Inventory Manager

Inventory Manager

Department
:
Production

Reports To
: VP Production & Operations

Direct Reports
:
Sr. Purchasing & Sourcing Specialist and Purchasing Clerk

Location
:
Warren, Rhode Island — on-site

Status
:
Full-time, exempt

Salary
: $70,000 - $90,000 per year

The Inventory Manager is responsible for the accuracy, integrity, security, and traceability of inventory across the company, and for leading the purchasing function that supplies it. The role covers raw materials, precious metals, gemstones, findings, castings, work-in-process, and finished goods. Working alongside the VP of Production & Operations, this position serves as the central point of accountability for inventory standards across Production, Purchasing, Quality Control, Fulfillment, and Finance.

This role combines inventory control, cycle count program ownership, purchasing leadership, and inventory strategy. The Inventory Manager sets the standards for how inventory is counted, controlled, and recorded, holds every department to them, and publishes record accuracy by zone on a fixed schedule. The role directs sourcing, vendor management, and replenishment so that production stays supplied without carrying more inventory than the business needs.

It is scoped as a manager rather than a specialist because it leads the purchasing team and owns the standard the rest of the organization follows. Success in this role requires strong analytical skills, exceptional attention to detail, the discipline to investigate a variance to root cause rather than adjust it away, and the directness to hold a standard with a department that finds it inconvenient.

• Own the accuracy and integrity of inventory transactions across the company, covering raw materials, precious metals, gemstones, findings, castings, work-in-process, and finished goods.
• Develop and enforce standardized inventory policies, procedures, and best practices, and hold every department to them.
• Investigate inventory discrepancies and determine root cause.
• Implement corrective and preventative actions to reduce recurring inventory issues, and verify they worked.
• Ensure inventory adjustments are properly documented, evidenced, and approved. This role recommends and evidences adjustments; those above the approval threshold are approved by the VP of Production & Operations.

• Design and run the cycle count program: count frequency by value class, variance tolerances, who counts what, and what happens when a count falls outside tolerance.
• Publish inventory record accuracy by zone and own the trend.
• Schedule and oversee physical inventories, and maintain the audit documentation behind them.
• Analyze count results for patterns rather than treating each variance as isolated.
• Ensure counts on the highest-value zones are performed by two people, or by someone who holds no custody of what is being counted.

• Establish standardized receiving, stocking, issuing, transfer, and inventory movement procedures across every department that handles material.
• Own the receiving-to-invoice chain: purchase order, certified packing slip, invoice. Maintain it as a documented procedure applied consistently at every receiving point, with a trained backup, and with the match holding as reliably on short shipments, substitutions, and partial receipts as it does on routine deliveries.
• Ensure materials are properly identified, labeled, and traceable through every stage.
• Oversee the standards for inventory storage locations, including how zones are defined, what is held where, and how movement between them is recorded.

• Develop secure handling procedures for high-value materials, written so they can be followed on the floor in both English and Spanish.
• Maintain chain-of-custody documentation: who holds what, how it moves, and what is recorded at each handoff.
• Ensure accountability for all inventory movements involving high-value materials, including material issued to and returned from the bench.
• Support compliance with internal security procedures, and ensure count evidence…