ROLE: Supply Chain Lead Planner - 8680

Location: Alton, Hampshire based with weekly travel to Isle of Wight

Job Type: Permanent

Salary: £32,000 – £35,000 per annum

Hours: Monday – Friday - with a half hour unpaid lunch break (40 hours)

Jade Recruitment are delighted to be partnering with a well-established and growing manufacturing business to recruit an experienced and driven Supply Chain Planning Manager.

The company is seeking a planning-led candidate for this Lead Planner role. The successful candidate will have a solid background in supply, production, or material planning and will be confident taking ownership of planning decisions while effectively balancing demand, capacity, and inventory requirements.

This is an exciting opportunity for a planning professional with strong supply chain and manufacturing experience to take ownership of end-to-end planning activities, ensuring customer demand is met efficiently while driving continuous improvement across the supply chain function.

Key Responsibilities

Planning & Scheduling

• Manage the end-to-end supply, production, and material planning process, translating customer demand into effective and executable operational plans.
• Ensure planning activities balance customer requirements, inventory levels, lead times, and operational constraints.
• Maintain ownership of planning data, ensuring accuracy, integrity, and timely updates across systems and reporting tools.
• Monitor and resolve planning discrepancies and outstanding data issues.

Inventory & Materials Management

• Optimise safety stock levels, reorder points, and replenishment strategies to support business objectives.
• Maintain healthy inventory levels while reducing excess stock and minimising obsolescence.
• Work closely with procurement teams to ensure material availability and support supplier performance reviews.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with Manufacturing, Procurement, Logistics, Engineering, Sales, and Finance teams to align operational priorities.
• Communicate planning changes, risks, and mitigation strategies clearly and effectively to stakeholders.
• Support operational decision-making through accurate planning analysis and reporting.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify and implement process improvements to enhance planning accuracy, efficiency, and service levels.
• Support digital transformation and continuous improvement initiatives, including planning systems, automation, and reporting dashboards.
• Assist with the development and implementation of supply chain policies and procedures.

Skills & Experience

Technical Skills

• Strong understanding of supply chain planning principles including MRP, DRP, and capacity planning.
• Experience using ERP/MRP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Dynamics 365, or similar.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with advanced Excel skills preferred.

Personal Attributes

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong organisational and leadership abilities.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and manage competing priorities.
• High attention to detail with a proactive and solutions-focused approach.

Experience & Qualifications

• Previous experience within a manufacturing environment is highly desirable.
• Ideally 3–7 years’ experience within supply chain or production planning roles.
• Previous leadership or supervisory experience would be advantageous.
• Professional qualifications such as APICS/CPIM, CIPS, or equivalent is beneficial.

Additional Information

• Travel to the company’s Isle of Wight facility will be required as part of the role.

To apply or learn more about this opportunity, please contact Jade Recruitment today.

We do receive a significant number of applications. If you have not been contacted by a member of our team within 10 days of your application, please note that on this occasion you have not be shortlisted for the position. If you are ever in doubt about this, please call our team.

By applying to this vacancy, you accept Jade Recruitment Limited’s Privacy and GDPR Policy which can be found via our website, in turn giving us consent to contact you.

Jade Recruitment Limited are acting as a recruitment agency in relation to this vacancy and are an equal opportunities employer.