Description of Job: The Senior Supply Chain Toller Specialist is responsible for end-to-end management of outsourced manufacturing (tolling) supply chain planning. This role plays a critical strategic role in balancing customer service, inventory optimization, and total supply chain cost in alignment with SBC strategy.
The Senior Toller Specialist leads planning and coordination activities across tolling partners, including production planning, material flows, inventory management, and performance monitoring to ensure product availability to meet customer needs. In close collaboration with the External Manufacturing Manager, this position will report and prepare mitigates action plan for supply risks, evaluate capacity scenarios, and drive continuous improvement initiatives for better planning cycles
Key responsibilities include developing and maintaining weekly and monthly production plans at toll manufacturers aligned with demand plans, assessing constraints, and proactively managing trade-offs between service, cost, and inventory. The role goes beyond execution by modeling planning scenarios, identifying risks and opportunities, and recommending structural process improvements to strengthen supply chain resilience.
The Senior Toller Specialist is also accountable for maintaining accurate ERP transactions related to toll manufacturing, including raw material receipts, consumption postings, and finished goods receipts, PO approval/releases, ensuring inventory visibility and financial integrity.
This role serves as a focal point for Supply Chain Planning interface between Purchasing, Customer Service, Material Planning, Master Scheduling, and External Manufacturing. Through strong cross-functional leadership, the Senior Toller Specialist ensures alignment across functions, supports service-level objectives, and drives performance excellence across the tolling network.
Key Responsibilities: - Own and develop the end-to-end Annual and Monthly Production Plans for Finished Goods & Formulations across assigned toll manufacturers, ensuring alignment with demand, capacity, inventory targets, and financial objectives.
- Work closely with external tollers to define, validate, and execute production plans, including subcontract POs, AI staging, blending, and finished goods manufacturing, while monitoring and challenging toller capacity plans and constraints.
- Build and manage pre-building production strategies to support seasonal peaks, demand variability, risk mitigation, and service-level targets.
- Lead the Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) process, managing finished goods repositioning across distribution centers to optimize availability, service levels, and inventory balance.
- Plan the supply chain to accommodate successfully the new product introduction request, coordinating AI, raw materials, packaging materials, toller readiness, logistics flows, and SAP master data readiness.
- Manage third-party raw materials and packaging materials end-to-end, including availability, staging, logistics coordination, consumption, and reconciliation.
- Lead and manage end-to-end annual production campaigns at specific tollers by AI, raw material, and packaging scope, ensuring seamless execution from material receipt through conversion into finished goods and inventory staging in SAP.
- Ensure logistics flow will happen as planned, by doing the coordination related to toll manufacturing, including inbound raw and packaging materials, intercompany or third-party transport, and outbound finished goods movement.
- Manage and control subcontract purchase orders in SAP, including goods receipt, consumption postings, finished goods receipt, and material variance analysis, ensuring financial and inventory accuracy.
- Execute and govern SAP transactions related to toll manufacturing, ensuring strict alignment with Quality, Regulatory, Compliance and DOA requirements, and supporting audit readiness (excluding AtoZ).
- Act as the primary supply chain focal point in business reviews, partnering closely with Sales and Marketing to translate growth plans and commerical strategies into executable, resilient, and cost-effective supply chain plans.
- Work in partnership with the Demand Manager to evaluate changes in demand forecasts and business assumptions, assess impact on production schedules, inventory levels, toller capacity, and service risk, and propose mitigation scenarios.
- Model alternative planning scenarios and provide visibility to trade-offs between service, inventory, capacity, and cost, supporting decision-making at tactical and strategic levels.
- Develop and manage short- and mid-term production schedules with tollers to ensure continuous material flow, stable operations, and on-time order fulfillment.
- Proactively communicate with Customer Service on order status, allocation risks, and recovery plans for at-risk SKUs.
- Proactive communication to key stakeholders tolling performance, risks and opportunities and innovation to improve and leverage service and cost. Participate in IBP process and key feeders related to tolling planning management.
- Advise leadership on work-in-process status, material availability, toller performance, and execution risks, escalating non-compliance or execution gaps to senior leadership when required.
- Drive inventory optimization to meet finance targets, including active reduction of slow-moving and obsolete inventory while protecting customer service.
- Recommend safety stock policies and planning parameter adjustments based on variability in production, supply, and toller performance.
- Monitor, analyze, and act on key KPIs (e.g., schedule adherence, OTIF, inventory turns, availability), leading corrective actions when targets are not met.
- Support the IBP / S&OP process by providing planning scenarios, identifying key constraints, and highlighting risks and opportunities to optimize cross-functional decisions.
- Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) for toll manufacturing planning and execution, ensuring discipline, standardization, and best-practice adoption.
- Develop strong, long-term relationships with tollers, fostering transparency, flexibility, rapid communication, and continuous improvement.
- Identify, recommend, and participate in process improvement initiatives, including planning logic enhancements, digitalization of scheduling workflows, and development of performance dashboards.
Experience: - 8+ years of experience in end-to-end supply planning with a strong focus on toll / external manufacturing environments.
- Proven hands-on experience with Master Production Scheduling (MPS), Material Requirements Planning (MRP), Production Scheduling, Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP), and Inventory Management in complex, multi-site supply chains.
- Demonstrated expertise in External Manufacturing and Tolling Operations, including capacity management, subcontracting, material staging, and finished goods conversion.
- Strong working knowledge of S&OP / IBP and S&OE processes, with the ability to translate demand and business signals into executable supply and production plans.
- Experience in Capacity Requirements Planning, including constraint analysis, scenario evaluation, and risk mitigation across tollers.
- Solid background in Project Management (PMO), with the ability to lead cross-functional initiatives, manage timelines, and deliver results in dynamic environments.
- Experience managing costs and inventory performance, including trade-off analysis between service, inventory, and total supply chain cost.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, including data analysis, modeling, and executive-level presentations.
- Experience using data visualization and analytics tools (e.g., Power BI) to develop insights, dashboards, and performance reporting.
- Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to model multiple planning scenarios and support decision-making under uncertainty.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and influencing skills, with the ability to partner
- Proven ability to manage and prioritize multiple workstreams in a fast-paced, execution-focused environment.
- Demonstrated ability to create, interpret, and leverage reports and data to drive production, inventory, and service-level decisions.
Education: Bachelor's degree in supply chain management or equivalent experience. Professional supply chain certification, APICS CPIM is required
Location: Libertyville, IL. This position follows a hybrid work schedule and requires onsite presence at our Libertyville, IL office a minimum of three days per week.
What We Offer We recognize that compensation and benefits play a crucial role in your career decisions. That's why we're dedicated to equitable pay practices and transparency in how we reward our employees.
Base Salary: The estimated annual base salary for this position ranges from:
$93,500 to $114,000. Individual pay is based upon location, skills, experience, and other relevant factors.
Incentives: All full-time employees are eligible for an incentive program or profit-sharing program in addition to their base salary.
Benefits:- High-quality healthcare coverage starting on day one, with options for medical (HSA/HRA), vision, and dental plans
- 5% company contribution to your 401(k), plus a quarterly discretionary bonus
- Immediate 100% vesting of all retirement contributions
- Financial assistance programs to support your goals
- Life and disability insurance for added security
- Generous paid time off, including vacation, holidays, and volunteer days
- Flexible work arrangements available
