Strategic Short-Term Planning Lead - Manufacturing

L'Oréal; New Jersey; Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 129,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work policy (3 days in office,

Flexible Time Off

VIP access to internal shop

Learning & development opportunities

Employee resource groups

Job summary

L’Oréal in Somerset, NJ is seeking a Manager, Short-Term Planning to lead the site-wide planning team and translate master production horizons into executable daily/weekly schedules for processing and packaging lines. You will collaborate across functions to validate capacity, staffing, materials, and feasibility, driving continuous improvement and readiness for new product launches.

The role requires a Bachelor’s degree in a related field, 5+ years in high-performance manufacturing (cosmetics

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering or Supply Chain discipline preferred.
• 5+ years of experience in a high performance manufacturing facility - cosmetics industry preferred.
• Advanced Excel strongly recommended (Pivot tables, VLOOKUPs)
• Must have strong written/verbal and communication and analytical skills; ability to handle multiple tasks and priorities simultaneously; manage change, provide program management and achieve results.
• Proven ability to develop short and long-range plans that meet established objectives and contribute to the overall goals and mission of the company.
• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to interface with plant and corporate personnel at various organizational levels and external suppliers.

Responsibilities

• Lead the site-wide Short-Term Planning team, reporting to the MSC Department Lead. Set priorities, clarify accountabilities, develop team capability, and ensure consistent planning practices across the site.
• Standardize and formalize site short-term planning processes, including workflows, roles, decision rights, and supporting documentation.
• Partner with DGO to align site planning practices with global processes, support implementation of standards, and address identified gaps.
• Lead planning self-assessments and develop, track, and communicate action plans to close gaps and strengthen process compliance.
• Own the short-term planning process for processing and packaging, translating the Master Planner’s production horizon into a feasible, detailed schedule for equipment such as skids and filling lines.
• Partner with the Master Planner, Logistics Planners, UP Managers, Cell Managers, Quality, HR, and other stakeholders to validate capacity, staffing, materials, and operational feasibility; elevate capacity gaps and risks.
• Oversee schedule execution and adjustments, ensuring the team responds to actual performance and unexpected events—such as late deliveries, quality holds, or equipment constraints—while maximizing delivery against the validated plan.
• Ensure planning readiness for new-product launches and coordinate bulk supply planning for contract-manufacturing activities.
• Daily: Ensure schedules reflect prior-day performance and current constraints; production orders are released to the floor; material call-offs are triggered; and Production and Quality teams are aligned on execution.
• Weekly: Oversee schedule feasibility reviews, extension of the short-term horizon by an additional week, manpower checks, and analysis of plan adherence and root causes.
• Monthly: Ensure the team updates product master data and planning parameters, validates the Master Planner’s proposed plan, reviews the previous month’s realization rate, and agrees improvement actions with UP and MSC teams.
• Lead performance reviews covering Weekly Net Rate, gross production, plan adherence, and root causes; agree and track corrective actions with stakeholders.
• Drive planning strategies and site improvement priorities, including ownership of the WNR Roadmap, improving UP agility, and balancing MTBR, UP EEM, and processing productivity.
• Guide strategic analysis and reporting using Power BI and AI-enabled tools where appropriate; benchmark with other sites and identify opportunities for touchless planning.
• Lead or sponsor process-improvement initiatives that strengthen planning effectiveness, schedule adherence, and operational performance.
• Present strategic process improvements, RCAs, WNR action plans to site, zone and global leadership.
• Oversee workforce planning with UP Managers and HR, including forward-looking requirements for shifts, temporary labor, and weekend coverage.
• Oversee materials planning, including call-offs from external warehousing, and ensure delivery tracking and required quality controls for materials and bulk support the production schedule. Partner with Procurement, Quality, and Processing.
• Ensure the accuracy and governance of planning data and system parameters, including equipment capacity, production opening times, manpower availability, maintenance constraints, and production parameters.
• Lead regular bulk inventory health reviews, identifying blocked or restricted bulk and coordinating assessment, disposition, and follow-up actions to minimize obsolescence, destructions, and other inventory losses.
• Own the monthly bulk inventory budget review, monitoring actuals against budget, explaining variances, and coordinating actions to maintain inventory within approved targets.
• Lead the year-end bulk inventory landing forecast, consolidating current inventory, demand, supply, and planned actions to provide an outlook against budget and year-end targets.

Skills

Advanced Excel

Strong communication

Analytical skills

Planning experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business/Engineering/Supply Chain

Tools

SAP

Job description

L’Oréal in Somerset, NJ is seeking a Manager, Short-Term Planning to lead the site-wide planning team and translate master production horizons into executable daily/weekly schedules for processing and packaging lines. You will collaborate across functions to validate capacity, staffing, materials, and feasibility, driving continuous improvement and readiness for new product launches.

The role requires a Bachelor’s degree in a related field, 5+ years in high-performance manufacturing (cosmetics