Highlights
This leader will establish governance frameworks, ensure regulatory compliance, and serve as a key advisor on claims-related matters while fostering a high-performing, customer-focused claims organization. The Director, Claims provides strategic leadership and oversight of the organization's claims management function across a distributed LTL, brokerage, and multimodal transportation network.
Numbers & Facts
| Location | Groveport, OH |
| Job Type | Full-time |
| Industry | Transport and Storage - Materials |
| Company Size | 2,500 to 4,999 employees |
| Year Founded | 1981 |
| Website | https://www.forwardair.com/content/careers-0 |
Description
The Director, Claims provides strategic leadership and oversight of the organization's claims management function across a distributed LTL, brokerage, and multimodal transportation network. This role is responsible for the financial performance, operational effectiveness, compliance, and continuous improvement of claims operations, including claims intake, investigation, defense, settlement, and recovery. The Director partners closely with Operations, Sales, Legal, Risk, Insurance, and Quality teams to drive consistent claims handling practices and improve claim outcomes across the enterprise. This leader will establish governance frameworks, ensure regulatory compliance, and serve as a key advisor on claims-related matters while fostering a high-performing, customer-focused claims organization.
How Success is Measured:
Claims severity and settlement outcomes
Total paid claims vs. revenue
Claims cycle time and settlement consistency
Remote team performance and engagement
Audit and compliance outcomes
Responsibilities
Lead the end-to-end claims lifecycle across LTL, brokerage, and multimodal operations, ensuring timely and consistent resolution of claims.
Establish and maintain claims handling standards, settlement authority guidelines, escalation protocols, and documentation requirements.
Manage claims severity, financial exposure, and total paid claims through disciplined governance and sound decision-making practices.
Ensure claims decisions are aligned with contractual liability obligations, insurance coverage provisions, company policies, and regulatory requirements.
Partner with Legal, Risk Management, and Insurance teams to manage high-exposure claims, litigation matters, and liability-related issues.
Lead, coach, develop, and evaluate a geographically dispersed team of claims professionals while building organizational capability and succession plans.
Establish performance expectations, key performance indicators, and accountability measures for direct and indirect reports.
Develop and manage claims analytics, dashboards, executive reporting, and trend analyses to drive informed business decisions.
Analyze claims frequency, severity, customer, commodity, lane, terminal, and operational trends to identify risk reduction and cost containment opportunities.
Quantify financial leakage and implement strategies to improve claims handling effectiveness, recovery outcomes, and operational performance.
Collaborate with Operations, Sales, Quality, and other business partners to improve investigations, customer communication, and claims resolution processes.
Own and maintain claims policies, procedures, and standard operating processes while ensuring enterprise-wide consistency.
Ensure compliance with the Carmack Amendment, company Terms and Conditions, insurance requirements, and all applicable regulatory standards.
Lead internal claims audits, corrective action initiatives, and continuous improvement efforts to strengthen claims performance and compliance.
Serve as the organization's subject matter expert on transportation claims, carrier liability, and claims management best practices.
All other duties as assigned to meet evolving business needs.
Qualifications
Education: Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, Risk Management, Transportation, or a related field from an accredited college or university required.
Certification/Licensure: Professional claims, risk management, insurance, or transportation-related certifications preferred.
Experience: 8+ years of progressive experience in claims, risk management, transportation operations, or a related field, including significant claims leadership experience.
Leadership: 5+ years of experience leading remote, multi-site, or geographically dispersed teams.
Strong knowledge of LTL transportation operations, carrier liability, freight claims management, and claims defense practices.
Experience supporting multimodal and/or brokerage transportation environments.
Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with executive leadership, legal counsel, risk management, and insurance stakeholders.
Proven success leveraging claims analytics, financial metrics, and operational data to drive strategic decision-making and performance improvement.
Strong leadership, communication, influence, and organizational development skills with the ability to drive results through others.
Demonstrated discretion and confidentiality in handling and protecting sensitive information.
Technical: Proficient with common office technologies, including Windows PCs, Microsoft O365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and web conferencing (Teams, Zoom, Webex, etc.)
Environment: Comfort commuting to/from and working in a 100% on-site setting (listed in this posting), with travel for related meetings/events.
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#LI-Onsite #LI-DR1
About Company
Since 1990, Forward Air has been a leading provider of ground transportation and related logistics services to the North American air freight and expedited LTL market. We offer surface shipping on an accelerated “time-definite” basis, delivering cargo at a specific time, but under less time-sensitive situations – supplying you with a cost effective, reliable alternative to air transportation. We work with companies of all sizes to develop tangible advantages and build the best products to meet your specific needs. Forward Air presents to the wholesale transportation community (logistics companies, freight forwarders, integrated air cargo carriers, passenger/ cargo airlines, and non-traditional shippers), a single-source provider that can deliver more supply chain services and a superior menu of choices. Throughout the years we have added supplementary lines to our linehaul service, such as full truckload operations (Truckload Services), final-mile coverage (Complete® Cartage), and an Airline Logistics program, and we will continue to expand our services to meet the changing needs and growth of our customer base.
Forward Air is structured to optimize both savings and service to our customers. Direct partnerships with owner-operators and other surface transportation providers, enable us to remain cost-competitive. The Forward Air network is designed with over 90 facilities located at or near major U.S. and Canadian airports, 12 regional sort centers and over 300 beyond points (secondary airports provided through our Complete Cartage service), creating one of the most comprehensive linehaul networks in the industry.
The foundation product for Forward Air is our expedited linehaul service, offering consistent and reliable transit and on-time, damage-free deliveries. By locating terminals on or near airports and maintaining a scheduled transportation network, we are able to arrange for convenient and consistent service with broad geographic coverage. Shipments of varying sizes (TL/LTL) are received at our terminals and transported by contracted service providers either (1) on a direct truck to the destination terminal, (2) through our Columbus, Ohio central sorting hub, or (3) through one of our 12 regional hubs, where they are unloaded, sorted, and reloaded in rapid fashion. After reloading the shipments, our contracted service providers deliver them to the destination city for early morning recovery. Through our Forward Air Complete® cartage service, customers also can have shipments picked up from the shipper, delivered to the final consignee, or transferred at the airport, simplifying the freight management processes. These options allow us to maximize handling efficiency of each shipment while minimizing freight loss and damage, improving transit times over traditional ground transportation.