Sr. Manager, Production Controls

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare-earth permanent magnets for a secure, resilient future. With a focus on national security and economic resiliency, we serve critical industries such as defense, aerospace, and automotive powering a high-technology future. Vulcan Elements is building a team of ambitious professionals committed to Mission Focus, Technical Excellence and Integrity.

This role establishes material flow, WIP locations, storage and staging design, the ERP and warehouse management configuration, and the inbound, WIP and outbound organizations do not yet exist. The Manager designs them during construction and then leads the organization that runs them.

Responsibilities

• Material Flow and Plant Layout
• Design end-to-end material flow — inbound receiving through finished goods shipment — including bulk chemical and rare earth feedstock handling, inter-area WIP movement, and finished magnet packaging and dispatch.
• Define WIP locations, buffer sizing and staging areas between Metallization, Magnet Production and Machining, and physically confirm them on the floor with Construction and the Operations areas before turnover.
• Establish the storage strategy: racking, bulk storage, hazardous and controlled material segregation, environmental and humidity requirements, and floor marking and location addressing.
• Specify material handling equipment — forklifts, tuggers, lifts and containers — and the traffic patterns, aisle widths and pedestrian separation that make movement safe at rate.
• ERP and WMS Configuration and Deployment
• Own functional configuration of the ERP and warehouse management environment: item masters, units of measure, storage locations and bins, put-away and picking logic, and transaction types.
• Build and govern item, location and BOM-linked material data, including the master data controls that keep it accurate as volume scales.
• Establish lot genealogy from incoming rare earth feedstock through finished magnet, supporting customer, defense and rare earth sourcing documentation requirements.
• Deploy barcode or RFID labeling, license plating and mobile scanning so transactions are captured at the point of movement rather than reconstructed later.
• Partner with Automation & Digital Manufacturing on ERP–MES integration for production consumption, WIP moves and finished goods receipt, and with Finance on inventory valuation and cost flow.
• Own testing, training, go-live and stabilization. Transaction discipline on the floor determines whether inventory records are trustworthy.
• Warehouse and Material Movement Operations
• Own inbound receiving: carrier scheduling, dock management, receipt and inspection coordination with Quality, bulk chemical transfer, and hazardous material handling and storage compliance.
• Own WIP material movement between process areas — kitting, lot staging, container management and delivery to point of use — to a defined service standard.
• Own outbound operations: finished goods packaging, labeling, load planning, carrier management and export documentation, including the handling and shipping requirements specific to magnetized product.
• Establish cycle counting, physical inventory and reconciliation practices, and own inventory record accuracy as a measured outcome.
• Planning, Scheduling and Inventory Control
• Build the materials planning function: demand signals, reorder policy, safety stock strategy and supplier delivery performance management.
• Establish production scheduling interfaces with the three Operations areas so material availability supports the build plan rather than constraining it.
• Own inventory levels and turns across raw material, WIP and finished goods as a deliberate working capital position.
• Organization Design, Build and Development
• Recruit, select and onboard the organization as it scales to 167, sequenced against the line startup and volume ramp.
• Build the training and qualification program: forklift and powered equipment certification, hazardous material handling, system transaction discipline, and station-by-station qualification with requalification intervals.
• Safety, Budget and Performance
• Own safety performance for the material handling workforce — powered industrial truck operations, pedestrian separation, manual handling and ergonomics, and hazardous material handling.
• Own the Production Controls operating budget, including labor, overtime, packaging materials, freight and equipment lease and maintenance.
• Own the function’s performance measures: inventory record accuracy, on-time shipping, material availability to the line, dock-to-stock cycle time and freight cost per unit.
• Manage third-party logistics, carrier and packaging supplier relationships.
• Responsibilities and tasks outlined are not exhaustive and may change as determined by the needs of the business

Qualifications

• Required
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Industrial Engineering, Business or a related field; equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience will be considered.
• 8+ years in manufacturing materials management, warehousing or supply chain operations, including five or more leading multi-shift material handling teams.
• Direct experience designing plant material flow and warehouse layout, ideally during construction or a major reconfiguration.
• Strong command of inventory control practice: cycle counting, record accuracy, lot traceability and physical inventory.
• Experience with hazardous material receiving, storage and shipping, and the associated regulatory requirements.
• Accountability for powered industrial truck safety programs and operator certification.
• Operating budget ownership with demonstrated cost control.
• Willing and able to be on the floor daily through construction, commissioning and ramp, including off-shift presence.
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities.
• Preferred
• Demonstrated ownership of an ERP or WMS implementation. You have configured item and location master data, defined transaction flows, and driven adoption through go-live.
• Greenfield or major expansion experience — designing material flow into an empty building rather than optimizing an existing one.
• Experience in a defense, aerospace or regulated supply chain with chain-of-custody, country-of-origin or DFARS-type documentation requirements.
• Familiarity with bulk chemical handling and with shipping magnetized product under DOT and IATA requirements.
• APICS CPIM, CSCP or CLTD certification.
• Lean or Six Sigma certification with applied material flow or inventory projects.
• Experience deploying barcode, RFID or automated material handling systems.
• Physical and Environmental Requirements

The position requires regular presence on the production floor and the ability to navigate all areas of the facility. Candidates must be able to climb stairs, stand and walk for extended periods, and work in environments that may be hot, humid, or noisy. The role also requires the use of personal protective equipment, including respirators, and adherence to all applicable safety policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.

Employees must be able to complete required fit testing, wear appropriate PPE for the duration of assigned tasks, and respond safely to changing conditions within the production environment.