Materials Planner

About the role

When you join Smithfield, you become part of something special – a company that's sustainably feeding people around the world, producing good food the right way with respect for our people, animals, communities and planet. With opportunities across locations and functions, a culture grounded in our Core Four values - gratitude, communication, respect and accountability - and a strong commitment to learning, collaboration, and innovation, Smithfield offers challenging and rewarding careers where you can grow, contribute and make a real impact.

As a Materials Planner, you will be responsible for making strategic sourcing decisions, determining the optimal balance between internal and external raw material procurement while exceeding key performance metrics. Your role will involve planning production capacity with precision—balancing inventory capital costs, capacity constraints, plant efficiencies, and customer fill rate objectives.

Responsibilities

• Scheduling, Inventory, and Supply Planning: Ensure master scheduling, product replenishment, and inventory management metrics are met using planning software and departmental processes.
• Raw Materials and Supplier Coordination: Make strategic sourcing decisions, ensuring the optimal balance between internal and external raw material procurement.
• Capacity Planning and Production Optimization: Lead the enforcement and utilization of capacity planning models for assigned product categories, ensuring optimal resource allocation and production efficiency.
• Collaboration and Issue Resolution: Collaborate with upstream and downstream business partners to strengthen process opportunities and enhance operational effectiveness across the company.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university in Operations Management, Supply Chain Management or related field and 2+ years of relevant experience in supply chain, operations, planning and inventory control or similar required or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Proficient in Excel & PowerPoint.
• Works well under pressure with limited supervision and be able to make immediate value-based decisions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication Skills.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Strong ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Strong organizational skills with a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.

Skills

• Experience in other areas of the supply chain such as purchasing, customer service, demand planning or logistics is a plus.
• Consumer Packaged Goods Industry experience, preferred.
• APICS certification preferred, CPIM or CSCP a plus.
• Experience in planning software is a plus.
• SAP experience a plus.

Physical Demands & Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those an employee should possess to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee may encounter while performing the essential functions of this job.

• Capable of sitting for extended periods of time.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.
• Frequently required to sit; stand; walk; reach with hands and arms.
• Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision and depth perception.
• Able to travel as needed.

Pay

The expected pay range for this position is $60,000 - $87,500 annually. Smithfield Foods provides pay ranges that reflect its good faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage the company reasonably expects to pay for a position at the time of hire.