Director of Planning & Fulfillment

Rocket Lab Corporation•Long Beach, CA

2d•$170,000 - $215,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Material Planning Director leads a team with responsibility for ensuring raw materials, and components are delivered supporting production needs, efficiently. This role will fully understand our supply chain and production operations. They will develop inventory strategies and drive execution. The Material Planning Manager requires engagement with Rocket Lab US and New Zealand across the extended supply chain.

Requirements

12+ years of progressive supply chain experience in a leadership role owning material planning, production planning, or fulfillment functions.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent years of work experience (16+ years total work experience).
Deep, hands-on expertise in MRP/ERP systems and planning fundamentals: demand planning, supply planning, order policy, BOM management, and fulfillment execution.
Proven track record building and scaling planning teams in a high-mix, low-volume, fast-paced manufacturing environment.
Exceptional cross-functional influence; successfully aligning engineering, production, procurement, and finance on competing priorities under schedule pressure.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience in aerospace, defense, or other high-consequence, regulated manufacturing industries.
Experience managing multi-site or globally distributed planning operations, including international freight and customs coordination.
Exposure to AI-enabled supply chain tools, digital transformation initiatives, or ERP implementation and optimization projects.
APICS CPIM, CSCP, or equivalent professional certification.
Demonstrated experience with production readiness frameworks: line of balance, manufacturing readiness level (MRL), or similar.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end multi-site material planning and fulfillment operations across all production programs, including launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturing.
Set and achieve program-level material readiness targets: line of balance, clear-to-build status, and on-time kitting metrics.
Partner with Procurement to align supplier lead times, purchase planning message cadences, and material flow to production demand.
Translate engineering change orders and program schedule changes into actionable supply and fulfillment plans with minimal disruption to production.
Establish and own material shortage management processes, including root cause analysis and corrective action loops.
Build and publish executive-level material health dashboards and weekly risk visibility reporting for COO and program leadership.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives across planning and fulfillment identifying systemic gaps in ERP and closing them.