At a freight forwarder or exporter's shipping desk, you shepherd outbound international shipments — booking with carriers, preparing export documents, coordinating with overseas agents, and supporting customers through the export cycle.
A typical week involves booking, documentation, and steady cross-time-zone communication — confirming bookings with ocean, air, or trucking carriers; preparing commercial invoices, packing lists, certificates of origin, AES filings; coordinating with destination-country agents; updating shippers on cargo status. Bookings on time, documentation accuracy, and clean handoffs shape the visible measures.
The harder part is often the destination-country variance — different markets carry different documentation requirements, restricted-party rules, and certification expectations, and the coordinator builds expertise on each trade lane over time. Variance across employers is real: large global forwarders specialize coordinators by trade lane; smaller forwarders ask coordinators to handle a broader range of destinations.
This work tends to fit folks who find global trade interesting, manage time-zone-crossing communication patiently, and carry the document discipline that export work requires. CCS and FIATA diploma anchor advancement. The trade-off is the always-on rhythm of global trade and the early or late hours that align with overseas offices.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
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View all Admin & Office roles →At a freight forwarder or exporter's shipping desk, you shepherd outbound international shipments — booking with carriers, preparing export documents, coordinating with overseas agents, and supporting customers through the export cycle.
Median pay for an Export Coordinator is about $50K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $37K to $76K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Reading Comprehension, Coordination, Speaking, Monitoring, and Active Listening.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 8.5% through 2034, with roughly 195,600 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Air Export Agent, Export Agent, and Ocean Export Agent.
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