Director, Materials

Director, Materials

Position at Lincoln Industries

The Director of Materials is a strategic and operational leader responsible for the end-to-end materials management of a complex supply chain portfolio. This leader will orchestrate supply chain planning, inventory control, warehouse operations, logistics, and ERP governance across a complex footprint requiring deep US domestic expertise and robust international supply chain experience. Working in close partnership with Sourcing, Operations, and Customer Service, this role ensures flawless alignment between material availability, international and domestic supplier performance, production execution, and customer commitments. A critical mandate for this role is driving schedule attainment, past-due reduction, and on-time delivery (OTD) while leading a comprehensive digital modernization effort. Over the next 18 months, this leader will play a key role in the organization's enterprise-wide transition to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This is a heavy change management and process-design role, requiring a proven track record of shifting organizational culture, ensuring data governance, and implementing AI-driven forecasting, planning, and advanced analytics.

Wage Type: Salary

FLSA Exemption: Exempt

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.

Strategic Leadership

• Vision: Develop and execute supply chain and materials strategies aligned with business objectives and be able to align the team and organization around that vision.
• Team Leadership: Build a high-performing team across Planning, Shipping/Receiving, and Logistics including people development and organizational engagement.
• Collaboration: Build a culture of collaboration between critical internal departments and across supply base.

Domestic & Global Supply Chain Strategy

• Large-Scale Portfolio Stewardship: Ability to optimize end-to-end value streams for a supply chain network scaling to $250M, balancing cost, capital efficiency, and service reliability.
• Domestic & International Logistics: Own inbound and outbound logistics strategies, effectively navigating complex international freight forwarders, customs, global trade compliance, and domestic transportation networks.
• S&OP Leadership: Lead the executive Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) processes, translating high-level demand and supply plans into executable production blueprints.
• Freight Budgeting & Cost Optimization: Develop and manage freight budgets, transportation cost allocations, expedited freight allowances, and logistics productivity targets. Partner with Finance and Accounting to balance service, cost, and operational performance objectives.

Operations Alignment & Supplier Collaboration

• Cross-Functional Execution: Collaborate with Operations leadership to drive rigorous daily/weekly execution routines focused on schedule attainment and aggressive past-due backlog reduction.
• Strategic Sourcing Alignment: Partner with Sourcing (Procurement & Supplier Quality) to hold global and domestic suppliers accountable, using data-driven trends to mitigate risk and resolve systemic material constraints.

Transformational Change Management & ERP Ownership

• ERP Migration Leadership: Play a key role in the 18-month enterprise transition to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, ensuring robust process architecture, rigorous data migration/cleansing, and high user adoption.
• Change Advocacy: Apply structured change management methodologies to transition teams from legacy systems to modernized, digitally enabled workflows, mitigating operational friction and system resistance.
• Data Integrity: Ensure accuracy of planning, inventory, and product master data, identifying and resolving data issues that impact productivity, operational performance, and planning effectiveness.

AI, Data & Advanced Analytics

• Digital Modernization: Drive the adoption of AI/ML predictive models for demand forecasting, supply planning, and advanced inventory segmentation/slotting.
• Predictive Risk Mitigation: Utilize advanced analytics and automated dashboards to proactively identify and intervene in supply chain disruptions before they impact production schedules.

Reports to: Vice President, Operations

Qualifications: The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Equivalent combinations of education and experience may be substituted for the expected levels of education and experience required.

Required

• Experience: 812 years of progressive, leadership experience in materials management, global logistics, or supply chain planning.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in supply chain, Operations, Engineering, or Business (MBA preferred).
• Portfolio Scale: Demonstrated success managing large-scale supply chain operations of $250M.
• Geographic Scope: Solid experience balancing complex US domestic logistics networks alongside international supply chain operations (overseas supplier management, global freight, and trade compliance).
• Results: Proven ability to drive operational performance through analytics and cross-functional leadership
• Change Management Expertise: Explicit experience leading organizational change management initiatives, restructuring processes, and training teams through digital transformation.

Preferred

• Change Management Expertise: Experience leading organizational change management initiatives, restructuring processes, and training teams through digital transformation.
• ERP Software: Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central or Microsoft Navision
• Technology: Hands-on experience deploying or managing AI/ML tools, Advanced Planning Systems (APS), or predictive demand planning software.
• Certifications: Lean, Six Sigma, or APICS/ASCM certification (CPIM, CSCP).

Success Metrics

• Leadership: Improvement in Engagement scores with tangible actions to drive team development and build succession plans for key roles
• Operational Excellence: Drastic reduction in past-due backlog, optimized logistics spend, and measurable improvement in production schedule adherence / OTD.
• Inventory & Capital Efficiency: Optimized inventory turns and working capital performance across a $250M portfolio.
• Successful Business Central Implementation: On-time, within scope, with high user adoption and zero operational downtime.

What Makes This Role Unique

• Substantial Scale & Autonomy: Total ownership of an end-to-end material flow, spanning global sourcing logic to domestic warehouse execution at a $250M scale.
• Lead AI Integration: Actively embed AI and predictive analytics into core planning and forecasting, moving away from reactive firefighting into predictive, data-driven execution.
• Digital Transformation: You will be integral in the transition to Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, fundamentally reshaping how this organization executes.