Senior Site Production Planning Leader

The Site Production Planning Leader owns all planning-related activities for the site, including Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), Master Production Schedule (MPS), and the planning team. This is both an operational and strategic role: you will execute planning excellence day-to-day while simultaneously modernizing how the site plans — replacing fragmented, manual tools with AI-enabled systems that accelerate decision-making, improve visibility, and support business growth.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Own and continuously mature the end-to-end S&OP cycle (demand review, supply review, pre-S&OP, executive S&OP) and MPS processes, establishing consistent meeting discipline and decision-making frameworks.
• Identify and elevate demand/supply gaps, capacity constraints, and inventory risks with clear scenarios and recommended actions for leadership decision-making.
• Collaborate on establishment and control of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly sales plans; ensure appropriate load leveling for inventory turns and productivity improvement.
• Lead production planning execution, root cause analysis, and corrective action planning for missed adherence; identify and address systemic issues and constraints.

• Lead customer communications and service level management; partner cross-functionally with Purchasing, Manufacturing, and Customer Service to communicate schedule changes, resolve issues, and mitigate risks to customer commitments.
  Build the business case for modernizing the site's planning infrastructure — documenting current pain points (fragmented systems, manual data gathering, limited visibility) and defining the target state with AI-enabled tools.
• Lead evaluation and implementation of AI-assisted planning capabilities: demand sensing, scenario modeling, anomaly detection, and automated reporting to reduce manual work and accelerate decision cycles.
• Partner with IT and external vendors to evaluate, pilot, and scale new planning tools and ERP functionality; ensure systems integrate and eliminate data silos.
• Be the first operator of new planning capabilities; translate technical capability into operational practice and coach the team through adoption.
• Continuously improve planning tools, reporting, and data infrastructure to support business growth and evolving operational needs.
• Lead production planning daily management system (DMS) and Genba walks, identifying opportunities for process improvement and safety enhancement.
• Implement and sustain Lean scheduling practices and inventory strategies to optimize material flow, improve inventory turns, and reduce shortages or overages.
• Propose and lead breakthrough projects for site production planning; be an advocate for Lean culture and continuous improvement.
• Lead, coach, and develop master schedulers and production planners; provide guidance, training, and performance feedback to support team development and planning excellence.
• Build trust and cross-functional collaboration among Sales, Marketing, Finance, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain leaders to enable candid, data-driven decision-making.
• Foster an inclusive leadership style; build connection with the team through personal involvement, high integrity, and commitment to safety and teamwork.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited university or college (or high school diploma/GED with at least 5 years of experience in manufacturing/supply chain).
• Significant experience in a manufacturing or supply chain environment.
• Demonstrated experience with production planning and master scheduling.
• Proven ability to lead, manage, and communicate with all levels of the business.
• Experience with planning process improvement or operational transformation.

Desired…