Production Planning And Scheduling Manager

Job Title: Production Planning and Scheduling Manager
** if you are interested in this opportunity, please feel free to apply and email me your resume at alalfaro @ astoncarter.com so we can schedule a time to connect asap! **
Job Description
This role is responsible for overseeing the integrated planning function, establishing and leading Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP), and building the processes and ERP data discipline required for the company's growth. The ideal candidate possesses extensive expertise in manufacturing planning, materials management, and ERP/MRP systems. This leader will balance production capacity, inventory, lead times, and operational constraints while translating the master schedule into executable work-center and station-level plans.
Responsibilities

• Own and manage the master production schedule, aligning customer backlog and demand forecasts, capacity, material availability, operational constraints, and delivery commitments.
• Establish and lead the SIOP process, including demand and capacity assumptions, scenario recommendations, decision records, and action follow-through. Obtain leadership approval for major commercial, spending, and capacity trade-offs.
• Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, Materials, Production, Quality, and Finance to maintain alignment to a single integrated plan.
• Develop production ramp scenarios showing customer build-slot allocation, model and propulsion mix, labor requirements, station capacity and buffers, alternative production rates, and delivery impacts.
• Establish schedule approval and change-control rules, including a protected near-term schedule. Manage changes within delegated authority and escalate conflicts affecting customer commitments, spending, or capacity to the VP of Operations with recommended options.
• Ensure scheduling activities support compliance with safety, quality, and regulatory requirements.
• Own the overall Clear-to-Build process, ensuring schedules released to the production floor are supported by required customer configuration approvals, engineering releases, BOMs and drawings, engineering change incorporation, material availability, tooling, labor and station capacity, and applicable quality requirements.
• Establish readiness signoffs from responsible functions, including Procurement confirmation of critical material commitments.
• Translate the master schedule into work-center and station-level execution plans that support production flow and floor-level accountability.
• Verify planning-critical BOM and lead-time inputs with Engineering and Procurement, assign discrepancies to the responsible data owners, and drive timely resolution to prevent material shortages, schedule disruptions, and production delays.
• Establish ERP planning data standards and validation routines for BOMs, routings, lead times, calendars, and planning parameters with the responsible functions.
• Serve as the planning lead for Epicor implementation, stabilization, and ongoing improvement, ensuring planning logic reflects operational reality.
• Use advanced Excel and ERP reporting tools to support scenario planning and decision-making.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex scheduling and production planning issues.
• Use dependable reporting, capacity modeling, and scenario analysis with available information to identify bottlenecks, constraints, schedule risks, and recovery opportunities.
• Provide early warning of emerging schedule, procurement, and cross-program risks and communicate data-driven recommendations to management and internal stakeholders.
• Establish the weekly planning performance review within the Operations management operating system.
• Design and implement planning processes, standard work, meeting cadences, responsibilities, escalation rules, and a phased improvement roadmap that support growth.
• Lead cross-functional adoption of planning processes, resolve barriers with functional leaders, and use performance results to reduce delays, improve flow, and increase schedule reliability.
• Maintain direct responsibility for integrated master schedules across multiple customer programs and product platforms sharing constrained manufacturing resources.
• Operate effectively in a restart and scale-up environment, making sound decisions despite imperfect data, evolving requirements, and shifting priorities.
• Balance customer, operational, and business priorities while using data to challenge commitments that are not feasible.

Essential Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, or related field.
• 6+ years of experience in production planning, scheduling, capacity planning, or as a master scheduler, with high-level proficiency.
• Experience in automotive or aerospace industries.
• Deep understanding of manufacturing processes, production planning, inventory management, material availability, capacity planning, customer delivery commitments, and SIOP.
• Strong knowledge of ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Epicor, or similar platforms, including planning master data and scheduling logic.
• Understanding of low-volume, high-mix, and engineered-to-order manufacturing environments with complex capacity constraints and long planning horizons.
• Demonstrated ability to manage capacity constraints, production schedules, material requirements, and manufacturing execution workflows.
• Ability to incorporate equipment availability, planned downtime, and maintenance constraints into production capacity plans in coordination with Facilities and Maintenance.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Experience with advanced Excel and ERP reporting tools for scenario planning and decision-making.
• Strong leadership skills to guide cross-functional adoption of planning processes and resolve barriers with functional leaders.

Work Environment
This position requires 100% onsite presence with working hours from 8 AM to 5 PM, with potential flexibility. It is a direct placement role, and while there is no immediate team management responsibility, there is a possibility to manage a team as it grows in the future. The work environment is dynamic, operating in a restart and scale-up setting.
Job Type & Location
This is a Permanent position based out of Riverside, CA.
Pay and Benefits
The pay range for this position is $126000.00 - $140000.00/yr.
Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.
Comprehensive benefits package: Medical (including FSA & HSA), dental, vision, life and disability insurance, EAP, mental health, and wellness programs 401(k) with employer match Paid time off and twelve (12) paid holidays Employee referral program Career growth and development opportunities
Job Type & Location
This is a Permanent position based out of Riverside, CA.
Application Deadline
This position is anticipated to close on Nov 6, 2026.
Workplace Type
This is a fully onsite position in Riverside,CA.