Raw Material Planner

Job Description

Raw Materials Planner | Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc.

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc., located on-site at one of their facilities. Upstate Niagara Cooperative is a manufacturer, ideally within the food, beverage, or CPG industry, producing goods that require a steady supply of packaging and ingredient materials. This role is crucial for ensuring the continuous availability of raw materials to support production plans by effectively managing inventory investments at the plant level.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Type: Full-time
• Location: In-person
• Pay: $64000–$85000 yearly
• Team: Direct to Procurement Manager/Director; dotted line to Plant Scheduling Manager/Supervisor
• Mission: Maintain targeted levels of raw material inventory to ensure continuous supply for production and eliminate filler downtime.
• Tech Stack: SAP, SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, lookup functions)

What You’ll Actually Do
• Manage Stock Transfers: Create Stock Transfers according to established processes and monitor the delivery performance from the centralized 3PL warehouse to the respective plant.
• Oversee Purchase Orders: Create and monitor the delivery performance of Purchase Orders for direct plant purchases from vendors, ensuring adherence to lead times and ordering parameters.
• Facilitate Communication: Orchestrate communication among Procurement, Vendors, and 3PL Partners to keep the Plant Scheduling team informed about material delivery statuses and potential production plan risks.
• Verify Inventory Accuracy: Collaborate with Plant Warehousing and Manufacturing Teams to verify the accuracy of plant-level raw material inventories through monitoring cycle count programs and process order consumption.
• Set Safety Stock Levels: Establish and maintain targeted safety stock levels within the SAP ERP system for the plant site, in conjunction with the Plant Scheduling Manager/Supervisor, to ensure accurate Material Planning Requirement.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Logistics, or a related field, or an Associate’s degree combined with 2+ years of relevant materials/inventory planning experience.
• Experience: 2 years of experience in materials/inventory planning, purchasing, or supply chain coordination, ideally within a food, beverage, or CPG manufacturing environment; direct experience creating and managing Purchase Orders and Stock Transfer Orders within an ERP/MRP system.
• Skills: Working knowledge of an ERP/MRP system (SAP or SAP S/4HANA experience strongly preferred); intermediate-to-advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, lookup functions); strong verbal and written communication skills to coordinate effectively across teams and partners.
• Bonus: APICS CPIM certification, or actively pursuing it.