Supply Chain Manager in Bridgend

Supply Chain Manager

Location: Bridgend

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: Full Time, 36 per week

Salary: Depending on experience

Benefits: Pension Salary Sacrifice Scheme, Life Assurance, Cycle to Work Scheme, Company Sick Pay, Corporate Eyecare vouchers, Health Care Cashplan

About Us:

IrvinGQ is a world-leading supplier of parachutes, aerial delivery systems and naval decoys to customers around the world. We create innovative products that our customers know they can rely on in highly challenging conditions where there are no second chances. Our systems must work right first time, every time. If you want to be part of a collaborative and supportive team that helps customers achieve their goals through great engineering that stands out from the crowd and are looking for your next challenge, then we want to hear from you!

About the Role:

The Supply Chain Manager is responsible for leading the end-to-end supply chain, production planning, material availability and supplier performance activities required to support IrvinGQ’s operational delivery, customer commitments and growth objectives. The role will ensure that materials, purchased parts, subcontract activity and production plans are aligned to demand, inventory targets, customer delivery requirements and business performance metrics.

Reporting into the Senior Operations Manager you will work closely with Operations, Sales, Engineering, Quality, Finance, Project Management and Business Unit teams to maintain on-time delivery, low past dues, optimise inventory, strengthen supplier performance and support productivity improvement across the business.

Primary Responsibilities:

Supply Chain Leadership

• Lead through visibly demonstrating and instilling our culture.
• Champion IrvinGQ’s values and contribute positively to a culture of accountability, teamwork, continuous improvement and customer focus.
• Lead the Supply Chain and Planning function, ensuring clear priorities, accountability and alignment with operational and business unit requirements.
• Develop and maintain robust processes for purchasing, supplier management, material planning, production planning and inventory control.
• Drive a culture of urgency, ownership, continuous improvement and cross-functional problem solving.
• Support the development of team capability through coaching, performance management and succession planning.

Planning and Material Control

• Own the sales, inventory, supply and production planning processes required to support customer demand and business plan delivery.
• Ensure loaded customer demand has the required raw material, purchased parts and subcontract support available in line with production schedules.
• Identify, communicate and escalate material risks, capacity constraints and supplier issues that may impact customer delivery or revenue recognition.
• Work with Operations and Business Unit teams to establish clear build plans, recovery plans and priorities for high-value or time-critical programmes.

Supplier Performance and Procurement

• Manage supplier performance, including on-time delivery, quality, responsiveness, cost, lead time and risk mitigation.
• Establish clear supplier improvement plans where performance does not meet business requirements.
• Support strategic sourcing, dual sourcing, low-cost country sourcing and Make vs Buy activities where they improve continuity of supply, productivity or EBITDA performance.
• Ensure purchasing activity is commercially robust, compliant with business processes and aligned with operational priorities.

Inventory and Working Capital

• Own inventory accuracy, inventory profile planning and material availability across the supply chain.
• Reduce excess, obsolete and inactive stock while protecting customer delivery and production continuity.
• Review safety stock, reorder points, lead times and supplier stockholding arrangements to optimise working capital.
• Use ERP data, reporting tools and visual management to support agile decision making and early risk identification.

Cross-Functional Delivery

• Work closely with Engineering and Production Engineering to ensure bills of material, stock codes, routings and technical changes support efficient purchasing and planning.
• Partner with Project Management to support major programmes, customer milestones and recovery plans.
• Collaborate with Finance to align inventory, cost, working capital and forecast assumptions.
• Contribute to business reviews, operational performance reviews and improvement plans with clear data, actions and ownership.

Continuous Improvement and Risk Management

• Lead supply chain improvement projects that improve customer OTD, reduce past dues, reduce cost, lower inventory or improve process control.
• Identify supply chain risks and opportunities, including single-source dependency, long lead-time materials, subcontract constraints and supplier capacity limitations.
• Develop mitigation plans and contingency actions to protect customer delivery and business performance.
• Support ERP, Power BI and reporting improvements that strengthen planning discipline and operational visibility.

Skills and Experience:

• Proven experience in supply chain, materials management, planning, procurement or operations within a manufacturing environment.
• Strong understanding of MRP/ERP systems, production planning, inventory control and purchasing processes.
• Experience of managing supplier performance and resolving material availability issues in a time-critical environment.
• Ability to lead teams, influence cross-functionally and communicate clearly at all levels of the business.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to use data to identify issues, set priorities and drive action.
• Experience in aerospace, defence, regulated manufacturing or high-mix/low-volume production would be advantageous.
• High ownership, urgency and accountability for delivery.
• Practical, hands-on approach with the ability to operate at both strategic and detailed levels.
• Calm and structured under pressure, with strong problem-solving capability.
• Commercially aware, data-driven and focused on business outcomes.
• Collaborative leadership style with the ability to build trust across Operations, Engineering, Quality, Sales and Finance.

Qualifications:

• CIPS, APICS, supply chain, operations management or equivalent professional qualification would be desirable but not essential.

Other Considerations:

• Willingness to travel between IrvinGQ sites and to customer or supplier locations where required.
• Valid UK driving licence preferred.
• Must be able to work in a defence-related environment and satisfy applicable security requirements.