PURPOSE
The Manager of Supply Chain owns the day-to-day flow of material and information from supplier to customer dock, leading demand planning, supply and production planning, inventory, procurement, and logistics across both plants. This role runs the Sales & Operations Planning process that ties those functions together and connects them to the commercial and financial plans.
This is a hands-on builder's role. The company has doubled repeatedly, a second plant is still ramping, and planning today runs more on spreadsheets than systems. The position exists to install real rigor - a credible forecast, a constrained supply plan, disciplined inventory targets, and a monthly S&OP cadence the executive team runs the business on - built in NetSuite and run through automated, AI-assisted workflows and live dashboards, working directly in the data while leading the team.
SCOPE
The Manager of Supply Chain manages planning, procurement, inventory control, and logistics across the Carson City, Nevada and Louisville, Kentucky plants, and works closely with the Sr EVP Operations and both Plant Operations Managers. This role collaborates cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, R&D, and Quality to reconcile the demand plan, the supply plan, and the financial plan, and to serve three distinct demand channels - national retail, airline, and private label/co-manufacturing - from a two-site, coast-to-coast network.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP)
- Run the monthly S&OP cycle end to end - demand review, supply review, reconciliation, and executive S&OP - with a published calendar, standard inputs, and decisions that stick.
- Prepare and present a single, reconciled volume and capacity view at the executive S&OP meeting, with clearly framed gaps, options, and recommendations.
- Reconcile the demand plan to the financial forecast with Finance, and drive resolution of variances rather than restating them.
- Help mature the process over time from S&OP toward Integrated Business Planning, extending the horizon to 18–24 months to support capital and capacity decisions.
Demand Planning & Forecasting
- Own the consensus demand forecast across retail, airline, private label, and e-commerce, at the item, customer, and DC level.
- Build and maintain statistical baselines, then govern the overlay process so that judgment from Sales adds value rather than noise - measure it with Forecast Value Add.
- Forecast promotions, seasonal programs, and new item launches, including look-alike modeling where no history exists; own the post-event read-back.
- Publish forecast accuracy and bias by segment, planner, and customer through live dashboards built on NetSuite data, and run the cadence that closes the gaps.
- Translate airline contract volumes and retail category resets into a demand signal the plants can actually plan against.
Supply, Production & Capacity Planning
- Own the constrained supply plan across Carson City and Louisville - master production scheduling, rough-cut capacity planning, and line loading.
- Set and continually refine network sourcing rules: which plant makes what, for which customers, and at what cost to serve as the Louisville ramp continues.
- Optimize run strategy, cycle stock, and campaign lengths to balance changeover cost, allergen and gluten-free segregation requirements, and code-date freshness.
- Maintain the 18-month capacity model; flag capacity cliffs early enough that they become capital decisions rather than customer-service failures.
- Manage co-manufacturing and co-packing partners as an extension of the network - capacity commitments, schedules, performance, and cost.
Inventory Management
- Own inventory strategy and targets for finished goods, WIP, ingredients, and packaging across both sites and all third-party warehouses.
- Set segmented safety stock and service targets by channel and by item velocity; clearly present the trade-off between service, freshness, and cash to the Sr EVP Operations and executive team.
- Drive shelf-life and code-date discipline, FEFO rotation, and an aggressive slow-moving and obsolete inventory review with Sales and Finance.
- Lead cycle counting and inventory accuracy programs; own the plan for physical inventories and reconciliation to the books.
Procurement & Supplier Management
- Manage sourcing and supplier relationships for ingredients (flour, oils, salt, seasonings, specialty gluten-free inputs), packaging, and indirect spend.
- Negotiate agreements, manage contract coverage and pricing mechanisms on commodity-exposed inputs, and partner with Finance on hedging and cost-forecasting where appropriate.
- Build a dual-source and risk-mitigation plan for single-sourced critical materials; own supplier scorecards for quality, service, and cost.
- Ensure supplier compliance with food safety, allergen control, organic and non-GMO certification, and customer-specific requirements, in partnership with Quality.
- Deliver an annual cost productivity program without compromising product quality or brand promise.
Logistics & Distribution
- Own inbound and outbound logistics - carrier strategy, freight procurement, mode selection, and the third-party warehouse network.
- Design the distribution network to serve national retail and airline commissaries efficiently from a two-plant, coast-to-coast footprint.
Own transportation and warehousing cost per pound, on-time delivery, and customer compliance performance including retailer OTIF programs and chargeback exposure.
Qualifications
QUALIFICATIONS & EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Industrial Engineering, Business, or a related field.
- MBA or master’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations, or Engineering is preferred.
Experience & Skills
- 7+ years of progressive supply chain experience in food, beverage, or consumer packaged goods manufacturing, including 2+ years leading and developing teams.
- Demonstrated experience running a full S&OP or IBP cycle - preparing the inputs, facilitating the reviews, and getting decisions made.
- Deep hands-on experience across both demand planning and supply/production planning; you have personally built forecasts and constrained supply plans, not only managed people who did.
- Experience in a multi-plant manufacturing network, including network sourcing decisions and capacity planning.
- Working knowledge of food manufacturing realities: short shelf life and code dating, allergen and gluten-free segregation, lot traceability, FSMA/GFSI/SQF requirements, and USDA/FDA labeling implications for sourcing.
- Track record of delivering measurable results in service level, inventory, and cost - with the numbers to back it up.
- Ability to travel approximately 25%, including regular trips between Nevada and Kentucky.
Preferred Qualifications
- Must be 18 years of age or older
- APICS CPIM/CSCP, ASCM, or IBF certification.
- Experience in snacks, bakery, or another high-velocity, short-shelf-life category.
- Experience serving club and mass retail (Costco, Kroger, Walmart) and their compliance and OTIF programs.
- Experience with airline, foodservice, or other contract/institutional channels alongside retail.
- Private label or co-manufacturing experience, from either side of the relationship.
- Experience scaling supply chain through a period of rapid growth or a major greenfield plant startup.
- Commodity risk management exposure - grain, oils, or agricultural inputs.
Technology
- Strong NetSuite fluency - item and inventory records, BOMs and work orders, demand and supply planning, saved searches, SuiteQL, and reporting - plus advanced Excel and data modeling.
- Hands-on experience using AI tools (Claude preferred) to automate analysis, reporting, and routine planning work.
- Familiarity with Claude MCP connections to business systems such as NetSuite, and comfort using them to pull, analyze, and act on live data.
- Demonstrated ability to build artifacts and usable dashboards that people run the business on - not static reports.
- Experience implementing NetSuite planning capability or a NetSuite-integrated planning tool in a mid-market environment is beneficial.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS & WORK ENVIRONMENT
This position is preferred to be on-site in Louisville, Kentucky or Carson City, Nevada; the company will consider a remote-based candidate for the right fit. On-site work includes regular time in manufacturing and warehouse environments where personal protective equipment, good manufacturing practices, and food safety protocols are required, and where noise, temperature variation, and standing or walking for extended periods are normal. Occasional early, late, or weekend hours are expected around production and customer needs, and reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Stellar Snacks is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Reasonable accommodations are available to applicants and employees with disabilities.
HOW SUCCESS WILL BE MEASURED
Targets will be set collaboratively in the first 90 days once baselines are established. The following reflects the intent of the role:
Metric
Why It Matters
Year-One Target
Forecast accuracy (WMAPE) at item/DC level
Drives every downstream plan; the single biggest lever on service and working capital
Baseline in 90 days; +8–10 pts improvement
Case fill rate / OTIF to retail and airline customers
Directly tied to customer scorecards, chargebacks, and shelf retention
≥ 98.5% case fill; ≥ 96% OTIF
Finished goods inventory (days on hand) and slow/obsolete
Frees cash and protects code-date integrity on a short-shelf-life product
−15% DOH with service held flat or better
Schedule adherence and changeover hours
Protects throughput across two plants and holds down conversion cost
≥ 95% adherence; −20% changeover hours
Landed cost per pound (ingredients, packaging, freight)
Protects gross margin as volume and network complexity grow
Deliver an annual productivity target of 3–5%
First-Year Priorities
- Establish a credible, measured demand forecast and publish accuracy by segment.
- Stand up a monthly S&OP cadence the executive team makes decisions in - not a status meeting.
- Define network sourcing rules between Carson City and Louisville and quantify the cost-to-serve difference.
- Reset inventory targets on a segmented basis and take out excess without touching service.
- Get full value from NetSuite's planning capability and deliver a recommendation on any gaps that require additional tools.
- Replace recurring manual spreadsheet reporting with automated, AI-assisted workflows and live dashboards built on NetSuite data.
- Build the team structure required to support the next stage of growth.
WHO THRIVES HERE
- You are comfortable being both the architect and the bricklayer. At our size, the Manager builds the model and then runs the meeting.
- You bring calm judgment to trade-offs between service, cost, and cash, and you can explain the trade-off to a Sales VP and a CFO in language each of them accepts.
- You are direct. You will tell the executive team what the plan actually supports, including when the answer is no.
- You are equally credible in a conference room and on a production floor at 5 a.m.
- You want to build something. A polished, fully staffed, fully systematized supply chain is not what you are walking into.
- You reach for automation first. If a report gets built by hand twice, you'd rather build a dashboard or an AI workflow so it never has to be built by hand again.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Base salary range: $100,000 – $120,000 annually, depending on experience and demonstrated scope.
Annual bonus: 20% of base, tied to company performance and to the service, inventory, and cost metrics above.
Relocation assistance is available for the right candidate.
Benefits include medical, life insurance dental, and vision coverage; 401(k); paid time off and holidays;
Nevada has no state income tax!
