Demand and Supply Chain Manager - North America

Life Scientific

32d•Remote

About The Position

Life Scientific is a company that reverses-engineer and manufactures high-quality, off-patent crop protection products. They aim to provide farmers with sustainable and affordable solutions and are focused on transforming the crop protection industry through innovation. The company culture is described as intensely human, with a mix of shared leadership and fun, fostering collaboration and enjoyment. They are looking for someone entrepreneurial to build and lead the planning, supplier governance, and supply chain execution for their fastest-growing and most strategically important market in North America. This role is central to the company's growth in the region and involves working closely with Commercial teams and colleagues across the organization to build new customer and supplier relationships. The role requires integrating demand and production volume data, directing procurement and MRP execution, and representing Supply Chain in supplier qualification and performance governance. The company operates a lean, global virtual factory model with Supply Chain leadership based in Europe, meaning the role has a high degree of autonomy and requires building processes and relationships from the ground up. The Demand and Supply Chain Manager will be a critical partner to the US and Canada commercial leads, ensuring no sales opportunity is lost due to supply chain gaps. This individual will also need to forge working relationships across various internal departments such as Regulatory, R&D, Quality, Technical Operations, and Finance to ensure North America is well-represented within the wider Life Scientific organization. The role ensures seamless movement of materials, intermediates, and finished products through the North American supply network, from procurement to customer delivery, while building the necessary governance and planning discipline for regional growth.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Engineering, or a related field.
5–8 years of experience in supply chain, demand planning, procurement, or production planning, ideally within agrochemical, chemical, or manufacturing industries.
Demonstrated experience integrating demand and supply data and translating it into procurement/production plans.
Experience managing supplier relationships and qualification/performance processes, ideally in a virtual factory context.
Solid understanding of ERP/MRP systems.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across time zones, functions, and seniority levels.
Proven ability to represent a function in cross-functional and strategic settings, and to operate effectively in a virtual/hybrid, fast-paced environment.
Comfortable operating with a high degree of autonomy in a lean, geographically distributed organisation, with core Supply Chain leadership based in Europe.
Track record of building or scaling a function, market, or process from an early stage (e.g., a new market launch, a start-up environment, or a first-of-its-kind role), and thriving on the ambiguity that comes with it.

Nice To Haves

Exposure to toll manufacturing or contract production environments.
Experience with demand planning or S&OP processes.
Experience with Lean or Continuous Improvement methodologies.
Familiarity with import/export logistics, international shipping, and customs compliance.
Advanced Excel and reporting skills, and experience of implementing AI-based solutions.

Responsibilities

Own the integration of demand forecasts and production volume data into the North American supply and production plan, working closely with Commercial and Customer Service.
Lead Material Requirements Planning (MRP) execution, translating demand signals into purchase and production schedules.
Support any design and development of new MRP tooling.
Provide visibility to Commercial and Customer Service on product availability and timelines, flagging risk early.
Represent North American Supply Chain in supplier qualification and approval decisions, assessing capacity, lead time, reliability, minimum order quantities, and flexibility.
Own supplier performance monitoring and participate in the audit programme for North American suppliers and tollers.
Maintain and act on supplier and material data in SAP (lead times, pricing, incoterms, payment terms).
Lead the North American response to supplier or toller non-conformances (SCARs), coordinating root cause investigation and corrective action with Quality and Technical Operations.
Escalate significant supply, quality, or compliance issues to the Supply Chain Transformation Lead and relevant stakeholders in a proactive and collaborative manner.
Place purchase orders and track on-time delivery (OTIF) performance by supplier, resolving late or incomplete shipments.
Coordinate material and finished goods transfers between tollers, warehouses, and customers; liaise with 3PLs, freight forwarders, customs partners and internal stakeholders.
Ensure purchasing, customs, and shipping documentation (Bills of Lading, SDS, Certificates of Analysis) is complete, accurate, and traceable.
Act as the primary, on-the-ground Supply Chain partner to North American Country Leads as they establish and grow customer relationships in a market still being built out, ensuring supply chain readiness is never the reason a sales opportunity is lost.
Partner directly with Country Leads on the supply chain dimensions of new and developing customer relationships (lead times, minimum order quantities, stock positioning), so commercial conversations with customers are grounded in what Supply Chain can realistically deliver.
Proactively identify and propose supply chain solutions that help win or protect business, rather than waiting to be asked, and join customer or sales conversations directly where supply chain input will help close the deal.
Anticipate and respond to the ambiguity of a scaling market, flexing into supply chain activities outside a narrow remit (e.g., import/export documentation, freight and logistics troubleshooting, ad hoc supplier issues) as priorities demand, particularly in the early stages of the region's build-out.
Build close, trusted working relationships with Country Leads so they feel confidently supported through the uncertainty that comes with new-market and new-customer development.
Build strong, trust-based working relationships with R&D, Regulatory, Quality, Technical Operations and Finance colleagues across Europe and other markets, so that North America's needs are understood and represented in global decision-making.
Act as a connector between the North American business and Life Scientific's global functions: bringing global standards, processes, and initiatives to life locally, and feeding regional insight and lessons learned back into the wider organisation.
Represent North American Supply Chain on cross-functional and strategic initiatives (e.g., portfolio or process improvement projects), contributing a regional perspective to company-wide decisions and building visibility and credibility for North America across the business.
Build relationships with manufacturing partners, tollers, and 3PL warehouses across the region.
Maintain MRP and logistics data in SAP to ensure accuracy of planning and inventory visibility.
Own KPI tracking and reporting (OTIF, lead time accuracy, exception management) for the North American region.
Contribute to process improvement projects within the global supply chain team.
Lean into new technology and tools to support transformational growth sustainably and effectively.