Manufacturing Planner

Are you an experienced Manufacturing Planner with strong SAP and production planning experience? Do you enjoy working in a fast-paced engineering environment where your planning expertise directly contributes to the successful delivery of cutting-edge defence programmes?
We are currently recruiting for a Manufacturing Planner to join a leading defence engineering organisation based in Ampthill. Working within the Special Projects business area, you'll play a key role in developing and maintaining robust production plans that support the manufacture of hardware for innovative development programmes.
This is an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of defence manufacturing, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to ensure production schedules, materials and resources are aligned to programme requirements.

The Role

As a Manufacturing Planner, you will be responsible for developing and maintaining production plans that support manufacturing activities across a range of Special Projects programmes.
Key responsibilities include:

• Developing and maintaining daily, weekly and fortnightly production plans to support manufacturing operations.
• Managing SAP demand planning activities from cradle to grave for development projects.
• Raising and managing production orders within SAP.
• Planning and managing material requirements across multiple programmes.
• Monitoring machine and labour capacity to ensure manufacturing requirements can be met.
• Supporting project teams by providing capacity forecasts and planning information during programme delivery and bid activities.
• Managing Lines of Balance (LOB) and Areas of Operation (AOL) across assigned projects.
• Working closely with Manufacturing Engineering, Production Operations and Team Leads to coordinate resource availability.
• Analysing Integrated Master Schedules (IMS) to ensure production plans remain aligned with programme milestones.
• Identifying planning risks and implementing effective solutions to maintain delivery schedules.
• Collaborating with stakeholders across manufacturing, projects and supply chain functions to ensure successful programme execution.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Strong knowledge and experience of SAP Production Planning and Material Control processes.
• Proven experience in production planning, capacity planning and resource management within a manufacturing environment.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including Pivot Tables and VLOOKUPs.
• Experience interpreting and managing Integrated Master Schedules (IMS).
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
• Ability to analyse data and proactively manage production planning risks.
• Experience working closely with manufacturing and production teams.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Experience managing subcontractor orders and external manufacturing suppliers.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Project.
• Experience supporting development, prototype or low-volume/high-complexity manufacturing programmes.
• Knowledge of aerospace, defence or advanced engineering manufacturing environments.
• Understanding of Line of Balance (LOB) planning methodologies.

Working Arrangements

• Based on-site in Ampthill, Bedfordshire.
• Flexible 4-day working week (Monday to Thursday).
• Working within a collaborative production planning team supporting complex defence programmes.

Security Requirements

• BPSS clearance is required to commence employment.
• Candidates must be eligible to obtain Security Clearance (SC).

What's on Offer?

• Fixed-term contract running until the end of May 2027.
• Flexible 4-day working week.
• Opportunity to support cutting-edge defence manufacturing programmes.
• Exposure to advanced production planning and material control activities.
• Collaborative and supportive engineering environment with excellent career development opportunities.

This role would suit an experienced Manufacturing Planner, Production Planner or Material Planner with strong SAP experience who thrives in a fast-paced manufacturing environment and enjoys working closely with engineering and production teams to deliver high-quality results.
Apply today by submitting your CV and a member of our Defence recruitment team will be in touch.