Business Development Manager, Caribbean & Central America
Blue Water ShippingPosition summary The Business Development Manager, Caribbean & Central America is a manager-level individual contributor with no direct reports responsible for generating net-new U.S.-origin export business into the Caribbean Islands and Central America. The role develops customers across all industries and sells ocean freight, air freight, consolidation, and warehousing solutions. The position is based in Florida with a strong preference for South Florida, works on a hybrid basis with regular Miami office attendance, and travels more than 50%. It reports directly to the Head of Procurement & Business Development. Key responsibilities and tasks Create and execute a regional sales plan focused exclusively on U.S.-origin export opportunities into the Caribbean Islands and Central America. Identify, engage, qualify, and secure new customers across all industries, with a disciplined 100% new-business development approach. Develop ocean freight, air freight, consolidation, and warehousing opportunities that are operationally executable and commercially sustainable. Build relationships with exporters, manufacturers, distributors, trading companies, and other logistics decision-makers. Maintain territory plans, target-account lists, prospecting activity, opportunities, follow-ups, pipeline values, probability, expected close dates, and forecasts in the company CRM. Coordinate with procurement, pricing, operations, finance, and relevant international partners to design solutions, prepare quotations, and support implementation. Negotiate commercial terms while protecting margin, service expectations, credit requirements, and implementation feasibility. Complete a structured commercial and operational handoff after securing new business while remaining involved through early account stabilization. Travel throughout the assigned territory for customer meetings, prospect development, trade shows, and selected market visits. Provide regular pipeline, activity, forecast, conversion, gross-profit, and market-development updates to management. Qualifications and competencies Minimum university degree. Five to ten years of successful freight forwarding, NVOCC, shipping-line, or closely related international logistics business-development experience. Demonstrated success winning net-new customers and developing export trade lanes. Working knowledge of ocean freight, air freight, consolidation, warehousing, pricing, and customer implementation. English and Spanish fluency required; Portuguese preferred. Strong prospecting, networking, solution selling, negotiation, closing, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills. Disciplined CRM usage and ability to manage a measurable pipeline and accurate forecast. Ability to work independently in a hybrid environment while collaborating regularly with the Miami commercial and operational teams. Willingness and ability to travel more than 50%. Key performance indicators New customers won and profitable U.S.-origin export volume developed. Gross profit generated against agreed targets. Qualified pipeline value and conversion rate. CRM discipline and forecast accuracy. Margin quality and sustainability of secured accounts. Regional focus and services Territory: Caribbean Islands and Central America, including focus markets such as the Dominican Republic, Trinidad & Tobago, Panama, Guatemala, Guyana, and Suriname. Commercial direction: U.S.-origin export opportunities only. Inbound development is outside the role scope. Customer coverage: All industries; account selection should reflect executable service solutions, commercially attractive margin, and sustainable growth potential. Solutions portfolio: Ocean freight, air freight, consolidation, and warehousing. What we offer Competitive compensation as well as 100% employer paid medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees. Additional benefits include a robust 401K, generous paid time off and values-driven, international culture. Ready to take the n…