Locations: Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
Department: Operations
Contact: send CV to [email protected]
Job Description
Director of Materials Planning & Supply Execution
Reports To: COO
Position Summary
The Director of Materials Planning & Supply Execution is a hands-on, technical leader responsible for translating customer demand into secured supply, executable factory plans, and credible delivery commitments in a highly volatile, constrained environment.
This role owns material readiness, factory planning alignment, shortage mitigation, supply recovery, and the internal commitment process that determines what can be promised back to Sales and customers. The Director personally drives MRP and coverage reviews (NetSuite preferred), leads planners/buyers through daily execution, and secures supplier commitments—including pricing and contract execution (within approval limits)—so forecasts and sales orders convert into incoming material and achievable factory commitments.
This is an execution-driven role focused on preventing line-down situations, protecting revenue, ensuring supply continuity, and supporting credible factory commitments across U.S. and Vietnam manufacturing operations.
Primary Accountability
Ensure material availability, factory planning, and supply execution support credible customer commitments—even during volatility and shortages.
Key Responsibilities
Hands-On Material Planning Execution (Critical Focus)
- Personally review and validate MRP (NetSuite) outputs
- Own daily and weekly material coverage analysis.
- Identify shortages before they impact production.
- Lead daily shortage review meetings with planners and buyers.
- Develop immediate recovery plans for constrained components.
- Drive pull-in, expedite, and allocation strategies with suppliers.
- Maintain clear visibility of:
- Past due Customer POs and Internal SOs
- At-risk components
- Constrained/allocation-controlled items
- Long lead-time materials
- Factory commit exposure by customer and order
- Orders at risk due to material or planning gaps
- Priority builds requiring commit decisions
- Report weekly to COO and key management team on:
- Material gaps
- Recovery timelines
- Revenue at risk
- Delivery impact exposure
- Unforeseen issues
- Factory commit risk against forecast and sales orders
- Orders that cannot be supported as currently requested
- Required escalation decisions to protect key customer commitments
Volatile Supply & Shortage Management
- Build buffer strategies for long lead-time semiconductors and critical components.
- Set and enforce shortage prioritization rules aligned with revenue, customer importance, and manufacturing constraints.
- Develop dual-source strategies where possible.
- Continuously monitor global supply risk affecting critical components.
- Define escalation triggers, decision paths, and daily operating rhythm for shortage response.
- Build and maintain shortage dashboards that clearly show risk, aging, and recovery actions.
Forecast, Factory Planning & Commitment Alignment
- Translate customer forecasts and sales orders into executable material and factory plans.
- Align sales forecasts and booked demand with material coverage, factory priorities, and delivery realities.
- Challenge unrealistic demand or requested delivery dates when supply or factory capacity cannot support them.
- Drive disciplined S&OP cadence with Sales, Finance, and Operations to align demand, supply, and factory commitments.
- Improve forecast accuracy and planning discipline to reduce firefighting and improve commitment reliability.
- Ensure material and factory plans are updated immediately when forecasts, sales orders, or priorities shift.
- Own the translation of forecasts and sales orders into realistic factory commitments.
- Establish clear commit logic for what can be promised to Sales and customers, and when.
- Drive decision-making when demand exceeds available supply or factory capacity.
Supplier Interaction, Negotiation & Contract Execution
- Own supplier interactions and relationships, including tier-1 semiconductor suppliers and all other materials suppliers.
- Provide regular company forecasts to suppliers; secure supply and ensure incoming materials align to production plans and delivery requirements.
- Lead negotiations for pricing and terms; execute supplier contracts; own spending decisions for non-major suppliers.
- Escalate supply risks early with clear options, timelines, and business impact.
- Travel to build and maintain supplier relationships: local (as needed, ~monthly), domestic U.S. (quarterly), and international (annually).
Sales Order Commitment & Factory Readiness
- Own rapid, data-backed commit guidance to Sales and leadership on material feasibility, factory readiness, delivery risk, and recovery schedules to support order and contract decisions.
- Flag risks early, quantify impact, and recommend commit options (pull-ins, reallocations, partial shipments, or schedule changes) before customer impact occurs.
- Partner with Sales to establish and negotiate achievable delivery commitments during shortages or constrained supply conditions.
- Protect company credibility by ensuring customer commitments are realistic, timely, and supported by disciplined communication and escalation.
- Own the internal commitment process for what the factory can support against forecasts and booked sales orders.
- Make clear recommendations on commit dates, partial shipments, reallocations, or schedule adjustments when supply or factory capacity is constrained.
Team Leadership & Coverage
- Supervise the Materials & Planning team and lead by example through hands-on execution.
- Set clear ownership across planning, buying, and procurement activities; assign responsibilities and ensure daily coverage of critical materials.
- Hire, onboard, and train additional team members as needed to achieve full coverage and performance expectations.
Required Experience
- 8+ years of direct materials planning, procurement, supplier management, and factory planning experience in electronics or semiconductor-driven manufacturing.
- Proven experience building relationships and managing interactions with tier-1 semiconductor suppliers (e.g., NAND/DRAM ecosystem) in allocation/constraint environments.
- Demonstrated negotiation capability with a track record of contract, pricing, and terms execution.
- Experience owning high-dollar, fast-paced procurement spend (e.g., $50M–$150M annually).
- Strong hands-on MRP, planning, and order commitment expertise (NetSuite preferred; Excel/manual planning comfort required).
- Experience translating forecasts and sales orders into executable factory and supply plans.
- Experience making or influencing delivery commitments in constrained manufacturing environments.
- Demonstrated ability to balance material constraints, production priorities, and customer commitments.
- Experience partnering closely with Sales, Operations, and Finance in S&OP or similar planning cadence.
- Ability to operate as a doer and leader—personally executing critical work while supervising and developing a small team.
Success Metrics
- No production or ship-hold events due to preventable shortages of critical materials.
- Improved on-time delivery performance and reduced expedite/firefighting cycles.
- Faster, more accurate turnaround to Sales and leadership on material feasibility, factory readiness, and customer commitments.
- Reduced shortage aging and clearer recovery timelines for constrained components.
- Improved visibility and accuracy of supply risk reporting (dashboards, escalations, executive updates).
- Improved accuracy and speed of factory commitment responses to Sales and customers.
- Reduced missed commits or last-minute delivery changes caused by poor planning alignment.
Additional Information:
- Location: Rancho Santa Margarita, CA onsite full time Monday to Friday
- Department: Operations
- Contact: send CV to [email protected]
- Compensation:starting at $120K depending on experience
