Material Program Specialist

Material Program Specialist

It started with a simple idea: what if surgery could be less invasive and recovery less painful? Nearly 30 years later, that question still fuels everything we do  a global leader in robotic-assisted surgery and minimally invasive care, our technologies—like the da Vinci surgical system and Ion—have transformed how care is delivered for millions of patients worldwide.

We're a team of engineers, clinicians, and innovators united by one purpose: to make surgery smarter, safer, and more human. Every day, our work helps care teams perform with greater precision and patients recover faster, improving outcomes around the world.

The problems we solve demand creativity, rigor, and collaboration. The work is challenging, but deeply meaningful—because every improvement we make has the potential to change a life.

If you're ready to contribute to something bigger than yourself and help transform the future of healthcare, you'll find your purpose here.

Primary Function of Position

• Represents Global Procurement in key operational forums and ensures end-to-end material readiness to support operational execution. This role is responsible for gathering, evaluating, and presenting procurement and materials information to enable SIOP alignment, build-plan amendments, SOE reviews, production-status assessments, and clear-to-build analyses for assigned business unit(s) and/or product families.
• Position also supports Global Procurement deliverables for manufacturing line transfers and new-plant readiness by aligning cross-functional milestones and transfer requirements with MSRB, PMO, and other supporting organizations.
• Position ensures that procurement related support activities support Company objectives for cost reduction, sustainability, and operational efficiency.

Essential Job Duties

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Represents Global Procurement in cross-functional operational forums by preparing and presenting procurement and materials inputs to support SIOP, build-plan updates, SOE reviews, production-status assessments, and clear-to-build (CTB) analyses.
• Supports manufacturing line transfers and new-plant readiness by coordinating with MSRB, PMO, and supporting functions to align timelines, milestones, and transfer requirements.

Material Readiness and Master Data Governance

• Ensures effective planning and setup of component materials, including direct to plant (DTP) readiness, material-master accuracy, and data-integrity checks.
• Maintains high-quality master data across planning systems and addresses discrepancies affecting material availability or production planning.
• Manages procurement related activities to achieve seamless transition of product lines from New Product Introduction (NPI) into large scale production.

Risk Management, Health Reviews and Compliance

• Supports business unit and/or product line inventory health goals (measured by days of supply available) and coverage profile (CP) adherence reviews.
• Conduct materials health checks and compliance assessments to identify points of supply constraint, capacity, supplier execution and data-quality risks.
• Works in partnership with Supplier Engineering and Sourcing to evaluate supplier capacity versus demand and recommend mitigation strategies.
• Provides recommendations for material planning-attribute updates, demand planning improvements, supply risk mitigation, and master-data corrections to support operational excellence.

Reporting and Continuous Improvement

• Prepares and presents executive-level summaries, dashboards, and materials-readiness reports to communicate supply constraints, risks, and operational dependencies.
• Identifies and drive improvements in procurement workflows, material-readiness processes, and governance mechanisms.

Required Skills and Experience

Functional Skills

• Advanced ERP/MRP proficiency: Deep understanding of SAP or equivalent platforms, including material-master structures, BOM dependencies, planning parameters, MRP exception handling, and effectivity management. Ability to identify and correct data integrity issues impacting supply, CTB readiness, or production schedules.
• SIOP and planning expertise: Ability to interpret SIOP signals, assess demand/supply gaps, analyze consumption trends, and support build-plan changes through accurate material readiness assessments.
• Material readiness and lifecycle management: Experience supporting direct to plant (DTP) setup, sustaining BOM governance, readiness tracking for NPI transitions, and material cutovers associated with engineering changes or line transfers.
• Risk assessment and mitigation: Skilled in evaluating supplier capacity versus demand, identifying shortages, assessing E&O exposure, and recommending risk-based planning or sourcing actions.
• Operational execution support: Practical understanding of manufacturing operations, production planning workflows, and cross-functional change impacts (ECOs, line moves, plant readiness).

General Competencies

• Analytical…