Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Cargo Logistics Analyst

🎯 Role Definition

A Cargo Logistics Analyst is responsible for analyzing and optimizing freight and cargo operations across ocean, air and road modalities. The role combines logistics subject-matter expertise with data analysis to lower freight costs, improve transit times, ensure regulatory compliance and enhance carrier performance. The analyst supports commercial negotiations, designs reporting and dashboards, manages transportation management system (TMS) data, and partners with operations, procurement, customs and finance to deliver measurable supply chain improvements.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Logistics Coordinator or Shipping Coordinator transitioning to analytics-focused responsibilities.
Freight Analyst / Rate Analyst roles with exposure to carriers, tariffs and route planning.
Supply Chain or Operations Analyst internships with hands-on shipment tracking and reporting.

Advancement To:

Senior Cargo Logistics Analyst — lead analytics projects and strategic carrier relationships.
Logistics Manager / Freight Operations Manager — manage teams and P&L for transportation.
Supply Chain Manager or Network Optimization Analyst — broader remit across network design.

Lateral Moves:

Procurement / Sourcing Analyst (freight procurement specialization).
Customs Compliance Specialist or Import/Export Manager.
Inventory Analyst or Distribution Center Planning Analyst.

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Analyze weekly and monthly freight spend by lane, carrier and mode to identify cost-saving opportunities and prepare actionable recommendations that reduce landed cost and improve on-time delivery metrics.
Develop, maintain and automate freight dashboards and executive reports (Power BI / Tableau / Excel) showing KPIs such as cost per TEU/CBM, cost per shipment, dwell time, carrier on-time performance and exceptions by exception type.
Extract, transform and validate transportation data from the TMS, ERP and carrier portals using SQL and Excel to ensure accurate shipment-level cost and service performance analytics.
Lead lane-level rate analysis and benchmarking projects, evaluating spot versus contract rates, fuel surcharges, detention and demurrage exposure and total door-to-door landed cost.
Support RFPs and rate negotiations by consolidating carrier proposals, modeling total cost-to-serve scenarios, and recommending award strategies that balance service, cost and risk.
Monitor carrier performance and service-level agreements, conduct root-cause analysis on recurring issues, and collaborate with carriers and operations to implement corrective action plans.
Manage shipment tracking and exception management processes, coordinating with carriers, forwarders and operations teams to resolve delays, customs holds and missing documentation.
Validate and reconcile freight invoices against contracts and shipment records; lead invoice dispute resolution, short-payments and carrier claims to recover costs.
Maintain and optimize TMS configurations (routing guides, carrier rules, rate tables) and work with IT to implement system enhancements that increase automation and reduce manual touchpoints.
Ensure import/export documentation and customs filings are accurate and compliant by auditing commercial invoices, HS codes, Incoterms and supporting documentation for regulated shipments.
Design and run predictive models and forecasting to anticipate capacity constraints, peak-season surcharges and transit time variability that inform procurement and inventory strategies.
Coordinate cross-functional projects with supply planning, procurement, warehouse operations and finance to align transportation capacity, inventory levels and working capital goals.
Conduct cost-to-serve and landed-cost modeling for new product introductions, supplier changes or customer routing changes to support commercial decisions and pricing.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives by mapping transportation processes, identifying waste/inefficiencies and implementing Lean/Six Sigma-informed solutions that reduce cycle time and cost.
Prepare monthly and quarterly presentations for senior leadership summarizing network performance, cost variance analysis, and recommended strategic initiatives.
Manage logistics vendor and forwarder relationships including performance onboarding, scorecards, KPI reviews and annual business reviews to secure service continuity and scalability.
Support claims management for damaged or lost cargo by gathering evidence, filing claims with carriers, and liaising with insurance and legal teams as needed.
Ensure compliance with international regulations (IATA, IMO, local customs regulations), trade sanctions and export controls by staying current with regulatory changes and training relevant stakeholders.
Participate in system implementation projects (TMS upgrades, EDI integrations, rate management platforms) by gathering requirements, testing configurations and coordinating user acceptance testing.
Execute route and consolidation analysis to increase container utilization, reduce empty miles, and identify opportunities for mode shifting or multi-modal consolidation.
Track and manage KPI SLAs for internal and external partners, drive improvement plans, and design incentive structures linked to measurable logistics outcomes.
Provide ad-hoc scenario analysis for business stakeholders such as service impact of carrier changes, cost projections under tariff changes, and contingency planning for port or route disruptions.
Maintain master data integrity for carriers, lanes, ports, and tariff structures; implement data governance practices to improve analytics accuracy and operational reliability.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory analysis for commercial teams, supply planners and finance to answer freight cost and service queries rapidly and accurately.
Contribute to the organization's logistics analytics roadmap and help prioritize automations and reporting improvements that deliver the highest ROI.
Collaborate with business units to translate operational requirements into system configurations and analytics deliverables.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies when working on TMS and analytics initiatives; provide acceptance criteria and test cases.
Train operations and commercial teams on dashboard usage, reporting standards and best practices for shipment documentation and exception handling.
Create and maintain SOPs and process documentation for transportation planning, invoice audit, claims handling and customs compliance.
Assist procurement in running carrier performance-based sourcing events and support contract administration, renewals and amendments.
Monitor industry trends, carrier capacity shifts and fuel surcharge indexes to proactively inform pricing and contingency strategies.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced Excel skills including pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH and complex formula modeling for freight costing and scenario analysis.
SQL proficiency for extracting and aggregating shipment, invoice and TMS data; experience writing optimized queries against large transactional datasets.
Experience with Business Intelligence and visualization tools such as Tableau, Power BI or Looker to build interactive logistics dashboards and executive reports.
Practical knowledge of Transportation Management Systems (TMS) such as SAP TM, Oracle Transportation Management, Manhattan Associates or BluJay.
Strong familiarity with freight forwarding operations and documentation (bill of lading, airway bill, packing list, commercial invoice) and export/import compliance.
Experience with EDI, API integrations and data exchanges between carriers, 3PLs and internal systems to automate tracking and invoicing workflows.
Freight costing and rate modeling skills including fuel surcharge calculations, detention/demurrage assessments and multi-leg costing.
Understanding of Incoterms, Harmonized System (HS) codes and customs clearance processes to mitigate regulatory and duty-related risks.
Basic scripting or data-manipulation skills in Python, R or VBA for automating repetitive tasks and advanced analytics.
Familiarity with route optimization, load consolidation techniques and modal shift analysis to reduce transportation spend and carbon footprint.
Knowledge of carrier contractual terms, service level agreements, and freight audit & payment best practices.
Experience with forecasting methodologies and demand variability analysis as it relates to transportation capacity planning.

Soft Skills

Strong analytical reasoning and problem-solving skills with a bias for turning data into actionable logistics recommendations.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills to influence stakeholders and present complex transportation topics clearly to non-technical audiences.
Stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills; ability to coordinate with procurement, operations, finance and external carriers/3PLs.
High attention to detail and accuracy when reconciling invoices, auditing documentation and maintaining master data.
Time management and prioritization skills to handle competing requests, seasonal peaks and urgent shipment exceptions.
Negotiation skills and commercial acumen to support carrier negotiations and cost reduction initiatives.
Resilience and adaptability in a fast-moving logistics environment with capacity disruptions and regulatory changes.
Continuous improvement mindset with experience driving process change and measurable performance improvements.
Ethical judgment and compliance orientation when handling customs, trade control and sensitive commercial data.
Customer-service orientation to support internal and external partners through shipment lifecycle and exception resolution.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, Economics or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master's in Supply Chain/Logistics, Operations Research, Business Analytics, or MBA with supply chain focus.
Professional certifications such as APICS CSCP/CPIM, Certified Supply Chain Analyst, Lean Six Sigma, or customs brokerage qualifications.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Supply Chain Management / Logistics
Business Analytics / Data Science
Industrial Engineering / Operations Research
Economics / Finance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2 to 7 years of progressive experience in logistics, freight analysis, transportation planning or supply chain analytics.

Preferred:

3+ years of hands-on experience analyzing freight spend, managing TMS data, executing carrier negotiations and building logistics dashboards.
Prior exposure to international freight (ocean/air), customs compliance and freight forwarding operations.
Demonstrated track record of delivering measurable freight cost savings, process automation or carrier performance improvements.