Materials Manager

Department: Manufacturing

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Oakville, Ontario HQ

Reporting To: Marjorie Toth

Compensation: $125,000 - $150,000 / year

Description

About You:

You are a proactive and detail-oriented leader in the supply chain arena who thrives in fast-paced, mission-driven environments. You bring experience in biomedical or electro-mechanical manufacturing and are comfortable owning the planning and inventory management functions end to end—from demand and production planning to inventory, warehousing, and NPI activities. You are skilled at coaching others, overseeing and coordinating internal and external manufacturing production schedules, navigating ERP systems, and driving process improvements that enhance both efficiency and compliance. Your strategic and analytical mindset, ability to organize and manage a diverse portfolio of materials, and collaborative approach make you a trusted partner across engineering, manufacturing, quality, and operations teams.

What You’ll Do:

Top 5 Responsibilities

• Manage the flow of materials from suppliers to production, ensuring inventory levels meet operational needs without overstocking
• Lead the development and maintenance of the overall master production schedule, balancing production capacity, and inventory levels with internal and external customer demand
• Own MRP/ERP planning and master data setup for new product development and design transfer, ensuring clean, scalable structures.
• Plan and coordinate prototype and production schedules, aligning timelines across suppliers, engineering, and manufacturing.
• Drive continuous improvement in planning processes, tools, and KPIs, and mentor team members on best practices.

Production Planning

• Set inventory targets and oversee procurement of raw materials, components, and services to support reliable production and on-time delivery.
• Analyze capacity, material availability, and constraints to identify risks and proactively adjust production plans.
• Evaluate production performance against plan, recommend trade-offs, and adjust schedules in collaboration with manufacturing leadership.
• Partner with operations and finance to balance service levels, excess and obsolete risk, and carrying costs.
• Oversee execution and tracking of manufacturing/work orders and support ongoing cost tracking and variance analysis.

NPI & Master Data Management

• Develop and own dashboards and KPIs that track planning, inventory management and warehouse activities related to new and existing products.
• Coordinate between suppliers, engineering, and operations to ensure smooth prototype, pilot, and launch builds.
• Ensure accurate and robust master data in the MRP/ERP system, including parts, BOMs, suppliers, jobs, and locations, and champion data governance.
• Establish processes and best practices for Master Data management.
• Work with manufacturing teams to set up appropriate routings and data to enable capacity planning and schedule execution.

Demand Planning & Compliance

• Collaborate with commercial, operations, and finance stakeholders to develop, refine, and challenge demand forecasts.
• Align supply plans to demand scenarios, highlighting risks, opportunities, and required mitigation actions.
• Ensure supply chain documentation is maintained in an audit-ready state and aligned with quality and regulatory expectations.
• Track and archive supplier change notifications, ensuring GMP and quality compliance across all documentation and system updates.

Warehousing, Logistics & Process Testing

• Monitor stock levels, coordinate deliveries of inbound materials and optimize inventory to maintain smooth production flow.
• Collaborate with warehouse team to maintain a high level of inventory control through inventory transfer, cycle counts, and discrepancy resolution as needed, ensuring planning alignment.
• Work with shipping and receiving personnel to process RMAs and customer-owned materials in line with plan and capacity.
• Lead MRP/ERP implementations, developing processes and reporting to manage and monitor effective MRP execution
• Troubleshoot system and operational planning issues, resolving them independently or in coordination with IT and cross-functional partners.

Continuous Improvement & Leadership

• Lead initiatives to enhance production planning and supply chain processes, with measurable impact on service, cost, and inventory.
• Standardize planning workflows, SOPs, and reporting to support scalability and cross-training.
• Mentor and support junior planners or coordinators, sharing best practices and fostering a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
• Partner on cross-functional projects (e.g., NPI, technology transfer, system upgrades) as the planning lead.

What You’ll Need:

• Bachelor’s degree in science, engineering, business, or supply chain management, or equivalent experience.
• Significant experience supporting supply chain development and NPI in a manufacturing setting, ideally biomedical or electro-mechanical.
• Strong grounding in logistics and inventory management, and production planning fundamentals.
• Demonstrated experience with ERP/MRP systems and comfort working with complex data sets.
• Strong organization, analytical, problem-solving, and data management skills, with the ability to translate insights into decisions.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and align cross-functional stakeholders.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a dynamic environment.

Bonus Points For:

• Experience in regulated industries such as medical devices, diagnostics, or biotechnology.
• Familiarity with GMP, ISO 13485, or other quality and regulatory standards.
• Advanced ERP/production planning experience, including configuration or process design.
• Contributions to new product launches or technology transfer programs as the planning lead.
• Experience with Lean, Six Sigma, or other continuous improvement tools.
• An appreciation for puns and a positive, solutions-driven mindset.

Why Join Us?

At Vital Bio, you will:

• Lead the planning backbone that supports breakthrough diagnostic products from development through commercialization.
• Collaborate daily with multidisciplinary teams in a supportive, trust-based culture that values clarity and ownership.
• Take end-to-end ownership of planning processes and contribute to high-impact, cross-functional initiatives.
• Grow your leadership and technical skills in a modern, agile company shaping the future of global healthcare.

Compensation will be determined based on the individual’s demonstrated experience, education, training, relevant certifications or licensure, and other applicable business and organizational factors.

This role is a current, onsite vacancy.