross-border customs and trade compliance across the UK and international markets.

Your new role:

To own customs and trade compliance across UK, EU and US flows – protecting the business and Clients from duty, penalty and clearance delay risk while enabling fast, scalable cross border ecommerce movements. The role combines hands-on technical authority with team leadership, client advisory and regulatory-change management.

Key responsibilities

clearance across all three jurisdictions.

• Own the accuracy and integrity of import/export/transport declarations and clearance processes.
• Lead, coach and quality- knowledge, and resolve escalations.
• Manage relationships with HMRC and other authorities, and external customs brokers.
• Advise clients and the internal organisation on the operational impact of regulatory change.
• Maintain and improve customs procedures, SOPs, authorisations and audit readiness (including AEO).
• Monitor the shifting regulatory landscape and translate it into practical guidance and process change.
• Own duty-optimisation and refund workflows, ensuring reliefs and preferences are correctly claimed.

Essential technical knowledge

The role requires deep, current technical knowledge across all three jurisdictions and the cross-cutting disciplines below.

UK customs

• CDS (Customs Declaration Service) declaration completion and data elements.
• Simplified procedures BIRDS/MoU.
• Customs warehouse and inventory-linked processes, especially related to road and air movements.
• Returned Goods Relief (RGR) and NIRU standing arrangements.
• NCTS transit management, including discharge of movements and resolving undischarged transits.
• Import VAT, postponed VAT accounting, and EORI requirements.

EU customs

• Union Customs Code (UCC) framework; import and export formalities.
• The 2026 removal of the low-value de minimis exemption and per-item duty treatment.
• IOSS / import VAT handling and low-value consignment rules.
• Practical use of tariff tools and cross-border lane specifics.

US customs

• CBP entry processes and ACE (Automated Commercial Environment): entry filing, validation errors, and CSMS bulletin interpretation.
• HTS classification, including complex apparel scenarios (ensemble codes, fibre composition, misclassification risk).
• The evolving US additional-duty landscape IEEPA-based duties, Section 232 / 301 / 122 measures, and Chapter 99 overlay/stacking logic.
• Post Summary Corrections(PSC) eligibility, mechanics and timing.
• Duty-refund workflows (e.g. CAPE/IEEPA refund processes) and relationship/mismatch error resolution.
• Regulatory changes such as CPSC changes, De Minimis removal and changes to the postal clearance regime.
• Understanding of US sales tax.

Cross-cutting

• HS/HTS classification and the WCO General Rules for Interpretation (GRI), applied in an ecommerce context.
• Customs valuation methods and transfer-pricing awareness.
• Rules of origin, preferential vs non-preferential origin, and FTA application.
• Duty reliefs, suspensions and refund mechanisms.
• Adjacent product-compliance regimes where they affect clearance (e.g. GPSR, REACH, fibre labelling, product-safety standards for apparel).

Experience required

• Substantial experience in customs/trade compliance within a freight-forwarding, customs-brokerage, parcel/ecommerce logistics, or comparable environment. minimum years 10
• Demonstrable hands-on declaration experience in at least the UK, with strong exposure to the EU and US markets highly desirable.
• Experience managing or mentoring a customs/compliance team, or clear readiness to step up.
• Track record of managing regulatory change and translating it into operational practice.
• Experience with high-volume, low-value ecommerce parcel flows and their distinct clearance challenges.
• Client- or stakeholder-facing experience, able to talk them through changes.

Skills and competencies

• Rigorous attention to detail with the judgement to interpret ambiguous or fast-changing rules.
• Ability to explain complex customs matters clearly to non-specialists (clients, ops, commercial teams).
• Strong systems literacy customs software, tariff browsers, and data tools; comfort building or improving monitoring and reporting workflows. Applying AI within processes is strongly encouraged (human-in-the-loop principle).
• Calm escalation-handling and problem-solving under time pressure (e.g. held entries, undischarged transits).
• Leadership, delegation and quality-assurance discipline.

Desirable

• AEO experience (application, audit, maintenance).
• Familiarity with automated legislative/regulatory monitoring across EU/UK/US.
• Exposure to last-mile and PUDO/OOH delivery models and their compliance implications.
• Second language relevant to EU lanes.
• Exposure to C2C customs flows.
• Experience with duty draw back processes.

What you'll get in Return

In return, you can expect to be given considerable responsibility for implementation and work closely with a small leadership team where your efforts and success will be noticed.

Apply Vicky