Head of Supply Chain Management

Birchtree Consulting; Kolkata District; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 4,500,000; Full time

Job summary

The Client of Birchtree Consulting (Retail) in Kolkata seeks a Supply Chain Manager to own end-to-end supply chain and production planning for the fragrance business, aligning vendors, production schedules and inventories with forecasts and launches.

You will manage international suppliers, negotiate timelines and costs, and build scalable processes while maintaining on-time delivery and optimal stock levels. The role requires strong ownership, cross-functional collaboration and travel as needed.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5–8 years of experience in supply chain, sourcing, production planning or vendor management.
• Experience in fragrance, cosmetics, luxury or premium consumer goods is preferred.
• Strong vendor management experience, including international suppliers.
• Experience with long-lead-time components and production cycles.
• Solid understanding of demand planning, inventory management and production scheduling.
• Excellent stakeholder and vendor management skills; adept at Excel analyses.
• Comfortable in a start-up/0-to-1 environment where processes are built from scratch.
• Willingness to travel internationally/domestically for vendor management.

Responsibilities

• Translate business projections into production requirements.
• Develop production plans based on demand, launches and supplier lead times.
• Coordinate with sales and merchandising to understand demand.
• Monitor production pipeline and vendor performance; mitigate risks.
• Manage international vendor relationships and shipments; negotiate timelines and costs.
• Establish inventory norms and replenishment plans; track stock levels and turnover.
• Ensure alignment between inventory and launches across channels.

Skills

Vendor management

Demand planning

Production scheduling

Inventory management

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Excel

Job description

Company Name: Client of Birchtree Consulting (Retail)

Location: Kolkata, India

Experience Required: 7–10 years

CTC: 35 to 45 LPA

Role Purpose

The Supply Chain Manager will own the end-to-end supply chain and production planning for the Fragrance business, from production planning and vendor coordination through to finished-product availability. The role will build and manage the vendor ecosystem, including international suppliers, align production with business projections and sales requirements, and ensure that products are available at the right time and in the right quantities. The role is highly execution-oriented and requires strong ownership of timelines, vendors, inventory, production schedules and cross-functional coordination.

Key Responsibilities

Demand & Production Planning

• Translate business projections, collection plans and sales forecasts into production requirements.
• Develop production plans based on expected demand, launch calendars, channel requirements and supplier lead times.
• Work closely with sales and merchandising teams to understand current and anticipated demand.
• Anticipate production requirements well in advance based on long lead-time components and international sourcing dependencies.
• Maintain visibility on production pipeline, committed quantities, expected receipts and potential supply gaps.
• Identify risks to product availability and proactively develop mitigation plans.
• Own relationships with domestic and international vendors involved in the fragrance supply chain.
• Identify, evaluate and onboard vendors in collaboration with relevant internal stakeholders.
• Manage vendor negotiations around timelines, quantities, quality, costs and commercial terms.
• Establish vendor performance standards and review vendor performance regularly.
• Build strong relationships with international suppliers and manage communication across time zones and geographies.
• Ensure vendor adherence to agreed production and delivery timelines.
• Coordinate production of fragrance bottles, packaging components and other relevant product components.
• Track component-level production and identify dependencies that may affect finished-product timelines.
• Maintain detailed production trackers covering purchase orders, quantities, production status, quality approvals, dispatches and expected delivery dates.
• Coordinate with manufacturing/production partners to ensure timely completion of orders.
• Work with R&D and product teams during product development and transition from sampling to commercial production.
• Establish appropriate inventory norms based on demand, lead times and business requirements.
• Monitor inventory levels and identify potential overstock, understock and stock-out situations.
• Develop replenishment plans based on sales velocity and production lead times.
• Ensure alignment between inventory availability and planned launches across channels.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Work closely with R&D, CPO, merchandising, retail, finance, HR and other relevant teams.
• Coordinate production plans with collection launch calendars.
• Align with sales teams on market requirements, upcoming demand and changes in projections.
• Work with Finance on purchase commitments, costing, working capital and vendor payments where required.
• Ensure supply-chain readiness for new launches and collection drops.

Cost & Process Optimisation

• Track product and component costs and identify opportunities for cost optimisation.
• Support costing exercises and vendor negotiations.
• Identify opportunities to reduce lead times, improve MOQ economics and optimise inventory.
• Build scalable supply-chain processes, trackers and SOPs for the new fragrance business.

International Supply Chain

• Manage international vendor relationships and associated production timelines.
• Coordinate international shipments and ensure visibility on expected arrival dates.
• Work with relevant internal teams on documentation, logistics and import-related dependencies.
• Build contingency plans for critical international suppliers and long-lead components.

Key Deliverables / Success Metrics

• Production readiness for all planned launches
• On-time-in-full delivery from vendors
• Production lead-time adherence
• Inventory availability and stock-out levels
• Inventory turns / working capital efficiency
• Production cost optimisation
• Accuracy of demand-to-production planning
• Successful execution of new product launches

Ideal Candidate

• 5–8 years of experience in supply chain, sourcing, production planning or vendor management.
• Experience in fragrance, beauty, cosmetics, luxury, premium consumer goods or a highly design-led product environment preferred.
• Strong experience managing vendors, preferably including international suppliers.
• Experience working with long-lead-time components and production cycles.
• Strong understanding of demand planning, inventory management and production scheduling.
• Excellent stakeholder and vendor management skills.
• Strong analytical and Excel capabilities.
• Comfortable working in a start-up/0-to-1 environment where processes need to be built from scratch.
• Willingness to travel internationally/domestically for vendor management where required.

Preferred Background

Candidates from fragrance, cosmetics, beauty, luxury packaging, premium consumer goods, fashion accessories, jewellery or other businesses involving complex vendor and component ecosystems may be considered.