Sr Manager, Planner/Buyer

Join us in developing pioneering therapies that aim to transform the treatment of CKD and change patients’ lives. Our technology is designed to treat diseased kidneys using a patient’s own cells and may prevent or delay dialysis or transplant.

The Senior Manager, Planner/Buyer is responsible for leading and overseeing a team dedicated to the efficient management of planning and buying activities.  This role ensures that the storage, planning, and control, and materials meet company objectives and customer requirements.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

1. Planning/Buying

• Work with Patient Experience in the demand planning review process aligning internal departments to produce a collaborative demand forecast that will be used for planning and purchasing decisions
• Collaborate and recommend a production plan for in-house made media to align with the demand plan, identifying material gaps and proposing strategies to eliminate risks
• Create, implement and keep ever-green material safety stock strategies to achieve and maintain inventory objectives, while driving inventory optimization and reducing risks identified by Sourcing or vendor performance
• Ensure that planning and purchasing master data is maintained and updated correctly within Sage X3 ERP to ensure successful material requirement planning
• Assess current material availability and reasonably predicts future availability based on supplier history, delivery performance and other planning variables and report out weekly to leadership
• Anticipate and prevent potential material outages through root cause analysis and corrective action
• Works collaboratively with internal departments to identify and develop needs and requirements for equipment, materials, products and acceptable substitutions
1. Purchasing/Sourcing
• Create accurate and timely purchase orders within ERP system by ensuring material availability to support manufacturing production schedule
• Analyze and execute purchase plan suggestions to ensure alignment of supply and demand while minimizing excess and material expiration
• Partner with Warehouse to resolve issues, create supplier returns and ensure COA/COC documents were included where appropriate
• Identify and analyze potential issues with supplier deliveries to ensure purchases are filled on-time and in-full
• Maintain positive relationships with suppliers while also being able to negotiate and maximize company benefits.
• Monitor vendor performance and work with Quality Assurance and Sourcing for resolution
• Resolve shipment discrepancies, invoice issues, non-conforming product and communicate results with internal departments on issue resolution
• Ensure all goods and services are procured according to technical specifications
• Develop and drive KPI reporting and supply chain performance analytics reporting out to leadership, peer groups
• Perform supply and demand analysis, quantify business risks and highlight areas of concern

Secondary Responsibilities:

• Foster and maintain robust relationships across all levels of the organization, establishing a culture of collaboration between supply chain and business units
• Maintain professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; participating in professional societies.
• Own full lifecycle of CAPA and change controls.
• Perform all tasks in compliance with cGMP guidelines.
• Attend departmental/company team meetings as necessary.
• Adhere to all training requirements.
• Perform tactical and other duties as assigned

Minimum Qualifications: 

• Education/Training: Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Experience: Minimum of 7 years of experience in practical experience working with an ERP system in demand planning, supply planning, purchasing and production planning.
• Skills/Abilities: Knowledge of ERP systems. Strong communication skills, both verbal and written, along with good computer proficiency.