Sr. Planner

Description

Aitech Defense Systems is renowned for its innovation in rugged embedded systems, designed to operate reliably in the challenging environments of military, defense, aerospace, and space applications. Founded in 1983, Aitech has a rich history of pioneering advancements such as the world's first conduction-cooled MIL-SPEC VMEbus board and has continually evolved its product line to include state-of-the-art SBCs, GPGPU-based AI applications, and advanced cybersecurity for mission-critical systems.

Joining us means you'll be working at the forefront of technology with projects that span across land, sea, air, and space, supporting some of the top prime contractors in the industry. This opportunity will allow you to contribute to groundbreaking projects and push the boundaries of embedded computing technology.

Senior Material Planner

Position Summary

The Senior Material Planner is responsible for establishing and maintaining material and production plans that support customer commitments, production schedules, and inventory objectives. The role owns material planning within the ERP/MRP system, maintains planning data integrity, and ensures demand requirements are translated into executable supply and production plans.

Working closely with Procurement, Material Readiness & Logistics, Engineering, Program Delivery, and Production, the Senior Material Planner evaluates demand requirements, forecasts future material needs, identifies capacity and supply constraints, and develops planning strategies to support customer delivery commitments and business objectives.

The role serves as a key contributor to PP&C's (Program Planning & Control) responsibility for planning integrity, schedule adherence, inventory optimization, on-time delivery performance, and business execution by answering the critical planning question: "What will we need?"

Key Responsibilities

Planning & MRP Management

• Maintain accurate material and production plans for assigned product lines and programs.
• Ensure MRP demand, supply, and planning parameters support customer requirements and production schedules.
• Review and resolve MRP action messages, planning exceptions, and recommendation outputs.
• Validate sales order demand, configuration requirements, engineering changes, and planning assumptions before release into execution.
• Maintain planning dates, lead times, lot-sizing rules, safety stock levels, planning horizons, and replenishment parameters within the ERP/MRP system.
• Drive planning data integrity to ensure accurate material requirements, demand signals, and inventory visibility.
• Analyze customer forecasts, bookings, backlog, and program requirements to determine future material and production needs.
• Develop planning scenarios and recommendations to support changing customer demand and business priorities.

Production & Material Planning

• Develop and maintain executable production and material plans supporting customer delivery commitments.
• Balance customer demand, material availability, lead times, and production capacity.
• Analyze projected shortages, supply constraints, capacity limitations, and schedule risks, escalating issues as required.
• Coordinate planning activities supporting outside processing, subcontractors, and contract manufacturers.
• Determine future material requirements and provide visibility into upcoming demand and supply needs.
• Support production schedule development by ensuring plans accurately reflect material, capacity, and customer requirements.
• Evaluate the impact of forecast changes, engineering changes, and supplier commitments on production schedules and delivery performance.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Partner with Procurement regarding long-lead materials, projected shortages, supplier constraints, and future supply risks.
• Coordinate with Production leadership regarding production priorities, schedule feasibility, and delivery commitments.
• Support Program Delivery by providing schedule visibility, material projections, and planning analysis for customer-funded and development programs.
• Work with Engineering to ensure BOM accuracy and timely implementation of engineering changes.
• Collaborate with Material Readiness & Logistics by communicating demand forecasts, planned material requirements, and schedule priorities.
• Provide planning assumptions, risk assessments, and recovery recommendations to Operations and Leadership teams.

Inventory & Data Integrity

• Maintain planning integrity within Item Master and MRP data.
• Support inventory optimization initiatives while maintaining delivery performance.
• Review inventory positions, excess inventory, projected shortages, and planning risks.
• Ensure planning transactions and ERP records accurately support operational and financial reporting.
• Identify and drive corrective actions to improve planning accuracy and inventory performance.
• Monitor inventory trends and planning parameters to ensure alignment with business objectives and customer demand.

Business Performance Support

• Support on-time delivery objectives through effective planning, forecasting, and risk identification.
• Participate in demand reviews, planning reviews, and operational readiness reviews.
• Provide planning, forecast, inventory, and schedule performance reporting as required.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives related to planning, forecasting, scheduling, inventory management, and ERP processes.
• Develop and analyze planning metrics to identify trends, forecast changes, supply risks, and opportunities for improved performance.
• Support Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), demand planning, and business forecasting activities as required.

Success Measures

• On-Time Delivery Performance
• MRP Planning Accuracy
• Forecast Accuracy
• Material Planning Data Integrity
• Inventory Health
• Schedule Adherence
• Reduction in Planning Exceptions
• Reduction in Material Shortages Through Proactive Planning
• Demand-to-Supply Alignment

AiTech offers a competitive total rewards package aligned with the individual's skills, knowledge, and experience, and in line with both internal standards and external market practices. The expected annual salary range for this role is $90,000 - $120,000 a year.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Operations, Business, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 5 years of material planning, production planning, or supply chain planning experience.
• Experience in aerospace, defense, electronics manufacturing, or other highly regulated manufacturing environments.
• This position requires use of information or access to hardware which is subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). All applicants must be U.S. persons within the meaning of ITAR. ITAR defines a U.S. person as a U.S. Citizen, U.S. Permanent Resident (i.e. 'Green Card Holder'), Political Asylee, or Refugee

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong ERP/MRP experience.
• Working knowledge of BOM structures, production planning, inventory management, and supply chain operations.
• Experience supporting demand planning or production scheduling activities.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills and experience performing data analysis and reporting.