Planning Manager

Ontic, a leading licensor and manufacturer of complex engineering parts for the global aerospace and defence industries, is now recruiting for a Planning Manager to lead our Planning department at our 64,000 sq ft Bishops Cleeve facility in Cheltenham, our teams deliver predominantly electronic and electro-mechanical product lines, specialising in fuel measurement systems, emergency oxygen systems, barometrics and complex electro-mechanical assemblies.

This is a pivotal role responsible for ensuring customer demand is translated into robust, achievable and executable plans. As the key planning focal point for the business, you will drive the plan through Operations, ensuring conformance to plan is maintained, measured and continually improved.

Ontic is more than just a business, we’re a community of innovators who pride ourselves on fostering a culture where talent thrives, ideas flourish, and careers are built. We’re committed to excellence, continuously improving and adapting to remain at the forefront of our industry.

The Role

Reporting to the Operations Director, the Planning Manager will lead the Planning function, providing the rhythm, visibility and control needed to align customer requirements, S&OP outputs, capacity, material availability and production execution.

You will lead, support and develop the Master Scheduling and Production Planning teams, ensuring the plan is understood, owned and delivered across the business. You will act as the planning focal point for the site, providing clear priorities, visibility and direction across functions.

Working closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Customer Services, Engineering, Quality, Finance and Programme teams, you will ensure business-wide alignment between demand, supply, capacity, inventory and delivery performance.

Key to success in this role is the ability to combine strong planning expertise with practical leadership, cross-functional influence and a continuous improvement mindset. You will be an enabler across the organisation, identifying opportunities, challenging where needed, and improving our planning processes, tools and ways of working.

In this role, you will:

• Lead, support and develop the Planning team, including Master Scheduling and Production Planning.
• Act as the planning focal point for the business, providing clear priorities, visibility and direction across functions.
• Ensure customer requirements are aligned to master schedules, production plans, capacity and material availability.
• Drive the agreed plan through Operations, ensuring production execution is aligned to schedule.
• Monitor, measure and improve conformance to plan, ensuring risks, constraints and deviations are identified and acted upon.
• Collaborate closely with the S&OP process to ensure demand, supply, capacity and inventory plans are aligned and executable.
• Engage cross-functionally with Operations, Supply Chain, Customer Services, Engineering, Quality, Finance and Programme teams to ensure business-wide alignment.
• Work closely with Operations to support schedule adherence, recovery planning, capacity planning and delivery performance.
• Use planning data and operational insight to support clear, practical and timely decision-making.
• Identify opportunities to improve planning processes, tools, visibility and ways of working.
• Promote a culture of ownership, accountability, continuous improvement and delivery focus across the Planning team and wider business.

About You

At Ontic, our culture is key to how we deliver success. We’re looking for someone who brings strong planning capability alongside confident leadership, operational understanding and the ability to influence across a complex, fast-paced environment.

To be successful in this role, you will bring:

• A strong background in planning, master scheduling, production planning or supply chain within a manufacturing environment.
• Experience leading and developing teams.
• A strong understanding of ERP/MRP systems, capacity planning, material availability, production schedule adherence and conformance to plan.
• The ability to translate customer demand into clear, executable plans.
• Experience working cross-functionally with Operations, Supply Chain, Customer Services, Engineering, Quality, Finance and Programme teams.
• Strong analytical capability, with the ability to use planning data and operational insight to support decision-making.
• A structured, detail-oriented approach, combined with pragmatic problem-solving skills.
• The confidence to challenge, influence and engage stakeholders across the business.
• The ability to operate effectively in a complex, fast-paced and regulated environment.

You will also ideally have:

• Experience within aerospace, defence or another heavily regulated manufacturing environment.
• A relevant qualification in supply chain, planning, operations, engineering or business management.
• APICS/CPIM, Lean, Six Sigma or equivalent continuous improvement qualifications.
• Experience supporting S&OP or similar business planning processes.
• Experience improving planning processes, tools, visibility and ways of working.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role will be measured by improved customer plan alignment, stronger conformance to plan, effective planning team leadership, successful engagement with S&OP, improved schedule adherence, and a Planning function that is recognised as a key enabler for the wider business.

Best Place to Work

We are more than the sum of our parts — and we’ve been recognised for it:

• Ranked #9 in Best Companies’ Q3 leaderboard for Best Manufacturing Company.
• 72.5% of employees in our 2023 survey said they are proud to work at Ontic.
• We’ve experienced rapid growth, doubling in size in recent years.

No day is the same at Ontic. Our success comes from empowering our colleagues to create opportunity, fostering an environment of autonomy where we ask for forgiveness, not permission.

Our Values

Our values are intrinsic to everything we do:

• We share a common sense – a global family of specialists with a shared passion for precision
• We have the freedom to choose – challengers and innovators who think differently
• We create the opportunity – change-makers with a clear direction and can-do spirit

We are a fast-paced business with ambitious growth plans; so if you are dedicated, enthusiastic and always seeking ways to improve, you'll enjoy a career with us!