Inventory Control

Inventory Manager

Department: Operations
Reports To: Director of Operations
Employment Type: Full-Time
Location: Santa Ana, CA

Position Summary

We are seeking an organized, hands-on Inventory Manager to oversee inventory control across our cannabis manufacturing operation. This position is responsible for maintaining accurate inventory of raw materials, cannabis inputs, packaging components, work-in-process (WIP), and finished goods while ensuring materials are available to support production schedules.

The Inventory Manager will work closely with Production, Packaging, Purchasing, Quality, Compliance, and Distribution to maintain inventory accuracy, prevent shortages, identify discrepancies, improve warehouse organization, and ensure inventory movements are properly documented.

This is a hands-on management position. The ideal candidate is highly organized, comfortable working in a fast-paced manufacturing environment, and capable of building systems and holding teams accountable to inventory procedures.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day inventory operations across raw materials, cannabis inputs, packaging components, WIP, and finished goods.
• Maintain accurate physical and system inventory counts.
• Oversee receiving, verification, labeling, storage, transfers, issuance to production, returns, and inventory adjustments.
• Ensure materials and components are available for scheduled production runs.
• Coordinate with Production and Purchasing to identify upcoming material shortages before they impact production.
• Maintain organized inventory locations and ensure all materials have clearly assigned storage locations.
• Implement and maintain bin/location-based inventory controls.
• Establish minimum/maximum inventory levels and reorder points for frequently used materials and components.
• Monitor inventory levels for packaging such as bags, jars, tubes, labels, cartons, hardware, and other production components.
• Track cannabis raw materials and ingredients used in manufacturing.
• Manage inventory of client-owned components and materials used for white-label manufacturing.
• Maintain clear separation and identification of inventory by client, brand, SKU, lot/batch, and inventory status.
• Conduct regular cycle counts and scheduled physical inventory counts.
• Investigate inventory discrepancies and identify root causes.
• Reconcile physical inventory against inventory management systems and production records.
• Monitor inventory adjustments, waste, damaged materials, and production variances.
• Maintain accurate lot, batch, and expiration information where applicable.
• Work with Compliance to ensure cannabis inventory movements and records meet applicable regulatory requirements.
• Assist with inventory reconciliation between internal records and applicable cannabis track-and-trace systems.
• Maintain quarantine, hold, released, rejected, and returned inventory areas.
• Develop and enforce inventory SOPs and warehouse procedures.
• Train employees on proper inventory handling, material movement, scanning, documentation, and storage procedures.
• Identify slow-moving, obsolete, damaged, or excess inventory and communicate recommended actions to management.
• Maintain a clean, organized, and audit-ready inventory environment.
• Prepare regular inventory reports and communicate risks, shortages, and discrepancies to management.

Inventory Manager KPIs

The Inventory Manager will be accountable for key inventory performance metrics, including:

• Inventory accuracy
• Cycle count accuracy
• Inventory discrepancies and adjustments
• Material shortages affecting production
• Stockout frequency
• Receiving accuracy
• Inventory transaction accuracy
• Inventory variance by production job
• Damaged or lost inventory
• Inventory aging and obsolete inventory
• Completion of scheduled cycle counts

Qualifications

• 3+ years of inventory, warehouse, manufacturing, or supply-chain experience.
• Previous experience supervising or managing inventory operations preferred.
• Manufacturing experience strongly preferred.
• Cannabis manufacturing or regulated-industry experience is highly preferred.
• Strong understanding of inventory control, receiving, warehousing, cycle counting, and reconciliation.
• Experience working with inventory management, ERP, WMS, or similar systems.
• Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills.
• Excellent organizational and problem-solving skills.
• Strong attention to detail and documentation.
• Ability to investigate discrepancies and determine root causes.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced production environment with changing priorities.
• Ability to communicate effectively with Production, Purchasing, Quality, Compliance, and management.
• Ability to establish procedures and hold employees accountable to inventory controls.

Preferred Experience

Experience with any of the following is a plus:

• Cannabis manufacturing
• METRC or cannabis track-and-trace systems
• White-label or contract manufacturing
• High-volume packaging operations
• Packaging/component inventory
• Lot and batch traceability
• Production planning
• ERP/WMS implementation
• Barcode or scanning systems
• Inventory audits

What Success Looks Like

A successful Inventory Manager creates an operation where management and production teams can confidently answer:

What do we have? Where is it? How much do we have? Who does it belong to? What production job is it for? And when do we need to reorder it?

The goal of this position is to create a highly accurate, organized, and proactive inventory operation that prevents production delays, reduces inventory losses, and provides management with reliable inventory information.

Pay: $25.45 - $30.65 per hour

Work Location: In person