Operational Planning & Control Director

CIRCOR Aerospace & Defence•Warren, MA

4h•Onsite

About The Position

The Operational Planning & Control (OPC) Director is responsible for leading the integrated planning, scheduling, production control, and order-to-execution functions to ensure safe, predictable, and efficient flow of materials and work through the factory. This role owns the Master Production Schedule (MPS), production readiness processes, WIP flow, job release, and daily/weekly execution alignment across Planning, Production, Supply Chain, Program Management, and Quality. The OPC Director ensures that operational plans are realistic, resource-aligned, and proactively managed to support on-time delivery (OTD), cost control, and quality performance in a complex, low-volume/high-mix manufacturing environment supporting defense customers. The ideal candidate is data-driven, deeply collaborative, disciplined, and highly proactive, with exceptional communication and problem-solving skills.

Requirements

Strong understanding of MRP/ERP systems, master scheduling, and capacity planning.
Proficiency in BOM management, routers, and manufacturing documentation flows.
Expertise in production control, WIP management, and constraint-based scheduling.
Familiarity with ISO 9001 / AS9100 principles, ITAR and defense/aerospace requirements.
Strong project management skills, including the ability to prioritize, balance, and manage multiple efforts with strong results/goal orientation. Uses time effectively, prioritizes and organizes workflow; can orchestrate multiple activities at once. Agility and personal adaptability with the ability to successfully manage multiple priorities with a high sense of urgency in a rapidly changing environment.
Solid analytical skills and solution-driven thinking; collects and researches data; uses intuition and experience to complement data. Makes good decisions based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience and judgment.
Exceptional cross-functional communication skills (Production, Supply Chain, Program Mgmt).
Able to lead effective daily huddles, escalation conversations, and decision-making forums.
Strong coaching and mentorship abilities.
High emotional intelligence when interacting with shop floor operators and technical teams.
Enjoys working hard; is action oriented and full of energy; enjoys challenges; drives for results.
Versatile, Flexible and willing to work within constantly changing priorities with enthusiasm.
Calm under pressure — speaks clearly, concisely, and factually.
Proactivity — identifies risks early and escalates before issues become fires.
Accountability mindset — owns outcomes and doesn't hide behind excuses.
Process discipline — insists on standards, documentation accuracy, and schedule integrity.
Respectful partnership — works well with Production, not above them.
Transparency — no surprises, communicates openly and often.
Bias toward flow — understands that WIP is the enemy of predictability.
Curiosity — asks questions, seeks to understand root causes, digs deeper than symptoms.
ERP/MRP systems (SAP, Epicor, Oracle, IFS, Infor, Dynamics, or similar).
Microsoft Excel (advanced), PowerPoint, and data visualization tools.
Familiarity with digital work instructions, dashboards, and capacity models.
U.S. Citizen
A bachelor's degree (BA) from a four-year college or university
10+ years' experience in Manufacturing Operations
5 years minimum supervisory experience

Responsibilities

Own the Master Production Schedule (MPS) and ensure weekly updates reflect true capacity, constraints, and material readiness.
Perform disciplined SIOP process using capacity vs. load analysis and facilitate constraint-based planning across work centers.
Maintain frozen horizons, scheduling rules, and disciplined schedule integrity.
Manages yearly improvements in monthly Line Item Schedule Accuracy via leading improvements to the SIOP process.
Lead the development of the planning function from the ground up, designing and implementing processes rather than inheriting existing ones.
Provide direct oversight of the planning team and its leadership, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and accountability for performance.
Oversight of core planning activities, including demand planning, production scheduling, capacity planning, and materials planning.
Drive standardization of planning processes, metrics, and reporting to improve visibility and decision-making.
Collaborate cross-functionally with operations, procurement, and inventory control to ensure seamless execution of plans.
Implement continuous improvement initiatives.
Ensure planning accuracy, adherence to timelines, and responsiveness to changes in demand or supply conditions.
Oversee inventory management processes, including material receipt, planning for each PAFP, quantities, reorder triggers, storage locations, drop-off points, and overall material flow.
Ensure system and transactional inventory accuracy; requires strong experience with ERP systems, particularly on the production and materials management side, with the ability to provide oversight.
Support and guide the current Inventory Manager, who is new in the position, so prior hands-on experience in a similar role is essential.
Ensure complete BOM, documentation, tooling, router accuracy, and material readiness prior to job release and the on-going improvement of performance via Problem Solving Leadership.
Establish and enforce job release gates aligned with capacity and flow priorities.
Partner with Engineering, Supply Chain, and Quality to resolve readiness gaps.
Lead a team of Production Controllers to ensure smooth flow and correct job routing.
Monitor WIP health, queue times, bottlenecks, and work center utilization.
Drive daily execution priorities based on constraints, customer demand, and material availability.
Key leader in the achievement of both yearly Inventory Turns & OTD goals through detailed action planning and execution leadership.
Oversee OTE Specialists creating full execution packages for complex builds.
Direct production experts to manage risk in the areas of tooling, programming, machining, weld, assembly and testing risks – balancing daily and longer-term problem-solving efforts.
Ensure work centers receive complete and accurate job kits, drawings, and QC requirements in support of Quality, OTD, and Productivity goals.
Partner with Program Management to clarify demand changes or special customer requirements.
Lead daily production readiness and execution huddles.
Publish daily factory priority list and weekly production plan as inputs to Production MWE system.
Own communication channels between Planning, Production, Supply Chain, and Quality.
Identify risks early and lead coordinated recovery plans (material, capacity, quality, engineering).
Hold clear escalation paths for shortages, documentation gaps, and bottleneck issues.
Partner with Supply Chain on supplier expedites and alternative sourcing when necessary.
Own performance metrics including: Schedule accuracy / SIOP Adherence, Plan of Day/Week Adherence, OTD for internal production milestones, Queue time reduction.
Support CI/OpEx events (Kaizen, VSM, 5S, WIP reduction, SMED, etc.).
Drive yearly improvements in Employee Engagement Survey Results via problem solving, listening, and communication skills.
Lead, coach, and develop Planners, Production Controllers, and OTE specialists.
Build a culture of proactive thinking, problem-solving, and disciplined adherence to processes.
Provide structured 1:1s, performance feedback, and development plans.
Analyzes and evaluates factory throughput problems and leads the implementation of sustainable solutions.
Maintains metric-driven performance management system, promoting ownership and accountability amongst team members for their area’s metrics.
Facilitates monthly Retrospectives resulting in Continuous Improvement action planning activity.
Supports Collaborative Problem-Solving process execution in Monthly Ops Review with other Operational Managers.