Material Planner

Sterling Engineering, Inc.

Bolingbrook, IL
1 day ago

$25–$35 Per Hour

Highlights

This role will focus on coordinating daily production schedules, verifying material availability, investigating inventory shortages, and ensuring production teams have the materials needed to maintain daily output. Qualifications: 2+ years of experience in production control, materials management, inventory management, production planning, or a related manufacturing role.

Numbers & Facts

Location	Bolingbrook, IL
Industry	Staffing/Employment Agencies
Salary	$25–$35 Per Hour
Company Size	500 to 999 employees
Year Founded	1969
Website	http://www.sterling-engineering.com

Description

Title: Material Planner

Location: Bolingbrook, IL
Hire Type: Contract
Pay Rate: 25-35/hr.

Benefits: As a contract employee of Sterling, you are eligible to receive a Full Employee Benefits Package that includes paid time off, paid holidays, 3 medical plans to choose from, dental & vision plans, 401(k), and an Employee Stock Ownership (ESOP) plan.

Sterling Engineering is looking for a Material Planner in Bolingbrook, IL. This opportunity is within a manufacturing environment supporting production operations and material planning. This role will focus on coordinating daily production schedules, verifying material availability, investigating inventory shortages, and ensuring production teams have the materials needed to maintain daily output.

Job Duties:

Manage the daily Clear To Build sequencing process ensuring only units with confirmed material availability are released to production.
Review part availability reports and prioritize production sequences based on inventory status and daily production requirements.
Communicate daily production sequences and material availability updates to production teams and supervisors.
Identify units delayed by material shortages and track them through resolution.
Investigate material shortages to determine root causes, including inventory discrepancies, supplier delays, purchase order status, and system errors.
Maintain and update shortage tracking databases to ensure issues are documented and visible across departments.
Escalate material shortages that may impact production schedules, providing details on affected parts, quantities, and expected recovery timelines.
Collaborate with Planning, Purchasing, and Warehouse teams to resolve shortages and ensure materials reach the production floor.
Perform regular physical inventory checks to verify warehouse quantities against system records.
Identify misplaced or missing inventory and coordinate corrections to inventory quantities and location records.
Monitor recurring inventory discrepancies and recommend improvements to inventory accuracy and material flow.
Identify opportunities to improve production sequencing, material availability, and inventory management processes.
Support continuous improvement initiatives involving BOM accuracy, inventory integrity, and production planning.

Qualifications:

2+ years of experience in production control, materials management, inventory management, production planning, or a related manufacturing role.
Working knowledge of Bills of Materials (BOMs), inventory transactions, and shop-floor material flow.
Experience working with ERP/MRP systems; JD Edwards experience strongly preferred.
Ability to review inventory and material availability reports, compare demand against supply, and identify discrepancies.
Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to investigate issues and follow through to resolution.
Excellent communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally with production, planning, purchasing, and warehouse teams.
Familiarity with cycle counting and inventory accuracy programs preferred.
Exposure to manufacturing execution or Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) systems is a plus.
Knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, visual management, and continuous improvement practices preferred.
Comfortable spending significant time on the production floor and in warehouse environments, including regular walking, standing, and physical inventory verification.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information.

About Company

Sterling Engineering has been a trusted partner for engineering, project management, and staffing solutions for over five decades. We provide exceptional engineering/technical recruitment and engineering project services to clients nationwide:

Engineering & Technical Recruitment - With our focus on engineering, technical, and IT, Sterling has the in-depth knowledge, industry expertise, and robust employee pipeline it takes to rapidly find talent for even the most difficult to fill positions. Sterling’s extensive recruitment methodology allows us to engage the most talented employees in the marketplace. We offer exciting work and career-building opportunities for our candidates, along with expert support at every step of the process.

Engineering Project Services – Our experienced, multi-disciplined team of project managers, engineers, and designers, led by licensed Professional Engineers (PE), provide project management, engineering, design, and Commissioning, Qualification, and Validation (CQV) to manufacturing, OEM, and R&D customers. We work on complex, highly technical projects across a number of industry sectors, and our ability to scale and seamlessly integrate at multiple levels of your organization is what differentiates us.

Sterling offers a unique combination of engineering solutions and Best of Staffing level service to help our clients and talent achieve their goals.