Supply Chain & Materials Operations Manager

Supply Chain & Materials Operations Manager

Job Type: Full-Time, Direct Hire
Location: Marietta, OH
Starting Salary: $95,000/year (Compensation may be higher based on experience.)
Travel: Up to 20% for supplier meetings, sourcing activities, and industry events.

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Supply Chain & Materials Operations Manager to lead materials planning, procurement, inventory management, and supplier performance for a manufacturing operation. This leadership position is responsible for ensuring materials are available to support both configure-to-order (CTO) and engineered-to-order (ETO) production while balancing inventory investment, supplier performance, and production schedules.

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable leading day-to-day operations and developing long-term supply chain strategies. This role supervises Buyer Planners and works closely with project management, engineering, production, sales, quality, and operations teams to maintain uninterrupted manufacturing.

Primary Responsibilities

Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Buyer Planner team.
• Assign workloads and monitor performance across purchasing and planning activities.
• Conduct coaching sessions, performance reviews, and employee development planning.
• Promote cross-training and support professional certifications such as APICS CPIM or CSCP.
• Ensure team coverage during vacations, absences, or staffing changes.

Materials Planning & Production Support

• Oversee material planning for active manufacturing projects.
• Coordinate with Project Managers to align material availability with production schedules.
• Participate in project kickoff meetings to review BOMs, identify long-lead components, and evaluate supply risks.
• Lead material shortage investigations and implement recovery plans before production is impacted.
• Support configure-to-order (CTO) and engineered-to-order (ETO) manufacturing programs.

Sales & Demand Planning

• Partner with Sales during quoting activities to provide realistic material lead times.
• Participate in Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP) meetings.
• Monitor demand forecasts and backlog trends to improve purchasing decisions.
• Support customer-specific inventory programs, blanket orders, and stocking agreements.

Strategic Supply Chain Management

• Develop sourcing strategies for long-lead and high-risk materials.
• Maintain inventory plans for critical electromechanical components including breakers, transformers, bus assemblies, custom enclosures, and power electronic modules.
• Identify single-source risks and recommend mitigation strategies including dual sourcing, safety stock, vendor-managed inventory (VMI), supplier-managed inventory, and long-term agreements (LTAs).
• Support commodity strategy implementation and make/buy evaluations.
• Monitor market conditions including pricing trends, tariffs, supplier capacity, and supply chain disruptions.

Inventory Management

• Manage inventory performance including inventory turns, excess and obsolete (E&O) inventory, working capital, and days of supply.
• Develop inventory policies including safety stock, reorder points, lot sizing, and cycle counting.
• Lead physical inventory activities and reconcile inventory results.
• Balance production requirements with inventory investment objectives.

Supplier Performance

• Measure supplier performance using on-time delivery, quality (PPM), lead time accuracy, and responsiveness.
• Conduct Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) with strategic suppliers.
• Coordinate Supplier Corrective Action Requests (SCARs) with Quality Engineering.
• Support supplier qualification activities and negotiate pricing agreements, blanket purchase orders, and long-term contracts.

ERP / MRP Management

• Maintain ERP and MRP planning accuracy, including item masters, supplier lead times, BOMs, and planning parameters.
• Ensure procurement and planning activities are completed within ERP systems.
• Analyze MRP outputs to identify planning issues and improve data accuracy.
• Partner with IT to improve reporting and supply chain system performance.

Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Prepare supply chain dashboards covering inventory, shortages, supplier performance, and material availability.
• Present monthly KPI reports and improvement plans to leadership.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on inventory optimization, supplier performance, ERP ef