Indirect Material Manager

General Motors • St. Catharines, ON

7d • CA$104,000 - CA$154,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Indirect Material Manager is responsible for leading indirect materials operations across three Canadian manufacturing plants while directly managing an Indirect Material Leader at each site as well as overseeing a 3rd Party Team at each site. This role provides strategic and day-to-day leadership for plant indirect materials execution, inventory optimization, production support, safety, cost performance, team development, and cross-functional alignment. The position is expected to operate as an onsite people leader and build a high-performing organization that delivers consistent results across multiple plant locations. This leader will work closely with plant leadership, maintenance, engineering, facilities, finance at each site as well as purchasing, suppliers, and third-party partners to ensure indirect material availability, minimize risk to production, improve inventory health, and drive continuous improvement. The role also requires strong leadership in change management, standardization, and technology adoption across the Canadian plants, including support for AI-enabled tools, data visibility, and process improvements.

Requirements

• 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Successful completion of a Four-year degree from college or technical school; or four or more years of experience in indirect material lead role at a GM plant or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Strong knowledge of indirect material policies, inventory processes, operational excellence, and driving results in a manufacturing environment.
• Experience managing contractors and represented hourly employees in a plant environment.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with all levels of leadership and plant personnel.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and project-management capability.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Excel, along with experience using plant and inventory systems such as SAP and/or Maximo.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading indirect materials across multiple plants or large-scale operations.
• Knowledge of Power BI and emerging digital tools to improve visibility, reporting, and action tracking.
• Strong labor-relations judgment and experience partnering within unionized environments.

Responsibilities

• Manage indirect materials operations across three Canadian plants with accountability for safety, people, inventory, cost, quality, responsiveness, and customer support.
• Directly manage and develop 2–3 indirect material leaders, building a culture of accountability, engagement, coaching, and operational excellence.
• Standardize expectations, leader routines, reporting, and problem-solving disciplines across indirect material.
• Ensure plant indirect material requirements are fulfilled to support maintenance, facilities, manufacturing engineering, and production operations.
• Oversee the approval and creation of purchase requests, confirmation of purchase orders, delivery tracking, and indirect material shortage escalation management.
• Partner with plant teams and Master Data Management to support indirect material at each plant.
• Drive inventory optimization through safety stock reviews, min/max alignment, reorder point adjustments, over-max reduction, obsolete material management, and usage-based analysis.
• Manage and lead cross-plant actions to reduce stock-outs, premium freight, excess inventory, and unnecessary new-part purchases through improved planning, repairable parts usage, and Share-the-Spare collaboration.
• Support launch readiness and end-of-life transitions to ensure indirect material strategies align to plant needs and production continuity.
• Work with suppliers to improve lead-time performance, reduce MOQ impacts, and strengthen on-time delivery performance.
• Manage issue resolution for critical plant support needs, including off-shift and weekend escalation planning when required.
• Ensure compliance with internal controls, GMS standards, BPD/scorecard objectives, safety processes, and annual audit requirements at all 3 plants.
• Lead and reinforce strong labor and contractor-management practices, including support of local agreements, employee development, performance management, and training where applicable.
• Use data, dashboards, and digital tools to improve material visibility, decision quality, and operational execution, including Power BI, SAP/Maximo, Glean, Copilot, and related systems.
• Champion continuous improvement and adoption of tools, processes, and problem-solving methods that improve inventory management, material visibility, and execution across the three plants.
• Build and sustain a strong safety culture across all three sites.
• Develop leaders and teams through coaching, mentoring, feedback, and talent planning.
• Create strong partnerships with plant stakeholders and serve as a trusted liaison between sites, customers, and corporate partners.
• Drive consistency in execution while balancing local plant needs and business priorities.
• Lead through ambiguity, influence across functions, and elevate performance through clear expectations and disciplined follow-through.

Benefits

• Paid time off including vacation days, holidays, and supplemental benefits for pregnancy, parental and adoption leave.
• Healthcare, dental and vision benefits including health care spending account and wellness incentive.
• Life insurance plans to cover you and your family.
• Company and matching contributions to a Defined Contribution Pension plan to help you save for retirement.
• GM Vehicle Purchase Plan for you, your family, and friends.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager