Materials Manager

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JOB SUMMARY:

Develops and provides operational strategic direction for North American Product Business Unit Materials team responsible for leading and facilitation efforts in Purchasing, Supplier Quality and Logistics in an effort to support world-class practices.  Develops long-term corporate goals and translates them into short-term plans in support of business objectives. Prepares and maintains yearly business plans and budget.  Develops, maintains, and coordinates a quality supplier base.  Supports corporate strategies by assessing, developing and monitoring supplier base for quality systems.  Maintains leadership role working with suppliers and Product Business Unit to coordinate operations and/or project requirements.  Leads, manages, and maintains appropriate level of staff and manages materials function to ensure world-class quality and on-time delivery at a competitive cost.  Develops, manages, master production schedule by utilizing input from sales forecast customer demand, material availability, capacity planning to ensure management goals and objectives are met.  Researches, recommends, and implements new policies, products, and strategic changes in order to meet project and program long-term objectives and goals.  Establishes planning and control measures in Total Quality Management (TQM) format to improve quality, cost, and delivery.  Understands customer requirements, expectations, and contracts.  Develops and implements materials policies, procedures, and practices in support of company and customer standards.  Performs other duties as necessary in support of business objectives.  

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The duties listed below will be performed at both levels within the progression.  At level I, work involves providing operational managerial leadership for respective area.  Represents assigned function by setting operational level strategy and determining how to implement strategic functional directives.  Responsibilities represent one or more related disciplines, processes or functional areas.  Decisions involve substantial and broad impact/risk to the organization at a corporate level.  At level II, responsibilities are similar, but at a larger scope and can be measured by increased budget responsibility, staff count, and complexity of multiple disciplines, processes, and/or functional areas of responsibility.  Decisions involve substantial and broad impact/ risk to the organization, typically at a corporate and/or global level.
1.    Develops and provides operational level strategic direction for North American Product Business Unit Materials activity.  Leads and facilitates efforts in support of world-class practices.  Manages department wide programs and interfaces globally to develop new business growth opportunities.  Researches and recommends new products, processes, systems, policies, and procedures to pursue in the future.

2.    Leads, manages and monitors all or some of the following:  inventory levels, on-time shipment of finished goods, warehousing/shipping of goods, procurement/receipt/storage of raw materials, and/or transportation/distribution methods.  Coordinates production/planning activities of staff to ensure that departmental needs are met in a timely manner.

3.    Develops long-term corporate goals and translates them into short-term plans in support of business objectives.  Prepares and maintains yearly business plans and budget for purchasing team in support of corporate goals and objectives.

4.    Develops, maintains, and coordinates a quality supplier base.  Maintains leadership role working with suppliers and Product Business Unit to coordinate operations and/or project requirements in support of product development, supplier partnerships, cost reductions, and quality assurance.  Assists suppliers with problem resolution in their areas and provides customer liaison support.

5.    Manages Materials function as assigned; ensures support of Operations and/or programs in Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VA/VE), suppler improvement, and post-launch support.  Leads and manages staff; plans, organizes, directs, implements, and maintains group strategies and objectives.  Maintains appropriate level of staff support necessary to meet business and budgetary goals and objectives.  Provides leadership and support to staff and assists in employees’ skill development.

6.    Directs use of quality standards with the Corporate Materials function.  Represents one or more Corporate Materials functions in implementation and maintenance of Magna Donnelly Quality System and Program Management Process.

7.    Manages purchasing function to ensure world-class quality and on-time delivery at a competitive cost.  Researches, recommends, and implements new policies, products, and strategic changes in order to meet project and program long-term objectives and goals including staffing, suppliers, products/processes, technologies, program management, etc.  Works closely with many departments to provide leadership and coordination for purchasing staff.

8.    Establishes planning and control measures in TQM format, focusing on improvements in quality, cost and delivery.  Monitors and controls cost, promotes cost savings, and provides leadership in support of goals and VA/VE efforts driven by tool area and other functions.  Thoroughly understands customer requirements, expectations, and contracts.  Develops and implements purchasing policies, procedures, and practices in support of company and customer standards.

9.    Performs other duties as necessary in support of business objectives.  Negotiates and/or oversees negotiation of favorable contracts with world-class suppliers.  Guides and develops relationships between Materials and other key functional areas.

JOB SPECIFICATION SECTION
EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, SKILLS

Level I

1.    Bachelor’s degree in business or related field including four years materials experience; or equivalent.  Demonstrate current knowledge of world-class practices in materials management.  Experience in automotive industry preferred.

2.    Eight years diverse professional and managerial experience including financial/budget responsibility, management leadership and strategic decision making/leadership.  Demonstrated project management skills and proven financial capabilities to maintain quality, cost, and timing of programs.

3.    Demonstrated ability to develop a cohesive, world-class materials team.  Demonstrated ability to lead and develop others through support, training, etc.  Must be able to manage staff toward departmental goals.

4.    Demonstrated strong communication and negotiation skills to work with internal and external contacts at various levels within organizations to represent the company in a professional manner and sell concepts to customers and strategies to internal management.  Must be able to work with peers in a positive, cooperative way and develop and maintain productive relationships with key functional areas.

Level II  (in addition to above requirements)

1.    Master’s degree including eight years experience in materials management; or equivalent.

2.    Possess high degree of knowledge and expertise in area of materials management, manufacturing, product/process design, operations, quality, planning, etc.  Must thoroughly understand, and be able to communicate to others, the interrelationship of Materials with other departments.

At Magna, we believe that a diverse workforce is critical to our success. That’s why we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We hire on the basis of experience and qualifications, and in consideration of job requirements, regardless of, in particular, color, ancestry, religion, gender, origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability or gender identity. Magna takes the privacy of your personal information seriously. We discourage you from sending applications via email or traditional mail to comply with GDPR requirements and your local Data Privacy Law.

As part of our commitment to a fair, consistent, and efficient recruitment process, we may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in the initial screening of applications submitted through our Workday system. These tools help identify qualifications and experience that align with the role requirements. Please note that AI is used solely to support our recruiters. Final decisions are always made by the hiring manager and the hiring team. Importantly, no applicant data is shared externally through these AI tools. All information remains securely within our systems and is handled in accordance with our privacy and data protection policies.

If you have any questions or concerns about this process, feel free to contact our Talent Attraction team.