Master Production Scheduler

This position serves as a central planning authority supporting supply-and-demand balancing, finished goods availability, inventory optimization, and capacity planning. The Master Production Scheduler partners closely with Operations, Maintenance, Procurement, Sales, Quality, Finance, and Logistics to provide clear visibility into constraints, lead times, risks, and trade-offs. The role supports both plant and executive leadership with data-driven insights to enable strong operational and financial decision‑making.

The Master Production Scheduler is responsible for developing, maintaining, and executing integrated master production schedules across multiple manufacturing facilities. This role ensures production plans align with customer demand, manufacturing capacity, material availability, inventory targets, and financial performance.

• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve short‑ and mid‑term master production schedules across multiple facilities.
• Convert demand forecasts, customer orders, promotions, and inventory targets into executable production plans.
• Balance capacity, labor availability, equipment uptime, and maintenance constraints to meet service, cost, and financial objectives.
• Maintain rolling 8–12 week schedule visibility to support proactive planning and risk mitigation.
• Incorporate sequencing and changeover considerations to reduce disruption, inefficiency, and cost.

• Manage finished goods (FG), work‑in‑process (WIP), and excess & obsolete (E&O) inventory to optimize working capital while protecting customer service levels.
• Establish and maintain safety stock targets based on demand variability, lead times, and production capabilities.
• Identify inventory risks and recommend corrective actions related to shortages, excess, or obsolescence.
• Evaluate and communicate the financial impact of inventory decisions, including carrying costs, write‑offs, service‑level trade‑offs, and COGS implications.
• Identify and communicate capacity constraints, bottlenecks, and production risks across facilities.
• Develop mitigation plans for raw material or packaging shortages, equipment downtime, maintenance events, labor constraints, and demand volatility.
• Perform scenario planning and trade‑off analysis (cost vs. service vs. utilization) to support leadership decisions.
• Maintain annual and rolling capacity models, identifying opportunities for improvement in partnership with Operations, Finance, and Quality.

• Partner with Procurement to ensure timely availability of raw materials and packaging while minimizing expediting and premium freight.
• Collaborate with Operations, Maintenance, Quality, and Regulatory to align schedules with production realities, asset reliability, food safety, and compliance requirements.
• Support Sales and Customer Service by providing visibility into lead times, production constraints, and fulfillment capabilities.
• Serve as a trusted planning partner to plant leadership and executive management.
• Maintain strong understanding of manufacturing cost drivers, including labor, utilization, downtime, bottlenecks, sequencing, changeovers, yield loss, scrap, substitutions, and expediting.
• Support S&OP processes by aligning production plans with budget vs. actual performance, forecast accuracy, demand variability, and scenario planning for promotions, LTOs, and seasonal demand.
• Evaluate and recommend cost vs. service trade‑offs, including when overtime is justified, when backorders are financially preferable, and opportunities for line consolidation or changeover reduction.
• Quantify and communicate financial impact of promotional spikes, short‑term demand shifts, and scheduling decisions.

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives related to scheduling accuracy, forecast reliability, inventory turns, and throughput.
• Support production stability and rework reduction efforts.
• Participate in food safety and quality initiatives, including HACCP support as required.
• Apply Lean, Six Sigma, or CI tools to improve planning effectiveness and execution.
• Develop,…