A growing manufacturing organization is seeking an experienced Material Planner to take ownership of material planning, MRP execution, and inventory optimization. This role is central to ensuring the right materials are available at the right time while improving inventory efficiency, working capital, and supply continuity.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the planning process for purchased materials and components, translating forecasts, customer demand, production schedules, and BOM requirements into actionable purchasing requirements.
• Develop inventory strategies that balance production service levels with working-capital objectives.
• Maintain and optimize MRP parameters, including lead times, safety stock, reorder points, lot sizes, and supplier constraints.
• Analyze demand, consumption, inventory levels, and forecast accuracy to identify risks and improvement opportunities.
• Monitor open purchase orders, supplier commitments, shortages, and material availability to protect production schedules.
• Partner closely with Purchasing, Production Planning, Inventory Management, Engineering, and Operations.
• Provide data and forecasting insights to support sourcing strategies, supplier discussions, and purchasing decisions.
• Identify opportunities to reduce excess inventory, improve inventory turns, consolidate suppliers, and lower costs.
• Develop reporting, dashboards, and KPIs that improve visibility into demand, supply, inventory health, and material risks.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on MRP effectiveness, inventory optimization, and working-capital improvement.

Ideal Background

• 5+ years of experience in material planning, production planning, inventory planning, or supply chain within a manufacturing environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, Operations, or a related field.
• Strong knowledge of MRP, inventory management, replenishment strategies, and manufacturing operations.
• Advanced experience with ERP/MRP systems such as SAP, JD Edwards, Epicor, Dynamics, Oracle, Infor, or similar platforms.
• Advanced Excel skills; Power BI or comparable data analytics experience is highly desirable.
• APICS CPIM certification is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with commodity materials such as steel, hardware, and imported components is an asset.

Key Strengths

• Highly analytical, proactive, and organized.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
• Comfortable identifying supply risks before they impact production.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Able to challenge existing processes and implement practical improvements.
• Understands the financial impact of inventory, carrying costs, excess stock, and working capital.

Success in the Role

The successful candidate will improve MRP accuracy, material availability, inventory turns and forecast visibility while reducing shortages and excess/obsolete inventory. They will become a key planning partner to Purchasing and Operations and deliver measurable improvements in inventory efficiency, cost savings, and working capital.