Production Planner

Job Title: Production Planner

Industry: Defense Manufacturing / Advanced Materials Manufacturing

On-site Location: Southern Petersburg, VA (90% On-Site-WFH Fridays)

Relocation Provided: Yes

Salary Range: $75,000 - $90,000

Job Overview:

Seeking an energetic, highly driven Production Planner to join a trusted manufacturer supporting military, defense, and high-speed rail industries. This position plays a critical role in ensuring customer commitments are met through accurate production planning, inventory control, forecasting, and supply chain coordination.

Minimum Requirements:

• 5+ years of production planning, materials planning, manufacturing scheduling, or supply chain planning experience
• Must have experience working in a highly regulated environment such as aerospace/defense, automotive, or similar
• Experience in a manufacturing environment with complex production schedules
• Knowledge of demand planning and long-range forecasting methodologies
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including VLOOKUPs, Pivot Tables, data analysis, and reporting
• Experience working within ERP/MRP systems
• Experience managing supplier performance and material shortages
• Experience leading inventory audits and inventory accuracy improvement initiatives
• Experience supporting production planning horizons of 6–12 months or greater
• Strong understanding of inventory management, forecasting, production scheduling, and capacity planning
• Proven ability to coordinate cross-functionally with production, procurement, operations, and supply chain teams
• U.S. Person status is required due to ITAR and defense-related business requirements
• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Business, Engineering, or related field; equivalent experience considered

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience with ITAR-regulated products and processes
• APICS/ASCM certification (CPIM, CSCP, or equivalent)
• Experience with ERP- Infor

Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain daily, weekly, monthly, and long-range production schedules to meet customer demand, inventory targets, and manufacturing capacity requirements.
• Build and manage a rolling 12-month production forecast and planning process, monitoring customer forecasts, order trends, and demand fluctuations to proactively adjust production plans.
• Analyze material requirements and ensure inventory levels support production schedules while minimizing stockouts, excess inventory, and production disruptions.
• Monitor supplier performance, material shortages, lead-time adherence, and quality concerns, partnering with suppliers and procurement teams to proactively resolve issues that could impact customer deliveries.
• Coordinate closely with production, operations, procurement, quality, and supply chain teams to ensure material availability, schedule attainment, and on-time delivery performance.
• Manage ERP/MRP planning parameters and maintain accurate planning data to support forecasting, scheduling, inventory control, and operational decision-making.
• Track production progress and adjust schedules to address changing priorities, customer requirements, manufacturing constraints, and supply chain challenges.
• Lead inventory accuracy initiatives, including cycle counts, audits, reconciliations, and system maintenance, ensuring inventory records accurately reflect material availability and on-hand quantities.
• Identify risks to customer delivery commitments and implement corrective action plans to improve delivery performance and customer satisfaction.
• Monitor and report on key performance indicators including delivery performance, inventory levels, forecast accuracy, schedule attainment, supplier performance, and inventory accuracy.
• Support Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) processes and long-range capacity planning activities to align production requirements with business objectives.
• Generate reports, planning analyses, and operational metrics for leadership to support strategic and tactical decision-making.
• Develop a thorough understanding of manufacturing processes, products, materials, and operational constraints to improve planning effectiveness and responsiveness.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on planning efficiency, inventory optimization, supply chain reliability, customer responsiveness, and overall operational performance.
• Provide exceptional customer-focused support through proactive communication, urgency, problem-solving, and a commitment to delivering best-in-class customer response times.