Job Description:

Manufacturing Planner

Complex Systems | Defence Manufacturing | Production Planning | SAP

Location: Ampthill, Bedfordshire | Permanent

The Opportunity

We are recruiting an experienced Manufacturing Planner to support the manufacture and delivery of complex, high-value products within a leading defence and advanced-engineering environment.

This is a key operational role responsible for developing and maintaining robust production plans across multiple programmes.

You will create detailed short-term schedules, produce six-week capacity forecasts and use SAP to ensure the effective utilisation of labour, machinery, materials and specialist skills. Working closely with Production, Engineering, Supply Chain and Programme teams, you will identify potential constraints, maintain material readiness and ensure manufacturing activities remain aligned with customer commitments and programme milestones.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain detailed production schedules across multiple manufacturing programmes.
• Identify planning risks, capacity constraints and potential delivery issues, ensuring these are escalated appropriately.
• Produce and maintain six-week capacity plans covering labour, machinery and specialist skills.
• Work collaboratively with Production and Engineering teams to improve resource utilisation and manufacturing throughput.
• Coordinate production schedules with planned machine maintenance and equipment availability.
• Interpret Integrated Master Schedules to align manufacturing capability with programme requirements.
• Lead Line of Balance reviews and engage cross-functional stakeholders to improve delivery performance.
• Ensure production plans support customer requirements, contractual milestones and programme priorities.
• Support daily and weekly production-planning reviews, monitoring performance against agreed schedules.
• Manage SAP demand and production-planning activities throughout the project lifecycle.
• Monitor material availability and maintain readiness to support on-time production and delivery.
• Provide planning and capacity information to support bids, forecasts and Basis of Estimate development.
• Maintain accurate planning data and provide clear reporting on progress, risks and resource requirements.

Skills and Experience

The successful candidate will ideally demonstrate:

• Previous experience in production planning, manufacturing planning or scheduling within a complex manufacturing environment.
• Strong working knowledge of SAP Production Planning and Material Control.
• Proven experience in capacity planning, resource management and production scheduling.
• The ability to interpret Integrated Master Schedules and translate programme requirements into achievable production plans.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
• Strong analytical, organisational and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent stakeholder-management and communication skills.
• The confidence to challenge plans, highlight risks and influence cross-functional teams.
• A structured and proactive approach to managing competing programme priorities.

Desirable Experience

Experience in any of the following areas would be advantageous:

• Aerospace, defence, engineering or another highly regulated manufacturing sector.
• Subcontract order management.
• Microsoft Project.
• Manufacturing engineering or production operations.
• Supporting bids, forecasts and Basis of Estimate development.
• Planning the manufacture of complex, low-volume and high-value products.

Why Apply?

This is an excellent opportunity to play an important role in the delivery of complex engineering programmes within a highly regulated manufacturing environment. You will work with a broad range of technical and operational stakeholders while directly influencing production performance, resource utilisation and customer delivery.

If you are an experienced Manufacturing or Production Planner with strong SAP and capacity-planning expertise, we would be interested in hearing from you.