Production Planning And Scheduling Manager

Aston Carter•Riverside, CA

5d•$126,000 - $140,000•Onsite

About The Position

This role leads the integrated production planning function and owns the master production schedule for a large, complex manufacturing operation. The position establishes and runs the Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP) process, strengthens planning and ERP data discipline, and translates high-level demand into executable work-center and station-level plans. In a restart and scale-up environment, the role balances capacity, inventory, lead times, and operational constraints to support reliable customer deliveries and improve planning effectiveness. The role maintains integrated master schedules across multiple customer programs and product platforms that share constrained resources, incorporating demonstrations, R&D builds, pilots, validation periods, and production releases into one capacity plan. It is a hands-on planner or master scheduler role rather than a people-manager position, with the potential to build and lead a team as the organization grows. This is a permanent, fully onsite position based in Riverside, California, within a large transit-bus manufacturing environment. Core hours are typically 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with some flexibility as business needs require. The role involves significant time walking the production floor and frequent collaboration with cross-functional teams. Protective footwear and other safety-compliant attire are required on the production floor.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
At least 6 years of experience in production planning, scheduling, capacity planning, or master scheduling.
Experience in automotive or aerospace manufacturing environments.
Deep understanding of manufacturing processes, production planning, inventory management, material availability, capacity planning, customer delivery commitments, and SIOP.
Proven ability to manage capacity constraints, production schedules, material requirements, and manufacturing execution workflows.
Strong knowledge of ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Epicor, or similar, including planning master data and scheduling logic.
Experience in low-volume, high-mix, engineered-to-order manufacturing environments with complex capacity constraints and long planning horizons.
Ability to incorporate equipment availability, planned downtime, and maintenance constraints into capacity plans in coordination with Facilities and Maintenance.
Advanced proficiency with Excel and ERP reporting tools for scenario planning, capacity modeling, and performance analysis.
Demonstrated ability to lead SIOP or similar integrated planning processes across cross-functional teams.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, including the ability to work effectively with incomplete or evolving data.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills with Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, Materials, Production, Quality, Finance, and Operations leadership.

Nice To Haves

Experience as a production planner or master scheduler in a complex manufacturing environment.
Experience in automotive or aerospace transit or vehicle manufacturing.
Hands-on experience leading or supporting ERP implementations, particularly Epicor, including stabilization and continuous improvement.
Track record of designing and implementing planning processes, standard work, and escalation rules that improve schedule reliability.
Experience establishing and running weekly planning performance reviews and operations management routines.
Ability to develop production ramp scenarios accounting for model mix, propulsion variants, labor requirements, station capacity, buffers, and delivery impacts.
Comfort working in restart and scale-up environments where requirements and priorities may shift frequently.
Interest in building and mentoring a planning team over time as the organization grows.

Responsibilities

Own and manage the master production schedule, aligning backlog, forecasts, capacity, materials, operational constraints, and delivery commitments.
Establish and lead the SIOP process, including assumptions, scenario recommendations, decision documentation, and follow-through.
Obtain leadership approval for major commercial, spending, and capacity trade-offs and maintain alignment to an integrated plan.
Partner with Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, Materials, Production, Quality, Finance, and other stakeholders to maintain a unified production plan.
Develop production ramp scenarios covering customer build-slot allocation, model and propulsion mix, labor, station capacity and buffers, production rates, and delivery impacts.
Establish schedule approval and change-control rules, protect the near-term schedule, and manage changes within delegated authority.
Escalate schedule conflicts affecting customer commitments, spending, or capacity with recommended options for Operations leadership.
Ensure scheduling activities support safety, quality, and regulatory requirements.
Own the Clear-to-Build process, confirming that released schedules are supported by required approvals, engineering releases, BOMs and drawings, engineering changes, materials, tooling, labor, station capacity, and quality requirements.
Implement readiness signoffs from responsible functions, including Procurement confirmation of critical material commitments, before schedule release.
Hold schedule releases when required conditions are unmet and escalate exceptions with documented risks, owners, and recovery actions.
Translate the master schedule into detailed work-center and station-level execution plans.
Engage regularly with Manufacturing leadership on the production floor to validate progress, identify constraints, and adjust plans.
Verify planning-critical BOM and lead-time inputs with Engineering and Procurement, assign discrepancies to data owners, and drive resolution.
Establish ERP planning data standards and validation routines for BOMs, routings, lead times, calendars, and planning parameters.
Maintain planning-owned ERP parameters while coordinating technical BOM ownership with Engineering and supplier commitments with Procurement.
Lead planning aspects of Epicor implementation, stabilization, and ongoing improvement so system logic reflects operational reality.
Use advanced Excel and ERP reporting tools for scenario planning, capacity analysis, and data-driven decisions.
Act as the escalation point for complex scheduling and production planning issues across programs and product platforms.
Use reporting, capacity modeling, and scenario analysis to identify bottlenecks, constraints, risks, and recovery opportunities, refining assumptions as data improves.
Provide early warning of schedule, procurement, and cross-program risks and communicate data-driven recommendations.
Establish and lead a weekly planning performance review, reporting planned versus actual station starts and completions, Clear-to-Build status, aging or stalled work in process, and delivery risks.
Track constraints by age, severity, owner, and recovery date and drive timely resolution.
Design and implement planning processes, standard work, meeting cadences, responsibilities, escalation rules, and a phased improvement roadmap.
Lead cross-functional adoption of planning processes, resolve barriers with functional leaders, and use performance results to reduce delays, improve flow, and increase schedule reliability.
Integrate demonstrations, R&D builds, pilots, validation periods, and production releases into a coherent capacity plan.
Make sound planning decisions amid imperfect data, evolving requirements, and shifting priorities; balance customer, operational, and business priorities and propose realistic alternatives to infeasible commitments.
Perform hands-on production planning and scheduling work, with potential to build and lead a planning team over time.