Associate Director, Supply Planning

Company Overview

Our Mission: At Esperion, we are working tirelessly to deliver innovative medicines that help patients reach their goals today, tomorrow, and into the future.  

Esperion is a fully remote based company with a corporate headquarters located in Ann Arbor, MI.  The Company offers a competitive salary including a performance-based bonus program and stock-based compensation, a comprehensive benefits package including a 401(k) matching plan and health insurance, and paid time off and holidays.

Position Title: Associate Director, Supply Planning 

The Associate Director, Supply Planning is a mid-level role responsible for ownership of a product planning, distribution, and inventory program.  This role is accountable for the management of the sales and operations planning and inventory process related to the company’s commercial products. This includes keeping accurate, timely inventory records as well as ensuring the overall product planning process is completed accurately to ensure to ensure the company supply performance metrics are met.  The individual will perform other tasks and projects in Supply Operations as assigned.  The Associate Director, Supply Planning reports to the Senior Director, Supply Operations.

Preferred Location: Remote – US 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities*

Ownership of Supply Planning Process:

• Manage a comprehensive Sales and Operations Planning process and meetings to review clinical/commercial demand and supply, alignment with cross-functional capabilities and capacities, and resulting financials to give a full view of the operational plan and support management decision making.
• Driving continuous improvements and recommendations in supply chain process, network design and S&OP process to fit the evolving business needs.
• Collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders to drive, establish and align on strategic assumptions and corresponding supply strategies that include product lifecycle management, regulatory requirements, and manufacturing network strategy and transitions.
• Implement, and analyze key performance metrics and trends to drive overall performance, cross-functional goals and corporate goals.
• Leading and managing team with open mindset to design organization structure and define structure KPI to fit evolving business needs.
• Identify opportunities for improvement and have the courage and tenacity to drive actions that deliver results. Think systematically and drive a positive culture within the systems we use to run the business. 
• Support adoption and execution of active product portfolio management delivering a robust process and reduced supply chain complexity. 
• Understand and support the group in managing regulatory environment and implications on supply chain strategy and execution. 

Execute on Tactical and Strategic aspects of Inventory & Warehousing Program:

• Assess supply chain inventory positions, execute stock redistributions, or deploy production from external suppliers by the most effective means to support delivery of Supply Chain objectives (cost of goods, write offs/scrapping, inventory targets, etc.). 
• Strategically adjust and execute deployment plan priorities within the manufacturing and distribution network supporting Operations objectives. Collaborate with Suppliers and CMOs to ensure adherence to inventory deployment and utilization plans. Utilize available systems and reporting tools to monitor inventory coverage and issue status reports. 
• Develop and present inventory analyses and summaries to cross functional teams and management. Maintain lot traceability and support global import and export initiatives relating to inventory utilization. 
• Identify and resolve any key inventory issues impacting supply & service, and proactively and regularly communicate to upstream and downstream stakeholders to ensure awareness and issue resolution. Collaborate with Quality to manage activities related to inventory exceptions (CAPA, Adverse Events, Recalls, etc.) and inventory status changes (i.e. unrestricted, blocked, restricted).   
• Support any inventory reconciliation/cycle counting programs within the Supply Chain liaising with Finance and manufacturing/3PL sites to review and resolve inventory discrepancies.
• Maintains the corporate perpetual inventory file, ensuring that it is up-to-date and accurate. Performs monthly reconciliation of the corporate balances with site and CMO reported balances. 
• Creates purchase requisitions and monitors through order and invoice process, tracking open purchase orders against invoicing and contract pricing. 

Distribution:

• Support North American Distribution by working closely with 3PLs and Trade team to ensure effective movement of product supply.
• Manage supply requirements on returns process.
• Provide guidance and oversight on activities performed by team including logistics management, ERP transactional processes, and storage strategies.
• Support commitments to global partners by ensuring sufficient planning time and inventory.

*Additional duties and responsibilities as assigned

Qualifications (Education & Experience)

• B.S. in Business, Pharmacy, Engineering or Life Sciences from accredited college or university. CSCP or CPIM certifications are highly preferred. Significant experience may substitute for earned degree. 
• Minimum of 8 years increasing responsibility in Supply Chain Planning focused on the biotech/pharmaceutical industry. Minimum of 4 years of direct management experience. 
• APICS CPIM or CSCP Certification preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in managing the product supply planning process for branded pharmaceutical products in a virtual environment including ownership of the Sales and Operations Planning, material control requirements, and good distribution practices.
• Demonstrated ability to work successfully within an internal technical operations team as well as cross functionally with additional stakeholders such as Commercial and Finance teams across all levels of the organization. 
• Comfortable in a fast-paced small company environment with minimal direction and able to adjust workload based upon changing priorities.
• Demonstrated experience in the implementation or improvements of supply chains and quality systems in a commercial setting. Strong understanding and working knowledge of cGMPs for pharmaceutical development and commercial operations. 
• Ability to conform to shifting priorities, demands and timelines through analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Demonstrated MRP/ERP skills, including at least one implementation of SAP, Oracle, etc., systems. 
• Experience working in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual environment is necessary.
• Possess strong conflict management and negotiation skills. 
• International travel may be required (10 to 20%)