Senior Supply Chain Planner

The Senior Supply Planner is responsible for leading production planning and scheduling activities for our manufacturing operations. This role owns the development and execution of weekly and daily production schedules, ensuring production runs are optimized around sanitation requirements, allergen changeovers, material availability, labor capacity, and equipment constraints. Reporting directly to the Head of Supply Chain, the Senior Supply Planner will lead a team of planners and serve as a key cross-functional partner to Production, Quality, Sanitation, Warehouse, Purchasing, and Sales. This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced supply chain professional who understands food manufacturing operations and can maintain schedule execution in a fast-paced environment where priorities and conditions change daily. What You Will Do Develop and manage the master production schedule by translating customer demand, forecasts, and orders into executable weekly and daily production plans by line and shift. Optimize production sequencing to minimize downtime and changeover losses while ensuring compliance with allergen controls, sanitation requirements, and validated cleaning procedures. Balance production capacity, labor availability, equipment constraints, and material requirements to support customer demand and on-time shipments. Lead, coach, and develop a team of planners by setting priorities, reviewing schedules, and driving effective planning processes. Incorporate shelf-life requirements into production planning to ensure products are manufactured, stored, and shipped with appropriate remaining code dates while effectively managing fresh and frozen inventory. Monitor material availability and collaborate with Purchasing to resolve shortages, expedite critical components, and address MRP exceptions before they impact production. Track customer orders from commitment through shipment and proactively adjust schedules when disruptions occur, including equipment downtime, labor constraints, material shortages, or unexpected changes in demand. Partner daily with Production, Sanitation, Quality, Warehouse, and Purchasing teams to ensure alignment and successful execution of the production plan. Collaborate with Sales and Customer Service to support retail customer priorities, promotions, and new product launches. Prepare and analyze supply chain performance metrics, including schedule attainment, changeover efficiency, fill rate, inventory levels, and capacity utilization. Support the monthly IBP/S&OP process by providing production capacity analysis, supply scenarios, and recommendations to improve service levels and operational efficiency. What You Bring 5+ years of production planning and scheduling experience within a food manufacturing environment (required). Strong understanding of batch manufacturing, perishable products, and USDA/FDA-regulated production environments. Experience using ERP systems for production planning and scheduling (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, Sage, JD Edwards, or similar) with the ability to maintain and improve planning master data. Knowledge of allergen management, sanitation scheduling, shelf-life considerations, and their impact on production planning decisions. Previous experience leading, mentoring, or developing planners, or demonstrated ability to transition into a people leadership role. Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, data analysis, and managing large datasets. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify risks, evaluate trade-offs, and make sound planning decisions. Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate with plant teams, influence stakeholders, and communicate effectively with both operational teams and executive leadership. Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Business, or a related field; equivalent manufacturing experience will also be considered. Preferred Qualifications APICS/ASCM certification (CPIM or CSCP). Experience with finite scheduling or Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems. Experience supporting large retail customers, club stores, grocery accounts, or co-manufacturing operations. Experience working in a high-volume food production environment with multiple product categories and complex scheduling requirements. #J-18808-Ljbffr CareersInFood.com