Capacity Planning Manager

Kastle Systems; Ann Arbor (MI); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

i2G is seeking a Capacity Planning Manager to lead labor demand forecasting, workforce planning, and partnerships with schools and apprenticeship programs. This role focuses on analytical capacity, not recruiting, and drives the planning horizon from budget to long‑term pipeline.

The position requires strong experience in workforce and operations planning, with the ability to translate demand signals into a prioritized, resourced hiring plan and to communicate trade‑offs to leadership.

Qualifications

• Five or more years in workforce planning, resource planning, operations planning, or financial planning and analysis within a labor‑driven services business.

Responsibilities

• Forecast a rolling 36‑month labor demand forecast from budget, backlog and sales pipeline.
• Convert awards into staffing requirements by role, grade, quantity and location.
• Track contract signatures vs forecasted starts and adjust dates as needed.
• Maintain a separate view of growth demand vs attrition backfill.
• Own the requisition hold list and the release dates; communicate changes per SLA.
• Plan vs. actual, and explain variance in business terms, monthly.
• Publish a rolling 90‑day requisition forecast with priority, refreshed monthly.
• Model scenarios for new markets, large awards, and attrition shifts to support decision making.

Skills

Workforce planning

Operations planning

Forecasting

Stakeholder management

Job description

Overview

Together, We Enhance Innovation and Growth. i2G specializes in advanced physical electronic security and life safety solutions. I2G has proven experience in surveillance, access control, and intrusion detection systems, biometrics, fence sensors, radars, ground sensors, anti-drone technologies, and more. We excel in design, project management, commissioning, and enterprise technology integrations.

i2G’s mission is to provide the products and services that meet our customers’ needs to give them a vital advantage in today’s market, helping to protect what matters most.

The Capacity Planning Manager builds and maintains i2G's labor demand forecast, reconciles it continuously against contract signings and actual hiring, determines the right mix of skill levels and capabilities to meet project and market requirements, owns the trade school and apprenticeship partnerships that feed that supply, and partners with the Talent Account Management Manager to convert that forecast into a prioritized, resourced hiring plan.

This is an operations planning role with a heavy analytical core and a strategic remit. It is not a recruiting role and it does not own hiring delivery. It owns the demand signal, its accuracy, the capability architecture behind it, and the external partnerships that build long-term supply.

Responsibilities

• Demand forecasting and backlog translation
• Maintain a rolling 36 month labor demand forecast built from the approved budget, the signed contract backlog and the weighed sales pipeline.
• Convert each award into a staffing requirement: role, grade or skill level, quantity, location and need-by date.
• Track contract signature status against forecasted starts. Adjust need-by dates as contracts sign, slip or cancel, and communicate each change within an agreed service level.
• Distinguish growth demand from attrition backfill and maintain a separate view of each.
• Own the requisition hold list: what is on hold, why, who owns the release, and the expected release date.
• Plan versus actual, and variance
• Reconcile budgeted headcount against actual headcount monthly, and explain the variance in business terms rather than in spreadsheet terms.
• Track hires against plan by month, role family and market, and report the trend.
• Measure and publish forecast accuracy, and improve it quarter over quarter.
• Quantify the revenue and margin consequence of a staffing shortfall so trade-offs are visible when priorities compete.
• Talent mix, skills architecture and pipeline development
• Determine the right mix of skill levels for each market and project profile, balancing cost, ramp time, certification requirements and availability.
• Contribute to i2G’s technician mix strategy: recommend the balance of apprentice, installer, service and senior grades the business should carry, and how that balance should shift as the mix of work, geography and technology changes.
• Partner with operations and learning and development to build and maintain the technician skills matrix. Define the capabilities that distinguish each grade, and keep the matrix current as platforms, products and codes change.
• Express demand in capabilities rather than headcount, so the plan states which skills are needed where and by when, not simply how many people.
• Use the skills matrix to identify capability gaps ahead of demand, and recommend whether each gap is closed through training, internal progression or external hire.
• Model build versus buy: internal progression and certification against external hire at a higher grade.
• Model adjacent-trade and apprentice sourcing against experienced hire, including the training burden each carries.
• Own i2G’s trade school, technical college and apprenticeship partnerships: partner selection, relationship health, program cadence and the pipeline each is expected to produce.
• Shape partner curriculum so graduates arrive with the capabilities i2G actually deploys. Align coursework, lab equipment, platform exposure and certification pathways to the technician skills matrix.
• Forecast school program output against the 36 month plan, and treat that supply as a planned input to the hiring forecast rather than an opportunistic one.
• Measure each partnership on hires produced, retention and time to productive, and reallocate effort toward the relationships that perform.
• Plan on productive capacity rather than headcount. Account for time to badge, license, certify and deploy, and for the ramp curve of a new hire.
• Identify licensing, registration and jurisdictional requirements that gate deployment in a target market, and surface them before entry rather than after.
• Recommend when to deploy surge levers: travel or launch crews, contract labor, subcontractors or agency support.
• Partnership with talent acquisition
• Act as the single prioritization point between operations and the Talent Account Management Manager.
• Publish a rolling 90‑day requisition forecast with an agreed priority order, refreshed monthly, set against the 36 month horizon so near‑term hiring and long‑range capability building stay connected.
• Own the monthly talent acquisition and operations review: agenda, data, decisions and follow‑through.
• Partner on scenario planning when a large award, a market entry or an attrition shift changes the demand picture.
• Scenario modeling and decision support
• Build and maintain scenarios for new market entry, large awards, acquisition integration and changes in attrition.
• Provide leadership with the staffing implications of commercial decisions before those decisions are made, not after.
• Stress‑test the plan: what happens if attrition rises, if a market opens late, or if a key contract signs early.
• Model governance and data
• Own the capacity model as a single source of truth, with version control and a documented assumptions log.
• Partner with finance to keep labor cost, loading and ramp assumptions current.
• Define, publish and maintain the planning metrics the business runs on.

Qualifications

• Five or more years in workforce planning, resource planning, operations planning, or financial planning and analysis within a labor-driven services business. Relevant sectors include field services, systems integration, construction and specialty trades, engineering services, staffing, or contact centre workforce management.