At Dexter, we manufacture and distribute axles, accessories, and towing components primarily serving the commercial trailer, RV, marine, agriculture, and manufactured housing markets. We’re building products and systems that are rooted in a culture of safety, collaboration, and innovation.
Headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana, Dexter has manufacturing and distribution locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Employing state-of-the-art robotics, precision welding equipment, and automated machining processes, Dexter has achieved over 65 years of success through a commitment to the principles of superior quality, continuous improvement, and unparalleled customer service.
For more information about our company, access Dexter's web site at www.dextergroup.com.
We are seeking a Supplier Fulfillment Leader to build and lead an enterprise Supplier Fulfillment function that connects supplier execution to customer commitments, material availability, revenue, manufacturing continuity, inventory productivity and working capital performance. This leader will own the Supplier Fulfillment Control Tower, guide supplier recovery and escalation, and partner across SIOP, Procurement, Manufacturing, Operations, Quality, Engineering, Logistics, Finance and Commercial teams to prevent shortages, improve supplier performance and increase shipment readiness.
This is a manager-level role for a business-oriented supply chain leader who can develop people, create scalable operating rhythms, make data-driven tradeoff recommendations and convert supplier risk into clear action plans, executive decisions and measurable business outcomes.
How You Will Make an Impact
Lead the enterprise Supplier Fulfillment function
- Define the Supplier Fulfillment operating model, governance cadence, decision rights and maturity roadmap for a multi-site manufacturing environment.
- Build, coach and develop a high-performing Supplier Fulfillment team with clear goals, standard work, performance expectations and career development plans.
- Create enterprise standards for shortage prevention, supplier recovery, fulfillment escalation, supplier commit validation and cross-functional issue closure.
Own the Supplier Fulfillment Control Tower
- Lead daily, weekly and monthly control tower routines that surface supplier constraints, critical material risks, recovery status, capacity issues and revenue-at-risk exposure.
- Lead Critical Material Reviews with Procurement, SIOP, Manufacturing, Operations, Finance, Logistics, Quality, Engineering and Commercial partners.
- Provide executive-ready visibility to supplier risks, recovery plans, tradeoffs, owners, due dates, mitigation actions and required decisions.
Drive supplier performance, recovery and escalation
- Develop supplier scorecards and segment suppliers by criticality, risk, performance, revenue dependency, capacity exposure and recovery maturity.
- Lead recovery plans for constrained, high-risk and underperforming suppliers, including supplier executive alignment, capacity validation, contingency actions and milestone governance.
- Deploy A3 problem solving and Supplier Improvement Plans in partnership with Quality, Procurement and suppliers to eliminate chronic performance gaps and repeat shortages.
Integrate SIOP, operations, commercial and finance priorities
- Represent Supplier Fulfillment in SIOP/IBP forums so supplier constraints, capacity risks, inventory health and recovery assumptions are reflected in supply plans and executive demand/supply reviews.
- Partner with Commercial, Customer Service and Finance to identify sales upside, backlog recovery, customer-priority tradeoffs and shipment enablement opportunities tied to material availability.
- Translate supplier recovery dates into production sequencing, line-of-balance reviews, customer communication assumptions and fiscal-period revenue support.
Improve supply planning, inventory planning and material flow
- Serve as the enterprise subject matter expert for supplier fulfillment, supply planning, inventory planning and material flow.
- Optimize lead times, MOQ, EOQ, order multiples, safety stock, Min/Max and PFEP to balance service, cost, supplier capability, manufacturing continuity and cash performance.
- Improve material availability while reducing excess and obsolete exposure, stranded inventory, unproductive working capital and manual expediting effort.
- Partner with Demand Planning, Master Scheduling, Procurement and site Materials teams to align supplier supply plans with demand changes, launches, ramps and constraint scenarios.
Enable process excellence, digital visibility and automation
- Standardize supplier KPIs, dashboards and governance to create one source of truth for supplier execution, shortage status, inventory health, recovery accountability and business impact.
- Improve ERP/MRP planning data by establishing data ownership, review cadences, exception thresholds and correction workflows.
- Advance exception-based supplier management through Power BI, ERP/MRP workflows, automated alerts, supplier portals and digital control tower tools.
- Lead Lean continuous improvement initiatives that reduce firefighting, shorten critical-material resolution cycles and improve first-pass supplier commitment accuracy.
Lead risk management and business continuity
- Build a supplier fulfillment risk framework covering capacity, quality, sub-tier supply, logistics, geopolitical events, financial distress, obsolescence, launch readiness and single/sole-source exposure.
- Partner with Procurement, Quality, Engineering and Operations on continuity planning, dual-source priorities, supplier readiness reviews and launch risk mitigation.
Communicate with executives and influence decisions
- Prepare concise decision packages that define root cause, business impact, recovery options, tradeoffs, required decisions and expected outcomes.
- Escalate barriers quickly and constructively while maintaining ownership for stakeholder alignment, issue closure and sustained performance improvement.
- Influence supplier development, sourcing prioritization, supplier business review agendas, planning parameter governance and the digital control tower roadmap.
Key Performance Indicators
The Supplier Fulfillment Leader will own or strongly influence performance across supplier execution, customer service, manufacturing continuity, inventory productivity and financial impact. Core measures include:
- Supplier On-Time Delivery, supplier past due, supplier commit accuracy and critical material resolution.
- Material availability, fill rate, shipment support, backlog recovery and revenue-at-risk reduction.
- Inventory turns, working capital, planning parameter accuracy, inventory quality and excess/obsolete exposure.
- Premium freight, expedites, supplier recovery cost and cost of poor supplier performance.
- Supplier Improvement Plan closure, A3 completion, recurrence prevention and issue aging.
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Business or a related field.
- 8+ years of progressive experience in supply chain, supplier management, manufacturing, materials, supply planning or continuous improvement.
- 3+ years of direct or matrixed people leadership experience, including coaching, performance management, workload prioritization, talent development and team capability building.
- Strong understanding of supply planning, inventory planning, supplier management, Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and ERP/MRP systems.
- Demonstrated ability to lead supplier recovery, material escalation, shortage governance, supplier improvement plans, root-cause problem solving and cross-functional operating rhythms.
Required Qualifications, continued
- Proven ability to influence in a matrixed environment across Procurement, SIOP, Manufacturing, Operations, Quality, Engineering, Logistics, Finance and Commercial stakeholders.
- Excellent analytical, communication and executive presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex supplier and material constraints into business impact, recovery plans and decision recommendations.
- Financial and business acumen, including the ability to quantify revenue risk, working-capital impact, inventory tradeoffs, premium freight exposure and operational disruption.
- Advanced data literacy and ability to use ERP/MRP outputs, supplier data, inventory analytics and dashboards to drive prioritization, accountability and action.
- Ability to travel up to 50%.
- APICS CPIM or CSCP certification; Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt.
- Experience with D365, SAP, Oracle or comparable ERP/MRP systems.
- Experience with Power BI, Power Automate, Alteryx, supplier portals, automated workflows or advanced analytics tools.
- Master's degree or MBA in Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering, Business or a related field.
- 10+ years of progressive supply chain, supplier management, materials, SIOP, manufacturing or operations experience in a multi-site manufacturing environment.
- Experience designing or leading a supplier fulfillment control tower, materials command center, SIOP escalation forum or enterprise shortage-management process.
- Experience with supplier capacity planning, supplier development, supplier business reviews, launch readiness, risk management, contract manufacturing or sub-tier supplier management.
We care for our people. Here are some of our great, comprehensive Benefits:
- Dexter offers a competitive wage
- Full benefits package including Health, Dental, Vision, Life, STD, LTD, FSA, HSA
- 3% profit sharing in our Safe Harbor program
- 401(k) Plan with company contributions
- Opportunities for internal career development and growth
Apply now to join an industry leader and make a difference in what we do for the customers we serve!
Dexter is committed to attracting, developing, and retaining a highly qualified, dedicated workforce. We hire and promote individuals based on their qualifications, performance, and abilities.
It is the policy of the Company to provide equal opportunity to all qualified individuals without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, veteran status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic as outlined by applicable U.S. and Canada equal rights legislation protected by federal, state, province or local law.
