Materials Manager

🧱 We're Hiring: Materials Manager📍 Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote) 🕒 Employment Type: Full-Time 💼 Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior-Level 🌐 Work Arrangement: Fully RemoteAbout UsWe are an operations and supply-chain focused organization committed to ensuring the availability, quality, cost efficiency, and optimal flow of materials required to support production, projects, logistics, and customer commitments.Our teams collaborate across Materials Management, Procurement, Supply Chain, Planning, Inventory, Warehousing, Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, Finance, and Logistics to optimize material availability while controlling inventory, costs, risks, and working capital.The RoleWe are seeking an experienced Materials Manager to lead material planning, procurement coordination, inventory management, warehouse interfaces, supplier performance, material availability, and materials-flow optimization.The successful candidate will ensure the right materials are available at the right quantity, quality, location, and time, while minimizing excess inventory, shortages, obsolescence, carrying costs, and supply-chain disruption.Key ResponsibilitiesLead and manage the organization's materials-management function.Develop and implement a comprehensive materials-management strategy.Establish material-availability objectives aligned with production, project, and customer requirements.Coordinate closely with Supply Chain, Procurement, Planning, Production, Engineering, Quality, Warehousing, Logistics, and Finance.Develop material-management policies, procedures, standards, and controls.Establish material-planning and inventory-management frameworks.Ensure uninterrupted availability of critical materials.Monitor material requirements against demand forecasts, production schedules, project plans, and customer orders.Review Material Requirements Planning (MRP) outputs and exception reports.Validate material requirements and planned orders.Identify material shortages, excesses, obsolete items, and supply risks.Develop corrective actions for material shortages.Coordinate with Procurement on purchase orders and supplier commitments.Ensure materials are ordered according to approved requirements and lead times.Review supplier confirmations and delivery schedules.Monitor open purchase orders and expected delivery dates.Escalate delayed or at-risk materials.Develop recovery plans for critical shortages.Coordinate material expediting activities where necessary.Maintain appropriate safety-stock levels based on demand variability, lead times, criticality, and service requirements.Establish inventory policies and stocking strategies.Optimize reorder points, minimum/maximum levels, economic order quantities, and safety stocks where applicable.Analyze demand patterns and consumption trends.Review inventory turnover and days of supply.Identify slow-moving, excess, obsolete, and non-moving materials.Develop strategies to reduce excess and obsolete inventory.Coordinate disposition of obsolete materials.Identify opportunities to transfer, reuse, return, resell, or dispose of surplus inventory where appropriate.Monitor inventory accuracy.Establish inventory-control standards and procedures.Coordinate cycle counting and physical inventory activities.Investigate inventory discrepancies.Identify root causes of inventory inaccuracies.Implement corrective actions to improve inventory integrity.Ensure material transactions are accurately recorded in ERP, MRP, WMS, and related systems.Establish appropriate material master-data standards.Review item codes, descriptions, units of measure, specifications, lead times, planning parameters, and sourcing information.Identify and eliminate duplicate material records.Ensure material master data is complete and accurate.Establish controls for new-item creation and material changes.Coordinate with Engineering and Product teams on Bills of Materials (BOMs).Ensure BOMs are accurate, current, and aligned with approved engineering specifications.Review engineering changes that affect material requirements.Assess inventory and supply impacts of Engineering Change Orders.Coordinate material transitions during product changes.Manage phase-in and phase-out of materials.Minimize obsolete inventory resulting from engineering or product changes.Develop material-replacement strategies where necessary.Evaluate material availability and supply risk during new-product development.Participate in product-launch planning.Ensure materials are available before production or project launch.Coordinate prototype, pilot, and pre-production material requirements.Monitor launch readiness and material risks.Develop contingency plans for critical materials.Identify single-source materials and high-risk components.Develop alternative sourcing and substitution strategies.Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)Performance will be measured through a combination of supply, inventory, cost, quality, and operational KPIs, including:Material availabilityMaterial-shortage rateProduction downtime caused by material shortagesInventory accuracyInventory turnoverDays of inventory on handSafety-stock accuracyExcess inventoryObsolete inventorySlow-moving inventoryInventory valueWorking capital tied up in inventorySupplier on-time deliverySupplier lead-time adherenceMaterial-quality acceptance rateMaterial rejection rateMaterial scrap and wasteMaterial consumption varianceMaterial cost reductionPurchase-price varianceMaterial-planning accuracyMRP exception resolutionPurchase-order confirmation accuracyCritical-material risk closureEmergency-purchase frequencyExpediting costWarehouse material-handling efficiencyLine-side material availabilityInventory write-offsNew-product material readinessEngineering-change material transition accuracyCandidate ProfileThe successful candidate should have experience in materials management, supply chain, inventory management, procurement, manufacturing, planning, logistics, warehousing, or a closely related discipline.This role is suitable for a commercially and analytically minded supply-chain leader who can balance material availability, inventory investment, supplier risk, operational requirements, and cost performance.What You'll BringProven experience managing materials, inventory, supply chain, or production-planning functions.Strong understanding of MRP, ERP, inventory planning, and material-requirements management.Experience managing material shortages and supply constraints.Strong knowledge of inventory-control principles.Experience with safety stock, reorder points, minimum/maximum levels, EOQ, and inventory optimization.Strong understanding of demand and supply planning.Experience managing supplier delivery and material availability.Strong supplier-performance and expediting capabilities.Experience with warehouse and material-flow processes.Knowledge of BOMs, engineering changes, material substitutions, and product lifecycle management.Strong understanding of material master data.Experience managing excess, obsolete, and slow-moving inventory.Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.Experience with inventory accuracy and cycle-count programs.Strong cost-analysis and working-capital-management skills.Experience with ERP/MRP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or equivalent.Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.Experience with Power BI, Tableau, SQL, or supply-chain analytics tools is advantageous.Knowledge of Lean, Six Sigma, Kanban, JIT, or other continuous-improvement methodologies is advantageous.Strong project-management skills.Excellent communication and stakeholder-management capabilities.Strong negotiation and supplier-management skills.Strong leadership and team-development capabilities.Ability to work effectively across Procurement, Planning, Operations, Warehouse, Finance, Quality, and Engineering.Ability to work independently and effectively within a fully remote environment.Relevant degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, Materials Management, or a related discipline.APICS/ASCM CPIM, CSCP, CIPS, or equivalent professional certification is advantageous.Knowledge of UAE/GCC supply-chain and import environments is advantageous.Arabic language proficiency is advantageous.