Materials Manager

Xenon arc; Illinois; Hybrid; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical plan offerings with employer contributions

100% employer paid dental and vision

401k with company match

Vacation accrual of 80 hours annually

Sick time of 1 hour for every 40 hours worked

Paid Holidays including New Year’s Day and Christmas

Job summary

A leading provider of supply chain solutions is seeking a Materials Manager in Illinois. The role involves managing end-to-end supply chains, developing inventory plans, and enhancing customer experience while leading process improvements. Candidates should possess a Bachelor's degree and 3-5+ years of relevant experience. This position promotes collaboration across teams and aims to drive efficiency and optimize operations. Attractive benefits are also included.

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years of experience in production scheduling, inventory management, or supply planning.
• Professional experience managing supply chains in a B2B environment.
• Experience developing purchase plans and managing working capital.

Responsibilities

• Develop inventory plans utilizing demand inputs and stakeholder collaboration.
• Maintain purchase order plans and ensure efficient inventory delivery.
• Monitor inventory levels and analyze performance against goals.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and provide updates on inventory projections.
• Lead process improvement projects to drive efficiencies.

Skills

Adaptability

Creativity

Problem-solving

Communication Skills

Team Player

Education

Bachelor's degree in Operations / Supply Chain Management / Engineering / Business

Tools

ERP Software

Job description

Overview

At Xenon arc, we’re transforming how producers connect with their customers. We partner with leading companies—ranging from industrial chemical manufacturers to global food ingredient providers—to solve complex challenges in reaching and serving hard-to-access markets. By acting as an extension of our clients' brands, we help them grow sales, optimize operations, and embrace digital transformation. Our teams bring technical expertise, innovative digital tools, and a customer-focused approach to drive exceptional results. We don’t just distribute products—we create solutions that strengthen client-customer relationships and build lasting success.

Materials Manager will support Company goals and better serve our clients by developing end-to-end supply chains, drive efficiencies, support development of innovative tools, and build strong partner relationships. The Materials Manager will work directly with our commercial teams, clients, and logistics partners to add value throughout the supply chain, enhance customer experience and create reporting that can drive business behavior.

Responsibilities

• Develop inventory plans by utilizing current demand inputs and collaborating with Commercial teams, Finance, commercial partners, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure inventory is managed according to constraints and meets internal targets aligned with the business strategy.
• Maintain purchase order (PO) plans, schedule deliveries, and ensure the efficient delivery of inventory, services, and cost objectives.
• Monitor and track inventory levels, service levels, surplus/obsolete inventory, inbound OTIF performance, and any other relevant KPIs to identify variance from goals. Use all available resources to analyze root causes and recommend possible actions to improve KPI results.
• Analyze changes in demand and initiate changes to supply chain master data elements impacting the supply plan, such as safety stock settings, lead times, stocking strategy, etc.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to provide regular updates on inventory projections, purchasing forecasts, and lead weekly PO review meetings to discuss and recommend purchases and mitigation strategies. Escalate to leadership any issues that arise.
• Initiate and lead process improvement projects to drive better efficiencies and yield improvement in KPIs.
• Identify ways to improve supply planning processes and tools for assigned areas.
• Understand distribution processes and constraints, and set supply parameters to drive availability (e.g., Lead Times, SS, MOQs etc.) in D365.
• Prepare supply constraints and recommend resolution scenarios for discussion in the cross-functional S&OP processes.
• Monitor and provide actionable feedback on supplier performance to commodity management team on a quarterly basis.
• Evaluate impact of demand opportunities and risks.
• Keep a close eye on working capital.
• Strengthen 3PL service provider relationships through connections with shipping, demand planning, and customer service.
• Manage inventory to efficiently serve our end-customers while considering operational costs and working capital.
• Manage end to end PO execution orders including confirmation review, shipping, and receiving.
• Build reports using CRM and ERP data to visualize insights into business teams.
• Proactively create operational efficiencies through technology and automation.

Requirements

• Bachelor s degree in Operations / Supply Chain Management / Engineering / Business or related field
• 3-5+ years of experience in areas such as production scheduling, inventory management, purchasing, manufacturing, and/or supply/operations planning is preferred
• Strong adaptability, creativity, and drive to succeed
• Strong team player; motivated, curious, and extremely customer centric
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Analytical and problem-solving ability
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across internal and external organizations.
• Experience presenting to leadership.
• Professional experience managing supply chains in a B2B environment.
• Experience developing purchase plans and managing working capital.
• Experienced in use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Preferred Skills

• APICs certification is a plus
• Strongly data-driven and root-cause analysis focused mindset, process management and ownership.
• Proven ability to lead and facilitate meetings with a diverse audience, quickly synthesizing information to help drive consensus and actionable items.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills to effectively interact with Demand Planning, Inbound Logistics & Sourcing teams
• We offer competitive benefits: 2 medical plan offering with generous employer contributions, 100% employer paid dental, and vision for employees, and 401k with company match.
• Vacation – Annual accrual is 80 hours, prorated based on start date.
• Sick Time – 1 hour for every 40 hours worked
• Paid Holidays - New Year’s Day, MLK Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Location & Commitments

• Full-time, permanent
• Report to office HQ in Rosemont, IL
• Work Schedule: 4 days in office, 1 day remote

Additional Essential Functions

• Attendance/Punctuality - Consistently at work and on time; Ensures work responsibilities are covered when absent; Arrives at meeting and appointments on time.

Other Duties

• Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Affirmative Action/EEO Statement

It is the policy of Xenon arc to grant equal employment opportunity to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, national origin, ethnicity, marital status, parental status, disability, veteran status, age, religion, political affiliation, gender, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation. It is the intent and desire of Xenon arc that equal employment opportunity will be provided in all phases of the employment relationship.