Materials Planning Manager

About the role

Flex intends to spin off its Cloud and Power Infrastructure segment into a new, independent publicly traded company, SpinCo, planned for Q1 2027. If the intended spin occurs, this role will support SpinCo, which will focus on critical digital infrastructure, delivering end-to-end power and thermal management solutions for AI data centers and other mission-critical applications.

Reporting to the Director of Supply Chain, the Materials Planning Manager 4 will provide strategic leadership for material planning, forecasting, inventory management, and supply-demand balancing activities across the organization. This role is responsible for developing and executing long-term materials planning strategies that optimize inventory investment, improve customer service levels, support manufacturing operations, and drive operational excellence. The Materials Planning Manager 4 will lead planning teams, collaborate with senior leadership, and partner closely with operations, procurement, supply chain, and customer-facing organizations to ensure material availability, forecast accuracy, inventory optimization, and successful execution of business objectives.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of material planning strategies, demand forecasts, inventory plans, and supply-demand balancing processes that support customer requirements and business objectives.
• Direct and develop materials planning teams while providing coaching, mentoring, succession planning, and performance management to build organizational capability and support business growth.
• Facilitate cross-functional planning reviews to evaluate demand forecasts, supply constraints, inventory positions, customer requirements, backlog, and service level performance.
• Drive inventory optimization initiatives by improving forecast accuracy, reducing excess and obsolete inventory, enhancing inventory turns, and ensuring material availability to support production schedules.
• Partner with executive leadership, operations, procurement, and customer teams to develop strategic plans, mitigate supply risks, support major business initiatives, and improve overall supply chain performance.

Requirements

• Deep expertise in materials planning, demand management, forecasting, inventory optimization, supply planning, and manufacturing operations.
• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Operations Management, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of material planning, supply chain, manufacturing, or related experience, including leadership, supervision, and management responsibilities.
• Proven experience leading materials planning organizations within complex manufacturing environments.
• Strong knowledge of forecasting methodologies, inventory management principles, sales and operations planning (S&OP), capacity planning, and demand management processes.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives involving operations, procurement, production planning, logistics, and customer-facing teams.
• Demonstrated success developing strategic planning processes that improve service levels, inventory performance, and operational efficiency.
• Strong analytical, financial, and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret complex data and make business-critical decisions.
• Advanced proficiency with ERP/MRP systems, planning tools, Microsoft Excel, and data analytics solutions.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, organizational development, and stakeholder management skills.