Senior Material Planner

About the role

Spartan Emergency Response (Spartan ER) is a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of custom emergency response vehicles, cabs, and chassis. The Sr. Material Planner ensures the optimal flow of production parts from suppliers through delivery, supporting the company’s commitment to quality and innovation.

Responsibilities

• Manage assigned parts and their respective suppliers, including problem resolution.
• Develop suppliers to improve delivery performance and inventory control.
• Coordinate engineering changes and build schedules with suppliers and production to meet customer expectations while minimizing surplus exposure.
• Analyze MRP daily and weekly to produce supplier releases.
• Launch, schedule, defer, expedite, and cancel purchase orders to maintain inventory levels while supporting production material requirements.
• Monitor and update supplier lead-times for system accuracy.
• Verify suppliers receive weekly reports and understand expectations, including part quantities and required delivery timing.
• Proactively confirm delivery schedules against purchase orders and take action if necessary.
• Monitor shortage reports and collect firm tracking and expected delivery timing.
• Obtain realistic delivery dates on shortages and follow up as appropriate.
• Validate and perform root cause analysis for missed deliveries.
• Assist with processing material requisitions for parts, repairs, equipment, or special engineering projects.
• Proactively identify parts shortages and implement actions to mitigate production disruption risks.
• Work with Purchasing, Operations, Finance, and vendors to determine and implement appropriate inventory levels, minimum order requirements, economic order quantities, delivery offsets, and supplier lead times.
• Support packaging projects and implement returnable packaging programs.
• Monitor and manage freight/logistics costs.
• Assist in activities pertaining to inventory accuracy and reduction, including VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory), Kanban cards, or Min/Max systems.
• Participate in and support lean activities, including GEMBA walks.
• Follow established procedures and initiate improvements.
• Perform inventory trend analysis, including forecasting inventory levels, reconciling variances, and assisting with inventory adjustments related to manufacturing volume changes.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in purchasing, inventory, or related functions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Inventory Management, Supply Chain Management, or a related area.

Skills

• Proficiency in MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint) and ability to learn company enterprise systems.
• Strong knowledge of warehouse management software.
• Highly organized with the ability to prioritize, meet deadlines, and adapt to changing work environments.
• Ability to work independently, use sound judgment, and make thoughtful decisions in a timely manner.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including following instructions.
• Collaborative, solutions-oriented, and win-win approach in group settings.

Physical Demands

• Must be able to perform physical tasks including, but not limited to, lifting up to 40 lbs., walking, kneeling, squatting, and standing for long periods.

Work Environment

Office environment.