Director of Materials

🛩️ Director of Materials

📍 Los Angeles County, CA

💼 Full-time \| On-site \| Relocation assistance provided

Why Join Us

My client is a high-growth aerospace and defense-tech company developing advanced autonomous hardware platforms for mission-critical applications. The team has scaled quickly over the past year and is now looking to bring on a

Director of Materials

to lead and scale its materials organization across production planning, inventory, logistics, warehouse operations, shipping/receiving, and material flow.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can build structure, implement best practices, identify gaps, and help support production scale-up in a fast-moving manufacturing environment.

What You'll Own

• Own and scale core materials management functions, including materials planning, inventory, warehouse, logistics, shipping/receiving, and production planning.
• Identify team gaps and present data-backed recommendations for hiring, process improvements, and operational changes.
• Build and improve processes around SIOP / S\&OP, demand planning, material readiness, and production alignment.
• Develop KPIs, dashboards, and reporting around inventory health, shortages, material risk, and team performance.
• Partner cross-functionally with manufacturing, quality, engineering, program management, and supply chain teams.
• Support new product introduction (NPI) of complex hardware into manufacturing and production.
• Improve material flow, inventory accuracy, planning discipline, and overall operational accountability.
• Ensure all shipping activities comply with aerospace industry standards and regulatory requirements.
• Lead, mentor, and scale a hands-on team in a high-growth aerospace manufacturing environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Operations, Business, Engineering, Supply Chain Management, or related.
• 10\+ years of experience in materials management, supply chain, logistics, production planning, or operations within aerospace, defense, or highly regulated manufacturing.
• 5\+ years of leadership experience managing and developing cross-functional materials, planning, logistics, inventory, warehouse, or production teams.
• Strong understanding of SIOP / S\&OP, production planning, inventory management, logistics, and material flow.
• Proven experience directing warehouse operations, shipping/receiving, inventory control, and materials availability.
• Strong track record building out processes from the ground up in a scaling manufacturing environment.
• Experience using data to identify gaps, reduce risk, and improve performance.
• Comfortable operating in a hands-on manufacturing environment while supporting fast-paced operational execution.
• Highly analytical, self-directed, and able to bring structure and clarity to ambiguous environments.

Nice to Have

• Experience with aerospace components, defense hardware, robotics, autonomous systems, or similarly complex technical products.
• Exposure to DoD, government-funded, or export-controlled programs.
• Lean Manufacturing, operational excellence, APICS, or Six Sigma certifications.

ITAR Clause

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce, as applicable.