JOB SUMMARYAs the Planning Manager at Marki Microwave, you will lead the Planning and Scheduling team in a complex, low-volume, high-mix RF and microwave electronics manufacturing environment. You will create, coordinate, and own all plans that ensure on-time delivery of Marki Microwave products, setting the master schedule and priorities that direct the daily work of the entire production organization. You will work closely with the Sales Operations team to understand and rationalize customer demand, and partner with Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, and Manufacturing to secure the materials, resources, and capacity needed to deliver to committed lead times. You will analyze medium- and long-term demand signals, identify supply bottlenecks, and justify capacity investments that support the Company's long-term growth objectives, while developing your Planners and Schedulers into a strong, self-sufficient planning bench. This role requires a seasoned planning leader who can balance strategic capacity thinking with disciplined daily execution, resolve systemic supply issues that span multiple functions, and represent Planning in cross-functional and leadership forums.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES- Lead, coach, and develop a team of Planners and Schedulers.
- Set clear vision, performance goals, and expectations for the team and each individual; proactively manage performance through engaging one-on-ones, team meetings, and metrics.
- Own all performance assessments, training, and development for Planning team members; build succession depth and cross-training across planning and scheduling functions.
- Foster a culture of empowerment, collaboration, trust, and respect for all.
- Balance hands-on planning execution with team leadership responsibilities, stepping into any planning or scheduling role as needed to cover absences, surges, or critical builds.
- Use data analysis techniques (queries, trending, statistics) to identify systemic scheduling and supply issues and drive root-cause corrective actions.
- Represent Planning in cross-functional and leadership forums such as S&OP, drive alignment with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Engineering, & Quality.
- Collaborate with the Supply Chain team to secure materials and with the Manufacturing team(s) to confirm production plans, including resource availability and equipment capacity.
- Set realistic and aggressive product lead times for Marki product families.
- Establish, maintain, and continuously refine ERP planning system parameters, including lead times, lot sizes, safety stock levels, Kanban, finished goods, spares, and raw material inventory targets.
- Oversee Space, HiREL, and NPI planning activities through a dedicated planner; ensure flow-down of program-specific requirements (screening, traceability, lot control, and extended cycle times) into build schedules, and ensure these builds are appropriately prioritized and integrated with the overall production plan.
- Actively manage WIP: monitor work-order aging, identify stalled jobs and bottleneck operations, and drive daily recovery actions with Manufacturing Supervisors and Team Leads. Highlight and drive solutions for potential issues such as excess material/inventory and supply shortages.
- Use data analysis techniques to identify short-, medium-, and long-term supply constraints. Take the initiative to form and lead cross-functional teams to resolve issues to achieve on-time delivery targets and ensure customer satisfaction.
- Create processes that highlight changes in the supply plan, such as customer demand shifts, new product ramps, product excursions, material shortages, and customer pull-in requests. Use this data to revise forecasts and recommend changes to the plan.
- Own Supply Planning Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Focus on critical priorities and measure progress to team goals. Provide regular reports and updates to the Executive Team.
- Develop and maintain capacity models for key work centers and equipment; use demand forecasts and routings to project labor and equipment loading, identify future capacity gaps, and provide data-driven recommendations for headcount, equipment, and outsourcing decisions.
- Keep up to date with benchmarking studies and industry best practices for Supply Planning and bring the best to benefit Marki Microwave.
- Lead talent acquisition and organizational design as the team scales. Partner with HR to identify staffing needs, source and interview candidates, and make hiring recommendations that build a qualified, high-performing team.
- Set clear goals and priorities for the team, delegate effectively, and hold direct reports accountable for quality, productivity, and deadlines.
- Conduct regular check-ins and formal reviews. Manage performance and workplace issues promptly and fairly in accordance with company policy.
- Build capability through training and mentoring. Coach and mentor direct reports, identify growth opportunities and training needs, and support career development to build bench strength and retain talent.
REQUIREMENTS- Bachelor's degree in Operations Management or equivalent.
- At least 8 years' experience in an IC manufacturing environment with 3+ years in a production planning management role.
TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES- Thorough understanding of IC production and assembly operations with demonstrated capability in production planning, material planning and scheduling.
- Proven experience using an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and other resources to effectively prioritize production, optimize material purchases and inventory for production. Experience with Sage ERP is a plus.
- Highly proficient in a Windows environment and with a recent version of MS Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.
- Highly motivated, results-oriented leader, capable of driving progress, solving problems, and achieving objectives in a demanding environment.
- Demonstrated ability to be flexible with changing priorities, deadlines, demands, and assignments as needed.
- Highly skilled at data analysis (queries, data manipulation, statistics, trending).
- Detail-oriented while maintaining and conveying a clear overarching understanding of "the bigger picture"
- Strong oral and written communication skills. Able to effectively present information and respond to questions from management, peers, and customers.
- Complex Escalation Resolution: resolves multi-line scheduling and materials conflicts requiring cross-functional trade-off decisions.
- Cross-Functional Alignment: partners with Sales, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Finance to resolve conflicts and align plans to business goals.
- Team Leadership & Development: manages, coaches, and develops a team of planners and schedulers, building bench strength and planning judgment.
CORE COMPETENCIES- Business Acumen: Awareness and knowledge of and insight into the organization's vision, structure, culture, philosophy, operating principles, values, and code of ethics; ability to apply this understanding appropriately to diverse situations. Knowledge, insight, and understanding of business concepts, tools, and processes that are needed for making sound decisions in the context of the company's business; ability to apply this knowledge appropriately to diverse situations.
- Change: Knowledge of and ability to align the organization's people and culture with changes in business strategy, organizational structure, technology and business processes.
- Communication: Successful communication involves five components. Verbal communication refers to your ability to speak clearly and concisely. Nonverbal communication includes the capacity to project positive body language and facial expressions. Written communication refers to your skillfulness in composing text messages, reports, and other types of documents. Visual communication involves your ability to relay information using pictures and other visual aids. Active listening should also be considered a key communication soft skill because it helps you listen to and actually hear what others say. You need to be able to listen to understand how to best communicate with someone.
- Strategic Thinking: Understands business issues and opportunities and translates or aligns them to a vision, strategy and plans to chart a course of action.
- Teamwork: Collaborate with others to achieve common goals. Build strong, positive working relationships with supervisor and team members/coworkers. Exercise the ability to compromise and be adaptable.
- Problem-Solving / Critical Thinking: Ability to balance the needs of different people in a solution to a problem. Able to meet the needs of different constituents in the solution of a problem. Able to solve problems with multiple criteria that need to be met. Identifies and assesses all potential responses to a problem.
- Integrity / Work Ethic: Deal with Conflict Properly. Report Unethical Behavior. Be upfront about your short comings. Be willing to do hard work. Take accountability for your actions. Be a team player. Respect others. Don't abuse your power. Keep morale up.
- Interpersonal Skills: Interpersonal competencies help you interact, communicate, and collaborate with others effectively. Typical examples of interpersonal skills include empathy, active listening, and emotional intelligence
- Coaching and Mentoring: Coaching and mentoring both exist for the same purpose: helping others grow, develop and reach their full potential. Both coaching and mentoring give the opportunity for individuals to take responsibility for their own personal and career development.
- Managing Up: Managing up is about using the traits of a good manager to help bring out the best in you as an employee. When done effectively, managing up makes your manager's job easier, as well as your day-to-day job. Understanding the best way to communicate with your boss, demonstrating that you care, meeting performance goals and more, won't go unnoticed.
- Conflict Management: Conflict management is the use of techniques to resolve disagreements or control the level of discord. Conflict resolution techniques include facilitating meetings for the conflicting parties to identify the problem, discuss resolutions and create superordinate goals that require cooperation from conflicting parties.
- Delegation: Delegation involves assigning tasks you have responsibility for to your coworkers or team members. When you delegate tasks, you reduce your workload while retaining responsibility. Learning more about delegation can help you improve delegation practices in your organization. Delegation is a basic management technique that involves assigning responsibility to another person and granting the appropriate level of authority required to complete the assignment.
- Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence in the workplace begins from the inside out with each individual. It involves recognizing various aspects of your feelings and emotions and taking the time to work on the elements of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.
