Director of Planning & Fulfillment

About the role

The Director of Planning & Fulfillment oversees the flow of materials and components through Rocket Lab’s supply chain, ensuring they meet production needs efficiently. This role involves setting and achieving program-level material readiness targets, aligning supplier lead times, and managing material shortages.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end multi-site material planning and fulfillment operations across all production programs, including launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturing.
• Set and achieve program-level material readiness targets: line of balance, clear-to-build status, and on-time kitting metrics.
• Partner with Procurement to align supplier lead times, purchase planning message cadences, and material flow to production demand.
• Translate engineering change orders and program schedule changes into actionable supply and fulfillment plans with minimal disruption to production.
• Establish and own material shortage management processes, including root cause analysis and corrective action loops.
• Build and publish executive-level material health dashboards and weekly risk visibility reporting for COO and program leadership.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across planning and fulfillment identifying systemic gaps in ERP and closing them.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive supply chain experience in a leadership role owning material planning, production planning, or fulfillment functions.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent years of work experience (16+ years total work experience).
• Deep, hands-on expertise in MRP/ERP systems and planning fundamentals: demand planning, supply planning, order policy, BOM management, and fulfillment execution.
• Proven track record building and scaling planning teams in a high-mix, low-volume, fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Exceptional cross-functional influence; successfully aligning engineering, production, procurement, and finance on competing priorities under schedule pressure.

Desired Qualifications

• Prior experience in aerospace, defense, or other high-consequence, regulated manufacturing industries.
• Experience managing multi-site or globally distributed planning operations, including international freight and customs coordination.
• Exposure to AI-enabled supply chain tools, digital transformation initiatives, or ERP implementation and optimization projects.
• APICS CPIM, CSCP, or equivalent professional certification.
• Demonstrated experience with production readiness frameworks: line of balance, manufacturing readiness level (MRL), or similar.

What to Expect

Rocket Lab is committed to fostering a culture where everyone feels valued and supported. We believe in hard work, determination, innovation, teamwork, resilience, and a shared commitment to making a difference. Our people are encouraged to help each other, put their egos aside, and get their hands dirty on all tasks, big and small. We thrive under pressure, meet tight deadlines, and focus on delivering results, not getting bogged down by obstacles.

Important Information

• To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Rocket Lab Employees must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce, as applicable.
• Background checks will be conducted prior to employment offers being made to candidates seeking to work in New Zealand offices, including nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that you be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by the United States' International Traffic in Arms Regulations.