Production Planning Excellence Lead

Job Description:

Production Planning Excellence Lead

Huntsman is seeking a Production Planning Excellence Lead to support the Polyurethanes Division across the Americas from San Jose, Costa Rica. This position will report to the PU Supply Chain Excellence Manager, Americas.

Job Scope

The Production Planning Excellence Lead is the regional process excellence leader and subject-matter expert for production planning, with primary ownership of SAP ECC Production Planning (PP) processes, planning master data, Bill of Material governance, and planner capability development. The role establishes and sustains standard ways of working across demand management, material requirements planning, master production scheduling, capacity planning, production and process order execution, and the integration of PP with Materials Management, Sales and Distribution, Quality Management, Finance, and advanced planning solutions. The ideal candidate combines hands-on SAP ECC PP expertise, strong manufacturing and supply planning knowledge, disciplined process governance, and the ability to convert system capabilities into measurable gains in service, inventory, schedule stability, and operational efficiency.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Own and continuously improve the regional SAP ECC PP process framework, including demand management, planned independent requirements, MRP, master production scheduling, capacity requirements planning, planned-order conversion, production and process order execution, confirmations, goods movements, and planning exception management.
• Establish clear process standards, governance, documentation, decision rights, and controls for production planning activities across plants, while identifying and eliminating non-value-added work.
• Lead Bill of Material governance and improvement, including BOM creation and change controls, usage and validity, component quantities, alternative and production BOMs, multi-level explosion, scrap factors, and alignment with routings, recipes, production versions, costing, and product lifecycle changes.
• Define ownership and data-quality standards for planning master data, including Material Master MRP views, MRP types, lot sizes, procurement types, lead times, safety stock, planning time fences, strategy groups, work centers, capacities, routings or master recipes, and production versions.
• Partner with site planners, Manufacturing, Procurement, Quality, Finance, Commercial, and IT to translate business requirements into standardized SAP ECC PP process designs, functional requirements, test scenarios, cutover plans, and sustainable operating procedures.
• Monitor production planning process health and SAP exceptions, perform root-cause analysis, and coordinate corrective actions for master-data defects, failed transactions, planning instability, material shortages, capacity constraints, and process-control gaps.
• Own and improve planning performance measures, including schedule attainment, plan adherence, schedule stability, capacity utilization, MRP exception aging, material availability, BOM and master-data accuracy, inventory health, and customer service outcomes.
• Build production planning capability through role-based curricula, standard work, job aids, knowledge assessments, coaching, communities of practice, and hands-on development for planners, schedulers, key users, and master-data owners.
• Lead continuous-improvement and digital-enablement initiatives that strengthen production planning, including SAP enhancements, analytics, automation, integration with advanced planning tools, and preparation for future ERP transformation.
• Influence without direct authority, facilitate cross-site decisions, and sustain adoption through structured change management, stakeholder engagement, and transparent performance reviews. Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications

You must possess the minimum qualifications below to be initially considered for this position. Preferred qualifications are additional factors used to identify top candidates.

The candidate must have an unrestricted right to work in Costa Rica.

All candidates are expected to work at our office in AFZ, Heredia on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Please note that there may be occasions where additional office days are required, due specific business needs.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Engineering, Business, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Five or more years of experience in production planning, supply planning, manufacturing planning, SAP business-process ownership, or a closely related field in a multi-site manufacturing environment.
• Strong hands-on proficiency in SAP ECC PP, including demand management, MRP, production or process orders, capacity planning, exception management, and integration with SAP MM and related modules.
• Demonstrated expertise in BOM and production master data, including Material Master MRP views, work centers, routings or master recipes, and production versions.
• Demonstrated ability to design and standardize processes, analyze root causes, define controls, document requirements, support testing, and deliver sustainable process improvements.
• Strong communication, facilitation, change-leadership, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to explain technical SAP concepts to business audiences and influence across functions.
• English proficiency at C1 or C2 level.

Preferred qualifications

• Master’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline.
• APICS/ASCM CPIM, CSCP, or a comparable planning certification.
• SAP PP certification or experience serving as a PP Business Process Owner, functional lead, key user, or implementation lead.
• Experience with process-industry planning, SAP PP-PI, batch manufacturing, campaign planning, or specialty chemicals.
• Experience integrating SAP ECC with advanced planning, manufacturing execution, analytics, or reporting solutions.
• Familiarity with Power BI, SQL, Celonis, or other process-mining and analytics tools.
• Lean, Six Sigma, change-management, or project-management certification.

Huntsman is proud to promote equal opportunity in the workplace All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic.   

All unsolicited resumes presented by recruitment agencies are treated as pro bono information or service and will not be compensated. 

Huntsman is aware of scams involving fraudulent job offers. We do not make job offers until after a candidate has submitted a job application and has participated in an interview. Please be advised that any job offer that requires payment or requires you to deposit a check is likely a scam. If you have questions about any open positions at Huntsman or Rubicon, please visit our Careers website at http://www.huntsman.com/corporate/a/Careers.

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