Material Planner

Job Title: Material Planner

Job Description

The Material Planner plays a key role in ensuring material readiness and supporting customer programs within a fast-paced contract manufacturing environment. This position serves as the primary point of accountability for material availability, shortage management, and customer communication, helping to ensure production schedules are met. The role focuses on hands-on material planning, execution, escalation, shortage resolution, and customer support rather than strategic sourcing or complex negotiations. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to proactively drive material availability and reduce production risk across multiple customer programs.

Responsibilities

• Own material readiness and kit availability for assigned customer programs, ensuring materials are available to support production schedules.
• Monitor material shortages that could affect production and actively drive closure to minimize schedule risk.
• Partner closely with Buyers, Planners, Program Managers, Production Planning, Procurement, and Operations to ensure material availability and alignment with production needs.
• Act as a primary liaison between customers and internal teams regarding material status, shortages, and delivery risks, providing clear and timely communication.
• Track long-lead material risks and proactively escalate issues before they impact production, coordinating mitigation actions with relevant stakeholders.
• Analyze demand, inventory, and supply data to identify potential shortages, constraints, and execution gaps, and recommend appropriate corrective actions.
• Collaborate with Production Planning and Procurement to develop and execute mitigation plans that address material constraints and support on-time delivery.
• Facilitate resolution of material-related issues, driving accountability across functional teams and following issues through to completion.
• Support purchase order placement when necessary to close execution gaps or address urgent material needs.
• Participate in cross-functional meetings focused on production readiness and material availability, providing data-driven insights and updates.
• Maintain accurate planning data within the ERP/MRP system and use Microsoft Excel to analyze shortages, inventory positions, and trends.
• Support management of kit readiness, bills of material (BOMs), inventory, and supply chain execution activities related to assigned programs.
• Communicate material status, risks, and recovery plans directly to customer contacts as needed, ensuring expectations are managed and issues are clearly explained.

Essential Skills

• Hands-on experience in material planning, production planning, asset management, supply chain planning, or a related manufacturing planning function.
• Experience managing material shortages, kit readiness, bills of material (BOMs), inventory, and supply chain execution in a manufacturing environment.
• Strong customer-facing written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain material status and risks clearly.
• Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including the ability to analyze shortages, inventory positions, and trends.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across multiple functions such as Buyers, Planners, Program Managers, Production Planning, Procurement, and Operations.
• Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, with a focus on driving issues through resolution rather than only reporting status.
• Demonstrated follow-through and escalation skills, ensuring material-related issues are addressed promptly and thoroughly.
• Comfort working in a fast-paced manufacturing environment and handling multiple customer programs and priorities.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Approximately five to seven years of relevant planning experience in material planning, production planning, asset management, or supply chain planning; exceptional candidates with fewer years may be considered based on capability.
• Experience in Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) or contract manufacturing is preferred.
• Experience supporting customer accounts and communicating material status directly to customers.
• Exposure to bills of material (BOMs), engineering change orders (ECOs), customer-owned material, or multiple customer programs.
• Familiarity with ERP/MRP systems; specific system experience is not required as systems can be trained.
• Bachelors degree in Supply Chain, Operations, Business, Engineering, or a related field is preferred but not required.

Work Environment

This role operates within a fast-paced contract manufacturing environment that emphasizes collaboration, accountability, and proactive problem solving around material readiness and production support. You will work closely with cross-functional teams and customers, leveraging ERP/MRP systems and Microsoft Excel as core tools for planning and analysis. The position offers a hybrid schedule with approximately one day of flexible remote work, with the remaining time spent on-site to engage directly with operations and program teams.

This is a Contract position based out of Morgan Hill, CA.

The pay range for this position is $45.00 - $55.00/hr.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms. If eligible, the benefits available for this temporary role may include the following: Medical, dental & vision Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital 401(k) Retirement Plan Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents) Short and long-term disability Health Spending Account (HSA) Transportation benefits Employee Assistance Program Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

This is a fully onsite position in Morgan Hill,CA.

This position is anticipated to close on Oct 2, 2026.

About Aston Carter

Aston Carter provides world-class corporate talent solutions to thousands of clients across the globe. Specialized in accounting, finance, human resources, talent acquisition, procurement, supply chain and select administrative professions, we extend the capabilities of industry-leading companies. We draw on our deep recruiting expertise and expansive network to meet the evolving needs of our clients and talent community with agility and excellence. With offices across the U.S., Canada, Asia Pacific and Europe, Aston Carter serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® Platinum Award winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability, please email for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in the city and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process, including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applications and qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, you acknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.