Senior Material Planner

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Senior Material Planner to join our Material Control team at Lotus, based at our Hethel headquarters in Norfolk.

In this role, you'll play a key part in ensuring the smooth and efficient supply of materials to support our vehicle manufacturing operations, helping us deliver production schedules while maintaining cost-effective inventory levels.

Working closely with suppliers and internal teams, you'll be responsible for maintaining material availability, managing supplier schedules and proactively resolving supply challenges to minimise disruption to production.

You'll also support the Material Planning Team Supervisor and provide day-to-day leadership to Material Planners, helping ensure our manufacturing operations run efficiently.

What You'll Be Doing

• Support the Material Planning Team Supervisor in the day-to-day management of material planning activities.

• Oversee the creation and management of supplier material schedules, ensuring materials arrive on time and in the correct quantities.

• Manage and support Material Planners, ensuring supplier adherence to agreed delivery schedules.

• Monitor supplier capacity, scheduling constraints and potential bottlenecks, taking proactive action to maintain material continuity.

• Work closely with Purchasing, Supplier Quality Assurance (SQA), Logistics, Material Handling and suppliers to coordinate material requirements.

• Balance inventory levels and material availability to support production requirements while managing working capital effectively.

• Liaise with suppliers regarding production volumes, shipping schedules, build requirements and delivery arrangements.

• Identify and resolve potential supply issues to minimise production downtime and disruption.

• Independently review and adjust supplier schedules to maintain material availability and improve performance.

• Build strong working relationships with internal stakeholders and external suppliers.

What We're Looking For

Essential Skills & Experience

• Strong knowledge and practical experience of ERP and MRP systems and processes.

• Good understanding of Bill of Materials (BoM) structures.

• Knowledge of procurement practices and commercial awareness.

• Understanding of supply and demand planning and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP).

• Ability to manage multiple priorities and resolve complex material planning challenges.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to anticipate potential issues and develop effective solutions.

• Excellent attention to detail, organisational skills and follow-through.

• Confident communication and stakeholder management skills.

• A proactive, customer-focused approach with strong systems thinking.

Desirable

• Experience working within a manufacturing or automotive material planning environment.

• Experience coordinating supplier readiness and capacity activities.

• Flexibility to undertake occasional supplier visits where required.

About You

We're looking for someone who is organised, proactive and comfortable working in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

You'll have a strong understanding of material planning processes and the confidence to take ownership of supplier schedules, resolve issues and make decisions that support production requirements.

You'll also enjoy working collaboratively with colleagues across Production, Logistics, Purchasing, Quality, Engineering and Finance, building positive relationships and ensuring everyone is working towards the same objectives.

With strong attention to detail and a solutions-focused mindset, you'll be able to anticipate challenges, manage competing priorities and contribute to the continuous improvement of our material planning operations.

Interested in Joining Lotus?

If you're an experienced Material Planner looking to take the next step in your career, we'd love to hear from you.

Join our team at Hethel and play an important role in supporting the production of our iconic Lotus vehicles.