Planning Director

Job Description The Senior Director, Planning provides strategic and operational leadership for planning organizations supporting both a business area and a centralized manufacturing hub. This role is accountable for establishing an integrated planning strategy that aligns customer and program demand with manufacturing capacity, material availability, resources, and business priorities.
The Senior Director leads planning leaders and teams across both business-area/program-facing and factory-facing environments, creating a cohesive planning operating model that enables the organization to deliver on commitments, optimize manufacturing capacity, improve schedule performance, and respond rapidly to changing business and customer requirements. The Senior Director must have a solid understanding of ERP and the system and digital tools required to successfully execute planning processes, drive date-informed decision-making, and ensure effective integration across planning, manufacturing and supply chain operations.
This leader serves as a critical integrator across Business Area leadership, Operations, Supply Chain, Programs, Engineering, Finance, and other functional organizations, The role requires the ability to balance program priorities with enterprise manufacturing requirements while establishing clear accountability, decision rights, escalation paths, and performance expectations across a matrixed organization.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Planning Leadership
- Establish and execute an integrated planning strategy across business-area and manufacturing-hub organizations.
- Translate business strategy, customer demand, program requirements, and growth objectives into executable planning priorities.
- Develop planning capabilities, processes, systems, and organizational structures that support scalability, speed, and operational excellence.
- Establish consistent planning standards, metrics, governance, and operating rhythms across the organization.
- Identify emerging capacity, material, resource, and schedule constraints and develop mitigation strategies before they impact program execution.
Business Area Planning Leadership
- Lead planning organizations aligned to business-area and program requirements, ensuring customer commitments and program priorities are translated into actionable supply and production plans.
- Partner with Program Management and business leaders to understand demand, priorities, schedule requirements, and risks.
- Ensure planning decisions appropriately balance program commitments, material availability, manufacturing capacity, inventory, and overall business priorities.
- Provide senior leadership with clear visibility to demand, capacity, constraints, risks, and recovery actions.
- Drive proactive identification and resolution of issues that could affect program execution or customer commitments.
Manufacturing Hub Planning Leadership
- Lead the planning organization supporting a centralized manufacturing hub serving multiple business areas and programs.
- Establish an effective factory-facing planning model that optimizes shared manufacturing capacity and resources across competing priorities.
- Integrate demand from multiple business areas into a consolidated manufacturing plan and establish clear prioritization and allocation mechanisms.
- Partner with Manufacturing, Operations, Supply Chain, and Business Area leadership to balance factory efficiency, throughput, capacity utilization, and program needs.
- Establish constraint-based planning and escalation mechanisms to ensure the most critical capacity, material, and resource constraints receive timely leadership attention.
- Drive improved synchronization between program demand, factory capacity, material readiness, and production schedules.
Organizational Leadership
- Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing organization of planning leaders and professionals.
- Establish clear roles, responsibilities, decision rights, and accountability across business-area and hub planning teams.
- Build organizational capability through talent development, succession planning, coaching, and targeted skills development.
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and data-driven decision making.
- Develop and maintain a strong planning leadership bench capable of supporting business growth and increasing organizational complexity. \\
Cross-Functional Integration
- Serve as a senior planning representative across Operations, Supply Chain, Programs, Engineering, Finance, Quality, and Business Area leadership.
- Drive alignment between program-level priorities and enterprise manufacturing requirements.
- Establish effective governance and communication mechanisms across a matrixed organization.
- Resolve cross-organizational conflicts involving demand, capacity, materials, schedules, and priorities.
- Provide leadership with actionable insights and recommendations based on planning data, constraints, and business requirements
Performance & Continuous Improvement
- Establish and manage planning performance metrics focused on schedule adherence, capacity, material readiness, inventory, constraints, and overall execution.
- Drive standardization and continuous improvement of planning processes, tools, systems, and operating rhythms.
- Identify opportunities to improve planning accuracy, responsiveness, scalability, and organizational efficiency.
- Leverage data and analytics to improve forecasting, capacity planning, scenario analysis, and decision making.
- Lead transformational initiatives that strengthen planning capabilities and enable the organization to scale with speed.
Leadership Expectations
The Senior Director, Planning is expected to:
- Operate effectively at both the strategic and operational levels.
- Think across the enterprise while maintaining accountability to business-area and manufacturing objectives.
- Create clarity in a complex matrixed environment where priorities and resources are shared.
- Establish shared accountability without creating unclear accountability.
- Make fact-based decisions that balance customer commitments, program priorities, factory performance, and enterprise needs.
- Anticipate constraints and risks rather than relying on reactive escalation.
- Build strong partnerships across organizational boundaries and drive alignment among senior leaders.
- Develop people and organizations while continuously raising the maturity of the planning function.
Required Education, Experience, & Skills
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations, Business, Engineering, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
- 15+ years of progressive experience in supply chain, production planning, manufacturing, operations, or related disciplines.
- Significant leadership experience managing large, complex planning organizations.
- Experience leading planning across both program/business-facing and manufacturing/factory-facing environments.
- Demonstrated experience operating in a complex, matrixed organization with shared resources and competing priorities.
- Strong understanding of supply and demand planning, production planning, capacity management, material planning, and SIOP/IBP processes.
- Experience with ERP/MRP (specifically Oracle applications) and planning systems, analytics, and planning technology transformation.
- Demonstrated ability to translate complex data and operational constraints into clear executive-level decisions and actions.
- Strong strategic thinking, problem-solving, communication, and executive leadership skills.
- Proven ability to lead organizational transformation, develop talent, and drive sustained performance improvement.
Preferred Education, Experience, & Skills
- Experience supporting complex, high-mix manufacturing environments.
- Experience leading planning organizations supporting multiple business areas or product lines.
- Experience with centralized manufacturing or shared-services operating models.
- Experience implementing or transforming SIOP/IBP, constraint-based planning, or advanced planning processes.
- Experience in a highly regulated or technically complex manufacturing environment.

Pay Information
Full-Time Salary Range: $138267 - $235053

Please note: This range is based on our market pay structures. However, individual salaries are determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to: business considerations, local market conditions, and internal equity, as well as candidate qualifications, such as skills, education, and experience.

Employee Benefits: At BAE Systems, we support our employees in all aspects of their life, including their health and financial well-being. Regular employees scheduled to work 20+ hours per week are offered: health, dental, and vision insurance; health savings accounts; a 401(k) savings plan; disability coverage; and life and accident insurance. We also have an employee assistance program, a legal plan, and other perks including discounts on things like home, auto, and pet insurance. Our leave programs include paid time off, paid holidays, as well as other types of leave, including paid parental, military, bereavement, and any applicable federal and state sick leave. Employees may participate in the company recognition program to receive monetary or non-monetary recognition awards. Other incentives may be available based on position level and/or job specifics.
About BAE Systems, Inc. BAE Systems, Inc. is a defense, aerospace, and security company headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, with more than 40,000 employees worldwide. We serve, supply, and protect those who protect us. As one of the most geographically diverse international defense companies, we deliver a full range of products and services spanning air, land, maritime, space, and cyber, including advanced electronics, intelligence solutions, and dedicated customer support.

Our culture is performance-driven and values-led, built on curiosity, creativity, and collaboration. Purpose isn't a tagline here. It's what drives us. We're developing breakthrough technologies that defend national security and make a lasting impact on our communities and our planet. When you join BAE Systems, you're not just building a career. You're contributing to a mission that truly matters.

This position will be posted for at least 5 calendar days. The posting will remain active until the position is filled, or a qualified pool of candidates is identified.