Senior Customs & Trade Compliance Specialist

Job Summary

In this role, you will help ensure compliance with international customs and trade regulations while partnering with stakeholders across the business to support operational excellence, risk mitigation, and sustainable growth. You will play an important role in shaping customs and trade compliance strategies, optimizing processes, and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and generate duty savings.

Working closely with colleagues in Supply Chain, Procurement, Logistics, Regulatory, Finance, and Commercial teams, among others, as well as external customs brokers and government authorities, you will provide expert guidance on customs and trade matters and contribute to continuous improvement initiatives across the region.

The ideal candidate combines deep customs and trade compliance expertise with strong analytical, communication, and stakeholder partnership skills, enabling them to effectively support both day-to-day operations and longer-term business objectives.

This position can be performed remotely, provided you are based near one of our EMEA office locations: Brugge, Belgium; Bomlitz, Germany; Brabrand, Denmark; Melle, France or Valencia, Spain

Join us and help shape a compliant, efficient, and future-focused trade environment that enables business success across the EMEA region.

Where You’ll Make a Difference

• Own and continuously improve the EMEA Customs & Trade Compliance program, ensuring compliance with customs regulations, AEO requirements, and customs authorizations across manufacturing and commercial sites.

• Manage customs licenses, authorizations, and special procedures (e.g., AEO, IPR, End-Use), maintaining ongoing regulatory compliance.

• Lead trade preference and non-preferential origin programs, including origin determination, supplier solicitations, customer certifications, FTA compliance, and duty optimization initiatives.

• Monitor regulatory developments, assess business impacts, and promote the implementation of customs and trade compliance changes.

• Provide expert guidance, training, and operational support to stakeholders on customs and trade compliance requirements.

• Ensure compliant import and export operations through effective controls, procedures, systems, self-audits, and the management of customs master data (tariff classification, valuation, origin, licensing, etc.).

• Conduct compliance reviews, support customs audits and government inquiries, and drive corrective actions to mitigate risk and strengthen processes.

• Partner with customs brokers, freight forwarders, logistics providers, and internal stakeholders to ensure accurate customs filings and efficient operational execution.

• Act as the regional subject matter expert for customs and trade compliance, leading projects, system enhancements (including SAP GTS), KPI reporting, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.

What Makes You the Right Fit

• Bachelor’s degree in Customs, International Trade, Supply Chain, Logistics, Business, Law, or a related field; equivalent professional experience may be considered.

• 5–10 years of experience in customs operations, import/export compliance, trade compliance, or other international trade-related disciplines.

• Sound knowledge of customs regulations, customs procedures, and international trade requirements, ideally within the EMEA region.

• Experience supporting customs audits, compliance reviews, self-assessments, and corrective action initiatives.

• Experience working with multi-country import and export operations and trade compliance programs in a complex international environment.

• Knowledge of customs duty optimization opportunities, including Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), duty drawback programs, preferential origin, and other duty-saving mechanisms.

• Experience partnering with customs brokers, logistics providers, government authorities, and cross-functional business stakeholders.

• Proficiency in SAP GTS, ERP trade compliance modules, customs management systems, e-Customs solutions, and other compliance-related technologies.

• Strong analytical, project management, stakeholder engagement, and communication skills, with the ability to deliver training, present complex information clearly, and build effective working relationships across all organizational levels; fluency in English required, with additional European language skills considered an advantage.

Why Choose Us?

• Flexible work profile

• Attractive compensation and benefits designed to support your well-being

• Be part of a culture that values curiosity, continuous learning, and knowledge sharing.

For your awareness, IFF has announced its intention to sell its Food Ingredients Business to CVC Capital Partners. The sale is presently expected to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. The Food Ingredient business unit will remain a part of IFF until close and, at such time, it will transition to CVC Capital Partners. In applying for this position, you acknowledge your awareness that the position is a part of the Food Ingredient business unit and has been identified to transition to CVC Capital Partners.

We are a global leader in taste, scent, and nutrition, offering our customers a broader range of natural solutions and accelerating our growth strategy. At IFF, we believe that your uniqueness unleashes our potential. We value the diverse mosaic of the ethnicity, national origin, race, age, sex, or veteran status. We strive for an inclusive workplace that allows each of our colleagues to bring their authentic self to work regardless of their religion, gender identity & expression, sexual orientation, or disability.

Visit IFF.com/careers/workplace-diversity-and-inclusion to learn more