Production Planner Senior, NPG (Nordstrom Product Group) - (Hybrid - Seattle, WA)

Job Description

The Senior of Production Planning drives operational excellence and champions best-in-class production processes for Nordstrom Product Group (NPG). This role leads a team of Production Planners and ensures seamless execution of production activities from order commitment through in-store delivery. Combining leadership with hands-on involvement, the Senior Production Planner supports workflow and processes as needed to meet business priorities. Acting as a trusted partner to cross-functional teams and external suppliers, this role influences decision-making and champions collaboration to deliver on-time production. Success in this role requires exceptional leadership, strong communication, and the ability to navigate complexity with confidence and agility.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead and mentor a team of Production Planners through goal setting, performance feedback and tailored development plans to foster accountability, collaboration and results.
• Align production priorities with business objectives, implementing best practices and process enhancements to optimize efficiency and reduce operational complexity.
• Oversee end-to-end production timelines from order commitment through delivery, monitor key milestones and proactively address risks to main on-time delivery.
• Ensure accuracy and timely execution of purchase orders and work-in-progress (WIP) tracking, resolving discrepancies and maintaining compliance with corporate standards.
• Collaborate as a strategic liaison between cross functional partners (i.e., Merchandising, Product Development, Transportation, Floor Ready) and external suppliers, building strong relationships to ensure alignment with business goals and on-time delivery.
• Resolve complex production challenges, prioritize team workload, remove barriers and apply data-driven insights to improve processes and drive results.
• Own key performance indicators (KPI) tracking and analytics, monitoring metrics such as PO accuracy, on-time delivery, and supplier compliance; provide actionable insights and recommendations to leadership.
• Serve as key user in Production Planning processes and tools, ensure data integrity and ability to execute workflows and processes as needed.
• Lead strategic initiatives and workflow optimization projects to enhance efficiency and support organizational growth.
• Communicate priorities, updates and process changes clearly across team, suppliers and stakeholders and suppliers, support organizational initiatives and drive adoption of new tools and workflow.

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES:

• Builds Teams: Directly manage a team of senior production planners by ensuring that team members understand their key priorities and leverage their strengths to deliver results and operate in a way that builds a sense of belonging.
• Develops People: Formally responsible for directly coaching and mentoring a team with an emphasis on the importance of learning, urging others to build new skills and providing opportunities for them to develop.
• Drives Vision: Operate with a clear sense of purpose that gives meaning to everyday activities and ensures clear connections between day-to-day actions and the organization’s overall vision.
• Strategic Mindset: Understands the actions to take to help the organization reach its goals and spots trends and asks about future issues that may impact own work.
• Manages Complexity: Look at complex issues from multiple angles and explore issues and uncover the underlying issues and root causes; gains a sound understanding of each topic.
• Builds Trust: Demonstrate dependability, build an organization with a reputation for living up to its commitments, and act as a role model for honesty and transparency, promoting trust in the organization and its leadership.
• Communicates Effectively: Take steps to ensure effective communication between individuals and teams and pay attention to others’ input and perspectives; ask questions and summarizes input to confirm understanding.
• Decision Quality: Demonstrate an ability to make tough decisions and advance initiatives that may be unpopular.
• Customer Focus: Speak clearly about the importance of the customer; fosters a sense of urgency toward customer needs.
• Drives Results: Promotes urgency to accomplish objectives despite obstacles and setbacks while having a track record of exceeding goals successfully.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional partners, external suppliers and team members to build trust and share progress toward goals.
• Apply data-driven insights to support decision making and recommend solutions that improve accuracy and efficiency.