Interim Supply Chain Manager

Chain Craft is on a mission to make chemistry circular. Through proprietary fermentation technology, we convert agrifood residues into high-performance biobased fatty acids, replacing fossil and palm-based inputs across industries ranging from personal care and animal nutrition to industrial lubricants and food & fragrance.

We have the technology, the customers and a commercial demonstration plant in Amsterdam and ready to build the first full-scale production facility. What it does not have is a supply chain ready for what is coming: incoming processing aids, storage and global distribution of fatty acid streams and various side streams, contract manufacturing partners on two continents and processes and systems in place to source, plan and deliver.

With your background, you know exactly what that means. And what it takes to get it right.

This is not a maintenance role. You are building the supply chain for FS1 from scratch and laying a foundation the organization will rely on for years to come. You report to the COO and work closely with Operations, Commercial and the engineering team. You are also a thinking partner for management on supply chain strategy, make-or-buy decisions and how the business scales.

Your remit is end-to-end. Not a project with a clear finish line, but a series of interconnected decisions that each shape how the facility will function. These are not decisions you make twice.

Key responsibilities:

• Production planning and S&OP: You design a planning process that fits the reality of a chemical facility with multiple product streams, variable demand and limited slack capacity. Not a heavy S&OP framework, but a pragmatic process that works and that the organization keeps using after you are gone.
• Tank planning and inventory management: You set up inventory management across raw materials, intermediates and finished products. You also conduct a sanity check on the storage capacity currently designed into FS1: are there enough tanks, can they be used flexibly across different product streams, and what is missing.
• Contract manufacturing and tollers: Active trajectories are running with production partners in Europe, India and China. The commercial agreements are in place, but the logistical and operational structure still needs to be built. You make sure products clear customs, that registrations are in order and that no delays arise from overlooked formalities. You also set up contract manufacturing partnerships for further processing of fatty acids.
  
  Quality, efficiency, proximity and strategic fit all matter.
• Engineering and FS1 design input: You work with the engineering team on the layout and organization of FS1. How much tank capacity is needed, which tanks should be flexible across product streams, how do production volumes relate to storage capacity and transport frequency? What functional roles do you need, and by when? Your supply chain perspective needs to be part of decisions that cannot easily be reversed once made.
• KPIs and IT requirements: You build the management information that gives leadership visibility over volumes, delivery performance and yields. You also help define the requirements for future IT systems covering planning and inventory management. Not as an IT project lead, but as someone who understands what the organization actually needs.

You have ten to fifteen years of experience in supply chain management within the international chemical or ingredients industry. You know how supply chains function at scale because you have worked in them, at the kind of organizations where processes are mature, volumes are significant and the margin for error is small. And you know what it takes to apply that knowledge in an environment where none of that structure exists yet.

That combination is not negotiable. Scale-up experience without the industrial depth is not what we are looking for. Corporate experience without ever having built something from the ground up is not either.

What we have learned is that strategic vision alone is not enough. Chain Craft needs someone who goes beyond the big picture: someone who digs into the details, follows…