Master Production Scheduler

Confidential Jobs; Portland (ME); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential Jobs in Portland, ME seeks an elite Master Scheduler & Planner to own the production schedule for a high-mix CNC machining operation serving aerospace, defense, and semiconductor industries.

This role requires proactive capacity management, shop-floor collaboration, and the ability to guide priorities and recovery plans to hit strict delivery commitments.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience building and managing master production schedules for high-mix CNC environments.
• Strong understanding of capacity planning, bottleneck management, and ERP/MRP integration.
• Ability to translate customer demands into executable manufacturing plans with realistic lead times.

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously optimize the master production schedule across a complex CNC environment.
• Translate demand and ship dates into a detailed manufacturing plan.
• Schedule work based on finite capacity and balance constraints.
• Identify bottlenecks and set priorities across customer requirements.
• Maintain visibility of upcoming capacity and re-sequence work as needed.
• Develop recovery plans when jobs fall behind schedule.
• Work with ERP/MRP systems to ensure accurate production control.

Job description

Employment Type: Full-Time

THE OPPORTUNITY

We are looking for an elite Master Scheduler & Planner to take ownership of the production schedule and planning process for a highly sophisticated CNC machining operation serving the aerospace, defense, and semiconductor industries.

This is not a traditional production scheduling position.

We are a high-mix, low-volume precision machine shop producing complex, mission-critical components where tolerance, quality, delivery, and process discipline are non-negotiable. Our work requires sophisticated planning across CNC machining, programming, tooling, raw materials, outside processing, inspection, engineering, and final delivery.

The right person will understand that a schedule is not simply a spreadsheet of due dates. It is a living manufacturing system that must account for machine capacity, labor, setup time, tooling, material availability, inspection capacity, outside services, engineering changes, process routing, bottlenecks, and the realities of running extremely tight-tolerance work.

We need someone who can look at the entire factory, understand what is happening at the machine level, identify what will prevent us from hitting our commitments, and proactively drive the organization around those constraints.

You should be the person who knows what needs to happen next — before everyone else realizes there is a problem.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

MASTER PRODUCTION SCHEDULING

Own and continuously optimize the master production schedule across a complex, high-mix CNC machining environment.

You will:

• Develop and maintain a realistic, executable master production schedule.
• Translate customer demand, sales orders, forecasts, and committed ship dates into a detailed manufacturing plan.
• Schedule work based on finite capacity, not theoretical capacity.
• Balance machine capacity, labor, tooling, inspection, material, outside processing, and other constraints.
• Identify bottleneck machines and processes before they become schedule failures.
• Establish appropriate priorities across competing customer requirements.
• Continuously re-sequence work as conditions change while protecting critical customer commitments.
• Maintain visibility to the next several weeks and months of production capacity.
• Develop recovery plans when jobs fall behind schedule.
• Provide leadership with an accurate picture of what can realistically ship, when it can ship, and what is preventing it from shipping sooner.

DETAILED PRODUCTION PLANNING

Build detailed production plans that connect the master schedule to the actual work being performed on the shop floor.

You will coordinate:

• Routing operations
• Setup and run times
• Fixtures and workholding
• Rework and nonconformance activity
• Packaging and shipping requirements

You will understand the difference between a job being scheduled and a job actually being ready to run.

SHOP FLOOR CONTROL

You will work closely with machinists, programmers, manufacturing engineers, quality, inspection, purchasing, and operations leadership to ensure that the schedule reflects reality.

You will regularly be on the shop floor.

You will:

• Monitor actual production performance against the schedule.
• Identify jobs at risk of missing their committed dates.
• Escalate issues early rather than after the schedule has already failed.
• Remove constraints preventing jobs from moving forward.
• Drive schedule adherence and on-time delivery.
• Help establish realistic production priorities without creating unnecessary chaos on the floor.
• Ensure that jobs are released in the correct sequence and at the correct time.
• Prevent premature job release and unnecessary WIP.
• Maintain control of WIP through every stage of the manufacturing process.

You will not manage the schedule from behind a desk. You will manage it from the intersection of the ERP system, the planning process, and the shop floor.

CAPACITY PLANNING

A major part of this position is understanding our true manufacturing capacity.

You will:

• Develop and maintain capacity models by machine, work center, department, and critical process.
• Analyze machine utilization and available capacity.
• Identify future capacity constraints.
• Model the impact of new orders and schedule changes.
• Identify opportunities for overtime, additional shifts, subcontracting, or capital investment.
• Recognize when a machine is technically available but functionally unavailable due to tooling, programming, maintenance, setup requirements, inspection constraints, or material shortages.
• Provide leadership with forward-looking capacity analysis and recommendations.

You should be comfortable answering questions such as:

“If we accept these three new aerospace jobs, what does that do to our 5-axis capacity over the next eight weeks?”

“Which jobs are going to compete for the same machine, tooling, inspection resources, or outside process?”

“What is the real constraint in this schedule?”

“What happens if this machine goes down tomorrow?”

“Which jobs can we move without jeopardizing delivery?”

If those questions are exciting rather than intimidating, we want to talk to you.

ERP / MRP / PRODUCTION CONTROL

You will be a power user and steward of our ERP/MRP planning environment.

Experience with systems such as JobBOSS, E2 Shop System, Epicor, Global Shop Solutions, IQMS, NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or similar manufacturing ERP/MRP platforms is highly desirable.

AEROSPACE / DEFENSE / SEMICONDUCTOR ENVIRONMENT

Our customers operate at extremely high standards, and our planning process must reflect that.

Experience supporting aerospace, defense, semiconductor, medical, space, or other highly regulated / high-precision manufacturing environments is strongly preferred.

You should understand the operational implications of requirements such as:

• ITAR-controlled environments
• Customer-specific quality requirements