Position Title: Business Planning & Profitability Lead

Location: St. Charles, MO

The Business Planning & Profitability Lead drives planning accuracy, operational alignment, and financial controls within a custom, build-to-order manufacturing environment. This role supports variable demand, engineered-to-order products, and aligns sales, engineering, and operations.

Responsible for proactive forecasting and margin protection, the role ensures accurate production planning while managing complexity from changing specifications and scope. It also identifies, quantifies, and assists in recoveries of losses tied to process inefficiencies, defects, supplier variability, and scope changes.

This position combines strong analytical forecasting, and financial acumen to protect and enhance profitability in a non-repetitive manufacturing setting.

Primary Responsibilities

-Consolidate and analyze forecasts across Sales, Engineering, and Production in a custom, build-to-order environment with variable demand and project-based work.

-Develop and maintain project-based forecasts by monitoring demand trends, adjusting for changing specifications, supplier lead times, and order variability to support accurate project execution.

-Prepare monthly S&OP packages, dashboards, and KPI scorecards reflecting a mix of standard and custom project work.

-Facilitate S&OP alignment across Sales, Engineering, Operations, Finance, and Supply Chain to manage shifting priorities and production constraints.

-Coordinate with IT on the automation of reporting and workflows to improve visibility and decision-making across S&OP and margin assurance processes.

-Identify and prioritize margin leakage drivers common in custom manufacturing (rework, scrap, expedite costs, defects, design changes, scope changes, supplier variability).

-Lead structured investigations including fact-finding, cross-functional interviews, process mapping, and root-cause analysis across complex, project-based workflows.

-Maintain a pipeline of opportunities with defined value, ownership, and recovery actions.

-Quantify losses using job cost data, labor tracking, material usage, and expedite impacts within a project-based costing environment.

-Support customer and supplier recovery efforts (credits, back-charges, warranty claims), ensuring financial recovery is captured.

-Partner with Operations and CI teams to reduce variability, eliminate waste, and improve execution across custom builds.

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Finance, Business, Engineering, or related field.

5+ years of experience in S&OP, demand/supply planning, cost analysis, project controls, operational finance, or margin recovery within a custom or project-based manufacturing environment.

High proficiency in Excel, ERP/MRP systems; experience with Power BI tools (Power BI, Tableau). Strong analytical and investigative skills with the ability to translate complex, variable data into clear insights and actions.

Proven ability to collaborate cross-functionally (Sales, Engineering, Operations, Finance) and influence without direct authority.

Must demonstrate a consistent and stable work history, along with strong verbal and written communication skills.

Core competencies include: Forecasting and demand modeling in a variable, project-based environment Investigative problem-solving Financial acumen, including cost build-up and margin analysis Cross-functional leadership and effective communication Data-driven decision-making High ownership, accountability, and follow-through

Demonstrated ownership of key performance outcomes, including: Forecast accuracy and bias improvement within S&OP processes Dollars recovered from customer/vendor claims versus targets Verified margin leakage prevented (sustained savings) Cycle time from issue identification through financial recovery Reduction in repeat leakage drivers across projects or production

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with Microsoft Dynamics (Great Plains).

Experience in custom, engineered-to-order manufacturing, fabrication, aerospace/defense, construction/MEP, or other high-mix, low-volume environments.

Experience with advanced planning tools (SAP IBP, Kinaxis, o9, Anaplan) and/or SQL/data modeling.

Lean/Continuous Improvement experience with demonstrated cost savings or margin impact in variable production settings.

Physical Requirements:

Sitting, standing, and walking in office, warehouse and manufacturing environments.

Ability to climb in and out of trailers.

Ability to bend, lift, and position self to move about the office, as needed.

Required use of fingers and hands to operate a computer.

Vision abilities required by this job include close and/or color vision, and ability to adjust focus.

Must have the ability to hear and respond to auditory signals, distinguish tones and pitches in equipment, and use hearing protection during specific tasks.