What are the responsibilities and job description for the Supply Planner position at NS IT Solutions?
Job Title: Supply Planner (Lead Material Planner)
Location: Beaverton, OR
Work Type: Onsite
Schedule: Flexible hours
Duration: ~8 months
Hours: 40 hours/week
Position Summary
The Supply Planner (Lead Material Planner) is responsible for managing material planning for the apparel category, focusing on mid- and long-range material plan health. This role ensures timely and accurate material forecasting, identifies risks in material demand/capacity, and drives strategies to support on-time finished goods delivery. The planner will lead cross-functional coordination, partner on strategic planning initiatives, and act as a subject matter expert (SME) for materials planning within a dynamic supply chain environment.
This role is ideal for a proactive, analytical planner who excels in collaborative environments and thrives in driving innovation, clarity, and accountability across materials supply chain processes.
Key Responsibilities
Material Planning & Risk Management
- Lead cross-functional efforts to identify and resolve risks and opportunities across the materials plan for a large sport and material class alignment.
- Collaborate with upstream partners to deliver clear, accurate materials demand signals.
- Analyze material demand vs. capacity and implement mitigation processes to ensure timely material production.
- Help define and operationalize material lead-time strategies with internal supply chain partners.
Seasonal Readiness & Operational Support
- Coordinate seasonal readiness activities with sport category teams and senior planners.
- Serve as materials planning subject matter expert (SME) in key cross-functional engagements and special projects.
- Support tactical materials demand/supply management while contributing to long-range capability building.
Strategic Development
- Partner with leadership to develop new strategies for a responsive and flexible materials supply chain.
- Identify opportunities to enhance processes in alignment with the broader materials supply chain strategy.
- Collaborate with technology and analytics teams to define system and reporting enhancements.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with partners in materials sourcing, materials manufacturing management, costing, development, global supply planning, merchandising planning, and analytics.
- Build strong relationships across product and sport category teams to influence teams not directly aligned with supply chain functions.
Analytics & Continuous Improvement
- Develop tools and insights that support the analysis of key performance metrics.
- Communicate trends, drivers, and recommendations effectively through presentations and reports.
- Contribute to building an insights-first, proactive planning culture.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor's degree.
- 5-7 years of experience in supply chain, materials planning, demand planning, production/manufacturing, or logistics.
- Strong understanding of MRP fundamentals, demand/supply planning, production, and capacity management.
- Knowledge of manufacturing best practices and ability to evaluate improvement opportunities.
- Strong analytical skills with experience creating tools for data and performance metric analysis.
- Excellent communication skills—verbal, written, and presentation.
- Experience working cross-functionally in diverse environments.
- Proven ability to prioritize, manage stakeholders, and deliver results.
- Passion for product creation and continuous improvement.
Preferred
- Experience working with textiles or materials (not limited to apparel/footwear).
- Experience driving alignment across global or cross-cultural teams.
- Background in project management.
- Experience influencing non-supply-chain teams.
Work Environment
- Onsite role requiring close collaboration with product, sourcing, planning, and materials partners.
- Work involves both system-based analysis and non-system collaborative planning.
- Team is undergoing transformation, emphasizing proactive insight generation over reactive system use.