Manager, Strategic Planning

CURiO Brands, LLC; Minneapolis (MN); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

CURiO Brands, LLC is seeking a Manager, Strategic Planning to optimize the master production strategy across its external filling partners. This role takes an enterprise view of capacity, constraints, and priorities to ensure the network has the right production in the right places, at the right time.

You will collaborate with Purchasing, Production Planning, Inventory, Commercial, and Operations to translate demand into an executable network plan, identify bottlenecks, and drive data-driven

Responsibilities

• Own the master production plan across the external filling network.
• Translate demand and launches into production and capacity requirements.
• Develop level-loading strategies balancing capacity, lead times, cost, and service.
• Maintain visibility of short- to long-range capacity across the network.
• Identify bottlenecks and propose proactive capacity improvements.
• Evaluate constraints and recommend actions when demand exceeds capacity.
• Collaborate with Purchasing, Inventory, and Operations on capacity planning.

Job description

**This role is for candidates who reside within 60 miles of our office in Southeast Minneapolis (hybrid).**

About the Role

As the Manager, Strategic Planning, you are responsible for developing and optimizing the master production strategy across CURiO's network of external filling and manufacturing partners. This role takes an enterprise view of production requirements, available capacity, network constraints, and business priorities to ensure CURiO has the right production capacity, in the right places, at the right time to support customer demand and inventory objectives.

This is not a day-to-day production scheduling role. Buyer & Production Planners execute production schedules with individual manufacturing partners; the Manager, Strategic Planning works across the entirety of the filling network to establish the broader capacity and level-loading strategy, identify current and future constraints, evaluate filler capabilities and performance, and drive decisions when demand and available capacity are not aligned.

The role serves as a critical connection point between Purchasing, Production Planning, Inventory, Commercial, Innovation, Operations, and external manufacturing partners, translating demand and supply requirements into an executable network strategy.

What You'll Do

• Own the development and ongoing management of CURiO's master production plan across the external filling network.
• Translate demand, inventory requirements, launch plans, and business priorities into forward-looking production and capacity requirements.
• Develop level-loading strategies that optimize production across filling partners while balancing capacity, lead times, cost, inventory, and service requirements.
• Maintain visibility to short-, mid-, and long-range capacity requirements across the network.
• Identify capacity gaps, bottlenecks, and potential production constraints early enough to enable proactive business decisions.
• Develop scenarios and recommendations when demand exceeds available capacity, including production shifts, timing changes, capacity expansion, or alternative manufacturing solutions.
• Establish appropriate planning horizons, capacity assumptions, and scheduling parameters to improve stability and execution across the network.

Capacity & Constraint Management

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of available and demonstrated capacity by filling partner, production line, product type, and other relevant manufacturing constraints.
• Regularly assess capacity utilization and identify areas of over- or under-utilization across the network.
• Partner with Planning and Purchasing leadership to anticipate seasonal peaks, launches, promotional activity, and other periods of elevated capacity demand.
• Lead capacity shortage analysis and clearly communicate risks, options, tradeoffs, and recommended actions to Operations leadership.
• Evaluate the impact of production constraints on inventory availability and customer service and help establish appropriate business priorities.
• Partner with manufacturing partners to identify opportunities to increase throughput, remove constraints, or create additional capacity.
• Maintain a holistic view of CURiO's filling network, including partner capabilities, equipment, capacity, lead times, performance, product specialization, cost considerations, and operational risk.
• Develop and maintain filler capability and capacity profiles to support sourcing and production allocation decisions.
• Analyze where products are manufactured across the network and recommend opportunities to improve efficiency, flexibility, redundancy, and scalability.
• Support evaluation and onboarding of new filling partners when additional capabilities or capacity are required.
• Identify network concentration and continuity risks and partner with Purchasing leadership to develop mitigation strategies.
• Provide analysis and recommendations regarding the optimal allocation of production across manufacturing partners.

Manufacturing Partner Relationship Management

• Build strong, collaborative relationships with CURiO's external filling partners, particularly around capacity planning, production commitments, and future requirements.
• Establish regular capacity and planning discussions with key manufacturing partners.
• Communicate CURiO's longer-range volume expectations and business priorities to improve mutual planning and preparedness.
• Partner with fillers to understand operational constraints, upcoming capacity changes, equipment investments, staffing considerations, and other factors that may impact CURiO production.
• Address recurring capacity or scheduling challenges at the appropriate level and work collaboratively with partners toward sustainable solutions.
• Participate in business reviews and performance discussions with strategic manufacturing partners.

Buyer & Production Planning Partnership & Execution

• Provide the network-level production strategy and priorities that guide execution by CURiO's Buyer & Production Planners.
• Partner closely with Buyer & Production Planners to understand real-time production conditions, constraints, and changes occurring within individual filler relationships.
• Establish clear escalation paths for capacity conflicts, production delays, or scheduling issues that cannot be resolved through normal scheduling activity.
• Help resolve competing priorities across manufacturing partners when production requirements exceed available capacity.
• Develop common planning practices, tools, and operating rhythms that improve consistency across the Buyer & Production Planning team.
• Serve as a subject matter expert and resource to Buyer & Production Planners without assuming ownership of their day-to-day scheduling responsibilities.

Cross-Functional Planning

• Partner closely with Demand Planning, Inventory