Electronic Data Interchange Manager

About Us:

Vanguard Logistics is a leading NVOCC (Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier) in the logistics industry, committed to streamlining global freight services through innovation, agility, and digital transformation. We are seeking an experienced EDI & API Integration Manager to support the continued growth and digital enablement of our operations by managing EDI integrations, partner onboarding, API and integration roadmaps, and cross-functional collaboration.

Position Summary:

The EDI & API Integration Manager will serve as a strategic leader for Vanguard’s integration ecosystem, with primary responsibility for our global EDI program and growing responsibility for our API portfolio. This role will lead and coordinate multiple cross-functional teams across regions, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives, fostering collaboration, and delivering transformative integration projects.

The focus will be predominantly on EDI, including integration with our partners, customers, and internal systems. This role will also drive the product roadmap and modernization of our API capabilities, partnering closely with the web development team and other technology stakeholders.

The successful candidate will possess strong business analysis skills, excellent communication abilities, and a solid foundational understanding of EDI and related integration technologies in a logistics or supply chain environment, with growing experience and interest in modern API-based integrations.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy & Roadmap

· Develop and own the global EDI strategy and roadmap aligned with corporate digital transformation goals.

· Define and maintain the product roadmap for our integration capabilities, including both EDI and APIs, ensuring alignment with business priorities, partner needs, and technology standards.

· Identify and sponsor modernization opportunities (e.g., API-first approaches, API gateway adoption, cloud-enabled integrations) to improve speed, reliability, and scalability.

· Shape the strategy for onboarding, enablement, and governance of the global partner ecosystem; manage strategic vendor relationships (e.g., IBM Sterling) including performance oversight and contractual considerations.

· Stay current on EDI technologies, API and integration trends, and ocean freight/logistics industry practices to propose and implement process and system enhancements.

· Oversee governance and escalation frameworks for partner support, ensuring strategic alignment and accountability.

Program, Delivery & Product Ownership

· Manage the EDI and integration program portfolio, budgets and prioritization. Ensure alignment with enterprise architecture and business objectives.

· Communicate program strategy, ROI, risk, and key milestones to senior leadership.

· Provide reporting and oversight for partner SLAs, system performance metrics, and project status to leadership.

· Lead and coordinate multiple cross-functional teams across regions to deliver EDI integration projects, ensuring clear communication, accountability, and adherence to timelines.

· Liaise with internal teams (IT, Operations, and Commercial) to align integration strategies with business needs and deliver EDI solutions that enhance efficiency and data accuracy.

· Ensure that integration designs (EDI and API) are scalable, reliable, secure, and aligned with agreed business and technical standards.

· Serve as the product owner for business-facing and partner-facing APIs, defining use cases, requirements, and priorities in collaboration with stakeholders.

· Provide leadership and mentorship to project teams, foster collaboration and driving best practices in EDI implementation.

Required Qualifications:

- 5 years of experience in EDI program management or equivalent roles in a logistics, freight forwarding, or NVOCC environment.

- Proven experience in leading distributed teams across multiple geographies and managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects

- Strong working knowledge of industry EDI standards, especially in logistics: ANSI X12, EDIFACT, XML.

- Familiarity with core ocean freight EDI transaction sets (e.g., ANSI 310, 315) and freight-specific integrations.

- Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate business requirements into technical tasks and vice versa.

- Experience collaborating with ERP and TMS platforms and integrating them via EDI or API connections.

- Proven ability to manage multiple partners, timelines, and projects without sacrificing attention to detail.

- Exceptional leadership, communication, and conflict resolution skills to manage diverse teams and stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience working with IBM Sterling platform (Integrator or B2B/API Gateway).

- Exposure to custom integration solutions involving RESTful, XML-based, or JSON-based APIs, and/or middleware platforms.

- Experience influencing or defining API standards and best practices, including security, versioning, documentation, and lifecycle management.

- Experience with API gateways and cloud-based integration patterns.

- Familiarity with freight and shipment lifecycle processes and documentation.

- Experience driving process automation, digital transformation initiatives, or cloud-based integration projects.