Director, Global Materials Planning

Director, Global Material Planning

Job Overview:

The Director of Global Material Planning is responsible for leading and developing global strategy and execution of material planning to support the production and growth plan. This leader ensures alignment of material supply with global production and demand plans while driving optimization, supplier collaboration and operational efficiency. Monitor supplier performance in relation to material delivery and collaborate with sourcing and supply planning to mitigate risks. This leader oversees all categories of materials planning, standardizing planning process across geographies and work cross-functionally to ensure end to end material availability with minimal risk and waste. Lead and design a material planning tool to translate materials needs from production plan.

Key Responsibilities

1. Global Strategic Material Planning Strategy and Execution

• Define and implement a global material strategy aligned with the business goals and product lifecycle.
• Lead the global material planning process across multiple manufacturing sites.
• Translate the supply plan into material plan capacity and inventory strategies, ensure timely and accurate material availability across all production sites.
• Drive seasonal and monthly execution routines, managing exception-based planning, shortage escalations and expediting strategies

2. Supplier collaboration and Risk Management

• Collaborate with global supply planning and material sourcing team to ensure material availability and mitigate risks.
• Partner with suppliers to align capacity and supply plans to production schedules, develop scenariobased plans to respond to disruptions.
• Drive global inventory strategies to balance service levels, investment and cost.
• Lead initiatives to reduce excess and obsolete inventory globally

3. Process Optimization and Innovation

• Full assessment of current organization focuses on people, process and data.
• Standardize, harmonize and optimize the global material planning processes and systems for consistency, scalability and efficiency.
• Eliminate non-value-added activities and streamline end to end workflows (from forecast handoff to purchase order)
• Lead the evaluation, selection and implementation of planning tools and technologies
• Introduce automation and digital planning capabilities.

4. Organization Leadership and Capability

• Define a clear roles and responsibilities of global material planning team.
• Demonstrate strong cross-functional leadership and capable to facilitate collaboration between different functions, regional team to ensure alignment with overall business objectives.
• Design and evolve the organizational structure that support efficient and effective global planning operations. Allocate resources appropriately across regional offices to meet the business needs.

• Implement training and development programs to build the team’s expertise in supply chain and planning.

5. Data-Driven Decision Making

• Embed a data-first mindset across the global planning team.
• Full assessment of master data management – ensure data quality, consistency and accuracy in key planning fields (lead time, safety stocks, BOMs, supplier parameters…etc.). Partner with DT, internal stakeholder and supplier to governance teams to continuously improve planning inputs.
• Utilize advanced analytics and supply chain tools to assess performance, identify trends, and drive continuous improvements to monitor material availability, shortages and planning accuracy.
• Track key performance indicators (KPIs) for supply chain efficiency e.g. supplier reliability, lead time variability and demand/supply alignment, develop action plans to address variances and root causes for process improvement.

6. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with Product Supply, Supply Planning , Commercial Planning, Costing along GTM critical milestones to align material plan with business forecasts and financial objectives.

• Provide data-backed insights and recommendations to stakeholders.

Key Competences:

• Strategic thinking - ability to develop long term planning strategies that align with business goals. Ability to anticipate and respond to changes in business environment. Experience working in complex, global, matrixed organizations.

• Executional Rigor - Track record of driving planning outcomes (e.g. material reliability and availability, service levels…etc.) skilled at managing complexity, exceptions, and operational firefighting without losing sights of strategic goals.
• Supply Chain Expertise – deep knowledge of material planning, sourcing, capacity planning and integrated business planning. Understand of product lifecycle impacts on materials needs and risks.
• Analytical and data driven decision making - proficiency in using data analytics and tools to make informed decision. Ability to analyze complex data sets and translate insights into actionable strategics.
• Change management - experience with change management and transformation particularly in implementing new process, technologies, and organizational structures.
• Cross-functional collaboration & effective communication - experience in leading cross-functional teams and management relationship with key internal and external stakeholders.
• Global mindset - cultivate awareness and sensitivity to operate effectively in diverse market and environments.

WHAT WE WILL BE LOOKING FOR IN YOU AS OUR LEADER

• Strategic Leadership

• Builds and communicates long-term functional vision aligned with global/regional priorities.
• Leads functional transformation by anticipating future trends and positioning the organization for success.
• Elevates functional capabilities to influence the enterprise vision

• Growing People & Teams

• Identify and assess team member potential next roles and enabling ownership of development plans that strengthen talent pipeline
• Fosters a high-performing, inclusive culture across functions and geographies.
• Champions organizational values, anticipates and builds future capabilities to accelerate growth and retain talents.

• Driving Results

• Holds self, internal & external partners accountable for deliverables; ensures resource alignment with strategic goals.
• Makes bold decisions to drive organizational performance in dynamic & ambiguous conditions.
• Setting aspirational targets for self and organization, optimized on results for VF, not function which delivers scalable results & solutions that drive long-term impact

• Partnership

• Builds and model cross-functional partnerships, creating a culture where collaboration is strategic and scalable.
• Drives communication and relationship strategies that build organizational trust and credibility
• Holds self and other leaders accountable to follow through on commitments, break down barriers between groups, respect all sides and facilitate dialogue.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, Business, Operations Management, Engineering, or related field. An MBA or relevant master’s degree is often preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in supply chain management, with a strong background and understanding in capacity and production planning or similar field.
• Proven experience managing global teams across multiple countries.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders.
• Proficiency in supply chain management software and tools (e.g., SAP, Oracle, JDA).
• Advanced analytical skills to interpret data, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions, experience with data analysis tools (Excel, Power BI, Tableau) is a plus.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and manage multiple priorities.
• Excellent communication skills to work with cross-functional teams and external partners and leadership skills to inspire, coach and manage a diverse and remote team effectively.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a track record of driving process improvements in a global setting.