Supply Chain and Planning Manager

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc; Waterford; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc in Waterford, Ireland is seeking a Supply Chain and Planning Manager to lead the site planning organization and oversee integration of customer, production, and materials planning across short-, medium-, and long-term horizons.

You will drive governance, KPI performance, and planning forums, ensuring alignment with business objectives, OTIF, inventory strategy, and supply continuity, while reporting to the Senior Supply Chain Manager.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field required.
• Minimum 5 years leading supply chain or planning teams in manufacturing GMP environment.
• Experience with SAP, planning governance and cross-functional collaboration.
• Experience in pharmaceutical or medical device regulated manufacturing.
• APICS CPIM or CSCP certification advantageous.
• Experience with SAP BI / Power BI reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead the integrated planning process across customer, production, material, and master scheduling.
• Align horizons; manage current-week execution and 4–24 month master schedule.
• Govern development and execution of the site production plan across planning horizons.
• Define planning rights, meeting cadence, controls, escalation routes, and communication.
• Support OTIF, revenue, customer service, inventory strategy, and continuity objectives.
• Oversee planning governance for revisions, sequence adherence, lag-based schedule adherence, and plan stability.
• Lead planning forums, KPI reviews, and escalation reviews.

Skills

Leadership and coaching

Stakeholder management

SAP planning

Power BI

Excel/PowerPoint

Scheduling and sequencing

Analytical thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree in related field

Tools

SAP

SAP BI

Power BI

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Title: Supply Chain and Planning Manager

Location: Waterford, IRL, IE

Department: Supply Chain

At West, we’re a dedicated team that is connected by a purpose to improve patient lives that has been at the center of our Company for more than a century. Our story began when Herman O. West solved the problem of supplying penicillin in mass quantities to the US Government during World War 2. Through our work to deliver thousands of life-saving and life-enhancing injectable medicines to millions of patients daily, West’s indelible mark on the healthcare industry has just begun. A name started our story. How will yours help write our future?

There’s no better place to join an inclusive community of professionals with opportunities for lifelong learning, growth and development. Supported by benefit programs, we empower the physical, mental, emotional and financial health of our team members and their families.

We believe in giving back to help those in need in the communities where we live and work. And are equally committed to creating a healthier environment and planet through our sustainability efforts.

Job Summary

Responsible for leading the site planning organization and ensuring effective integration of customer planning, production planning, materials planning, and master scheduling processes across short-, medium-, and long-term horizons. This role provides governance, direction, prioritization, and escalation management to ensure planning processes support customer service, production stability, material readiness, inventory strategy, and business objectives.

The Planning Manager oversees the planning team, ensures alignment across planning horizons, drives KPI performance, and leads structured planning forums and decision-making processes. The role is accountable for planning process effectiveness, planning governance, and team performance, while overall supply chain ownership remains with the Senior Supply Chain Manager.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the integrated planning process across customer planning, production planning, material planning, and master scheduling.
• Ensure effective alignment and handoff across planning horizons, including current-week execution, near-term production planning, month 4 to month 24 master scheduling, and longer-range planning reviews.
• Provide direction and governance for the development and execution of the site production plan across all planning horizons.
• Define planning decision rights, meeting cadence, planning controls, escalation routes, and communication expectations across the planning team.
• Lead the planning organization to support OTIF, revenue, customer service, absorption, schedule stability, inventory strategy, and supply continuity objectives.
• Ensure planning governance is in place for current-week schedule revisions, revision control, sequence adherence, lag-based schedule adherence, and near-term plan stability.
• Ensure effective order prioritization, escalation management, and decision-making processes are in place across customer planning and production planning activities.
• Provide oversight of medium- and long-term master scheduling processes, including planning boards, scenario reviews, capacity outlook, and the twice-yearly 3–5 year planning review.
• Ensure planning assumptions, inventory strategy, safety stock logic, stock coverage expectations, and material planning rules are aligned with business and operational needs.
• Support alignment of planning strategy with site material coverage expectations, including the 48-hour SFG and raw material planning model where applicable.

Additional Duties

• Lead or govern key planning forums, including monthly production plan reviews, cross-functional planning reviews, planning board governance, and escalation reviews.
• Review and challenge planning assumptions, capacity constraints, material risks, lead time risks, and service implications across the planning horizon.
• Coordinate with Operations, Quality, Warehouse, Procurement, Maintenance, customer-facing teams, and Global Supply Chain to support integrated planning decisions.
• Own planning KPI governance across OTIF, schedule adherence, sequence adherence, plan stability, revenue visibility, capacity outlook, inventory strategy, and planning effectiveness.
• Prepare and present planning updates, risks, performance trends, and decision needs to senior leadership.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives across planning processes, planning systems, planning governance, and team capability.
• Responsible for the execution of training for the team; identification of training requirements for the team.
• Manage the team’s performance, conduct performance 1 to 1’s, support recruitment, training and development plans while addressing any issues that arise in a timely manner.
• Own the development process for each team member. Delegation of development objectives and activities.
• Assigning tasks, reviewing work and completion of appraisals in line with the company targets.

Other Responsibilities

• Maintain a positive employee relations atmosphere. Ensure that there is good communication and co-operation by encouraging knowledge sharing.Support and input into Strategic Plan, budget, review and planning processes.
• Ensure robust use of SAP, SAP BI, Power BI, planning boards, Excel, and approved AI-enabled analytics or decision-support tools to support planning visibility and decisions.
• Support SOP/SOI development, standardization, and compliance across planning processes.
• Act in accordance with the company’s Guiding Principles and adherence to the corporate Code of Conduct.
• Compliance to all local site Environmental, Health and Safety regulations.
• Compliance to all local site company policies, procedures and corporate policies.
• Other duties as assigned.

Education

• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent third-level qualification in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, Operations, or related discipline.

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of experience in supply chain, production planning, materials planning, or integrated planning leadership, preferably in a manufacturing GMP environment.
• Experience leading teams or coordinating complex cross-functional planning processes.
• Experience in pharmaceutical, medical device, or other regulated manufacturing environment.
• Experience leading planning governance processes across multiple planning horizons.
• Experience with SAP, planning transactions, and reporting tools such as SAP BI or Power BI.
• Experience using planning boards, KPI reviews, escalation forums, and structured planning controls.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office, particularly Excel.
• Strong understanding of customer planning, production planning, materials planning, inventory strategy, and master scheduling principles.
• ERP / MRP planning outputs and exception management tools.
• Microsoft Office applications incl. Excel/PowerPoint.
• Understanding of schedule adherence, revision control, sequence adherence, capacity balancing, and scenario planning.
• Strong leadership, coaching, and stakeholder management capability.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills.
• Ability to challenge assumptions and drive alignment across competing priorities.
• Exposure to AI-enabled analytics or decision-support tools used within supply chain or operations environments is an advantage.
• Professional certification such as APICS CPIM or CSCP is advantageous.

Travel Requirements

10%: Up to 26 business days per year

What We Offer

Community Involvement: West encourages volunteerism through its West without Borders initiative and other charitable programs that make a difference in local communities. Continuous Learning & Development: Opportunities for professional growth through training programs, tuition assistance, leadership development, and skill-certification initiatives. Global Career Opportunities: With facilities across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, employees have opportunities for international exposure and cross-functional collaboration. Recognition & Rewards:Performance-based bonuses, service recognition, and employee appreciation initiatives celebrate dedication and impact. Inclusive & Collaborative Culture: A global workforce that values diversity, equity, and inclusion—where all voices are heard and respected in a supportive environment.

West embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We foster an environment where all individuals are safe, treated fairly, valued and respected. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or other applicable legally protected characteristics. Where permitted by law, employment with West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. or any of its subsidiary or affiliate companies, is contingent upon the satisfactory completion of post-offer background screening.