Manager Customs Brokerage
Amazon
Manager Customs Brokerage
Amazon
Sells products online and rents cloud computing
Amazon Global Logistics (AGL) manages the international movement of goods into and across Europe, supporting Amazon's mission to be Earth's most customer-centric company. As part of a strategic programme to bring customs clearance capability in-house, we are building a dedicated Customs Brokerage function within Amazon Customs & Trade.
We are looking for a Manager, Customs Brokerage to own risk management and compliance operations across our Netherlands (NL) customs clearance network. This individual contributor role carries end-to-end accountability for the performance of customs brokerage operations in the Netherlands, covering ocean, air, rail and road shipments for both third-party and first-party entry filing.
You will be the primary point of contact with Dutch customs authorities, responding to regulatory queries, managing document inspections, and resolving compliance holds. You will develop risk management frameworks, establish operational controls, and drive compliance excellence across all customs activities. You will also lead the strategic direction for the Netherlands: identifying automation opportunities, onboarding new business lines, and acting as the subject matter expert who helps replicate what gets built here across other European markets.
This role blends operational execution with strategic leadership. Expect roughly 40% of your time on frontline customs operations (shipment clearance, compliance holds, documentation) and 60% on strategic work (regulatory change management, project prioritisation, automation design, and cross-functional advisory to senior leadership).
You will influence and mentor customs operators based in other locations through a dotted-line relationship, owning overall country performance without direct line management to start.
Key job responsibilities
**Risk Management & Compliance Leadership**
- Develop and implement risk management frameworks for customs brokerage activities across NL operations
- Serve as the licensed point of contact with Dutch customs authorities, managing regulatory queries, document inspections, and compliance escalations
- Monitor regulatory developments, assess business impact, and translate changes into actionable procedures and scalable solutions
- Lead holistic operational excellence programmes linking policies, SOPs, internal controls, monitoring, and reporting
**Strategic & Technology Leadership**
- Own the strategic roadmap for NL customs brokerage, identifying projects that deliver competitive advantage
- Drive automation of manual customs and logistics processes by influencing product and technology teams; design scalable, compliant solutions rather than relying on manual workarounds
- Onboard new business lines (e.g. AWS) into the NL customs operation
- Act as the subject matter expert supporting expansion of the in-house customs model to other European markets
**Operational Execution**
- Oversee daily customs clearance performance, proactively identifying systemic risks and exception trends
- Ensure documentation accuracy, tariff classification integrity, and clearance SLA adherence across all transport modes
- Lead cross-functional collaboration with sellers, vendors, third-party brokers, and internal operations teams
- Provide regular reporting and insights to senior leadership on risk posture and mitigation strategies
**Stakeholder Management**
- Work directly with Dutch customs authorities, building trusted relationships and influencing outcomes
- Partner with Finance, Legal, Accounting, Tax, and technology teams for comprehensive risk assessments
- Mentor and guide customs operators (based in Prague and China) through dotted-line influence, driving performance standards and knowledge sharing
A day in the life
Your day begins by reviewing overnight customs clearance activity and scanning dashboards for SLA performance and exception trends. You sync with the operations team to understand overnight issues: perhaps a shipment held for additional documentation, or a new regulatory interpretation that could affect clearance procedures. You assess whether these are isolated incidents or systemic risks requiring immediate action.
Mid-morning, you take a call from Dutch customs about a document inspection on a batch of shipments. You pull together the required documentation, liaise with the broker team in Prague to confirm the details, and respond within the deadline.
In the afternoon, you shift to strategic work. A recent regulatory change removed the low-value duty threshold and introduced a minimum handling charge per package. You have already implemented a manual workaround to keep shipments flowing. Now you are designing the automation that handles this at scale, working with the technology team to build it into the system permanently. You present the proposal to senior leadership with a clear cost-benefit analysis.
Later, you join a cross-functional call about onboarding a new business line into the Netherlands. You advise on the customs implications, document requirements, and risk profile, and agree the timeline for go-live.
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent
- Experience engaging with regulatory agencies in permit applications or equivalent
- Experience building cross-functional partnerships and influencing stakeholders across the organization to act without having a direct reporting relationship
- Speak, write, and read fluently in Dutch
- Proven progressive experience in NL customs brokerage, compliance, audit, or risk management, with at experience in a leadership or strategic role
- Master's degree or equivalent
- Experience developing and implementing of standards, policies and programs or equivalent
- Experience leveraging technology and implementing lean principles / Six Sigma methodologies to drive process improvements or equivalent
- Knowledge of Microsoft Office products and applications at an advanced level
- Experience in warehouse operations and logistics or equivalent
- - Experience with Dutch customs declaration systems (AGS, DMS) or equivalent EU systems
Amazon is an equal opportunities employer. We believe passionately that employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We value your passion to discover, invent, simplify and build. Protecting your privacy and the security of your data is a longstanding top priority for Amazon. Please consult our Privacy Notice (https://www.amazon.jobs/en/privacy_page) to know more about how we collect, use and transfer the personal data of our candidates.
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