Director of Production Planning, Materials & Purchasing

Director of Planning, Materials & Purchasing.

Reports to: CEO.

Location: [Insert].

Level: Director / Senior Director (peer to Sales, Manufacturing, Product).

We are hiring a Director of Planning, Materials & Purchasing to own delivery commitments, material readiness, purchasing execution, and the systems that underpin them — while acting as a commercial operations leader and steward of the customer experience.

This role is central to a major operational transition. We are implementing Rootstock ERP on the Salesforce platform this year and migrating away from QuickBooks. Planning, materials, purchasing, inventory, and order execution will be redesigned and embedded directly into Salesforce.

A core responsibility of this role is the end-to-end ownership of our Quick Ship program, branded Xico XPress — a curated set of standard product configurations designed to ship on accelerated lead times with high confidence.

This role reports directly to the CEO and operates as a peer to the heads of Sales, Manufacturing, and Product Design. It carries real authority and accountability for what we promise customers — and how reliably we deliver.

This is not a back-office planning role.
This is a systems-owning, decision-making leadership role with immediate risk-reduction responsibility.

Core Mandate:

This role owns delivery credibility and operational truth.

You will:

• Separate commitment from execution.
• Shape delivery promises before they are sold.
• Translate commercial intent into executable, financially disciplined plans.
• Partner with Sales to win the right business.
• Partner with Manufacturing to execute predictably.
• Partner with Finance to enforce inventory, cash, and margin discipline.
• Own the planning and materials backbone of the Salesforce / Rootstock ERP implementation.
• Own and govern Xico XPress as a strategic commercial capability.

If a ship date is missed due to planning, materials, purchasing, or system design, this role owns it — and owns the recovery.

Key Responsibilities:

Customer Commitments & Commercial Partnership:

• Act as the steward of customer promises.
• Partner closely with Sales on deal shaping, delivery options, and trade-offs.
• Provide alternatives (phasing, partials, substitutions) rather than binary yes/no answers.
• Ensure customers receive honest, early, and credible commitments.
• Participate in key customer escalations when delivery credibility is at risk.

This role must be trusted by Sales as a commercial ally, not an internal blocker.

Xico XPress (Quick Ship Program Ownership) — Core Responsibility:

• The Director of Planning, Materials & Purchasing is the single owner of Xico XPress.
• Xico XPress is a productized operating capability, not a promotion or exception channel.

Ownership includes:

Program Design & Governance:

• Define and maintain the exact SKUs and configurations eligible for Xico XPress.
• Prevent configuration creep or “almost XPress” exceptions.
• Partner with Product Design to protect BOM stability and simplicity.
• Ensure Xico XPress products are intentionally easy to assemble, kit, and test.

Materials, Inventory & Capacity Readiness:

• Define and maintain inventory buffers for all Xico XPress components.
• Establish min/max, safety stock, and reorder logic in partnership with Finance.
• Ensure material readiness is continuously visible (green / yellow / red).
• Reserve and protect real manufacturing capacity for Xico XPress orders.

Commercial Rules & Discipline:

• Define and publish lead times, order cutoffs, volume limits, and escalation paths.
• Train Sales on how to sell Xico XPress accurately.
• Throttle or shut down the program when constraints are violated.
• Protect customer trust over internal convenience.

Production Planning & Scheduling:

• Own the Master Production Schedule (MPS) and planning horizon.
• Convert demand into realistic build and ship commitments.
• Establish and enforce frozen schedule windows.
• Balance demand, capacity, materials, and financial constraints.
• Serve as the single source of truth for “what we are building and when”.

Materials, Inventory & Purchasing:

• Ensure material readiness against released BOMs.
• Own purchasing execution and supplier performance.
• Lead planners, materials managers, and buyers.
• Identify shortages early and drive recovery plans.
• Reduce expediting, noise, and last-minute surprises.

ERP & Systems Leadership — Salesforce / Rootstock:

This role is a core business owner of the ERP implementation.

Responsibilities include:

• Co-owning the Rootstock ERP implementation on Salesforce.
• Designing planning, materials, purchasing, and inventory processes in-system.
• Enforcing item master, BOM, routing, and data discipline.
• Ensuring planning logic lives in Rootstock — not spreadsheets.
• Partnering with Finance to transition from QuickBooks into ERP-driven financial controls.
• Making and enforcing process decisions required for successful go-live.

This role treats ERP as an operating system , not an IT project.

Finance Partnership & Discipline:

• Partner closely with the central 3LED finance function and future Group Controller.
• Align planning assumptions with:
  • Inventory targets.
  • Working capital constraints.
  • Margin and cost expectations.
• Translate production plans into credible financial outcomes.
• Own visibility into plan vs actual variance (schedule, inventory, cost).

Finance is an ally in enforcing reality , not a reporting burden.

Visibility, Governance & Control:

• Eliminate “black box” behavior in order fulfillment.
• Make delivery risk visible before dates are missed.
• Establish readiness gates for order acceptance and engineering changes.
• Provide concise executive reporting on delivery, materials, inventory, and risk.

Organizational Context:

• Reports directly to the CEO.
• Peer to:
  • Head of Sales.
  • Head of Manufacturing & Quality.
  • Director of Product Design.
• Leads planning, materials, and purchasing teams.
• Strong executive backing to enforce decisions.

What Success Looks Like:

• Delivery commitments are credible and trusted.
• Xico XPress ships on published lead times with high reliability.
• Inventory exposure is intentional, visible, and financially bounded.
• Planning authority no longer sits inside manufacturing.
• Rootstock goes live with disciplined planning and materials processes.
• The business is no longer dependent on heroics or single individuals.

Required Profile:

Experience:

• 10+ years in manufacturing planning, supply chain, or operations.
• Direct ownership of MPS / MRP and delivery commitments.
• Experience operating at peer level with Sales and Manufacturing.
• Demonstrated leadership in ERP implementations (planning/materials modules).
• Strong understanding of finance, inventory, and working capital.
• Experience launching or governing standard-product or Quick Ship programs strongly preferred.

Temperament & Judgment:

• Commercially minded with strong customer instincts.
• Comfortable owning and enforcing boundaries.
• Calm under pressure; not reactive to escalations.
• Willing to throttle or shut down programs to protect credibility.
• Thinks in trade-offs, not absolutes.
• Comfortable making process decisions that upset people.
• Trusted by Sales as a partner who helps them win the right business.

Designing Light That Moves People. At Xico Lighting, we don’t just build lighting — we craft experiences that elevate how people see, feel, and perform. We believe that light is one of the most powerful tools in architecture, and our mission is to push the boundaries of what’s possible with precision-engineered, beautifully designed, human-centric lighting systems.We’re a team of designers, engineers, and makers united by a shared obsession: making light work smarter, look better, and feel more natural. From our breakthrough circadian technologies to our architectural-grade linear systems, everything we build is designed with intention — to bring elegance, simplicity, and performance to modern spaces.We work fast, think rigorously, and execute with craft. Our culture is built on curiosity, respect, and the belief that great ideas can come from anywhere. We believe in empowering talent — giving people the tools, trust, and autonomy to own their impact.