This is an exciting opportunity to join a leading medical and laboratory supply and services company at our headquarters in New Brunswick and play a key role in scaling our Kitting programs.
What You’ll Do
The Assembly Planning & Customer Engagement Manager is responsible for overseeing and driving Kitting Assembly programs from initiation through completion, ensuring alignment between internal stakeholders, third-party vendors, and customer expectations. This role combines planning expertise with acute customer engagement skills, vendor management, and program execution, with a strong focus on quality, compliance, and operational efficiency.
You will act as the central point of accountability for Kitting Planning to delivery—managing vendor performance, validating technical work, ensuring accurate documentation, and proactively addressing risks to keep programs on track. This position requires a hands-on, detail-oriented professional with a strong sense of urgency, ownership, and accountability in a service-driven environment.
Core Areas:
- Customer & Contract Management - customer relationship, requests, SLAs, pricing, changes, issues and program communication.
- Inventory & Customer Forecast Management - translating each customer's expected kit demand into inventory and replenishment requirements, and assembly labor planning & forecast based on short- and long-term demand.
- Purchasing & Vendor Coordination - component availability, purchasing needs, supplier timelines, freight, pricing and vendor follow-up.
- Kitting Operations & Fulfillment Coordination - making sure materials and production are aligned so kits are built and shipped on schedule.
- Sourcing & Cost Support - assisting with component sourcing and pricing for new kits, changes to existing kits and quoting opportunities.
Responsibilities:
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT (Primary)
- Serve as the primary customer-facing operational contact for assigned kitting and fulfillment programs, managing day-to-day customer requests, program updates, concerns, changes, and issue resolution.
- Own the ongoing management of customer contracts and service requirements, ensuring deliverables remain aligned with established SLAs, pricing, specifications, timelines, and customer expectations.
- Manage kit pricing and program changes, including coordinating updates resulting from component cost changes, freight, sourcing changes, volume changes, or modifications to customer requirements.
- Coordinate new customer requests, kit modifications, BOM/component changes, volume changes, and other program updates with internal teams.
- Support component and product sourcing for new and existing kit programs, including obtaining vendor pricing, identifying sourcing options, and assisting with cost development for customer quotes.
- Investigate and coordinate resolution of customer-facing operational issues, including inventory discrepancies, shortages, delayed components, production delays, shipping issues, incorrect kit configurations, or other service concerns.
- Maintain accurate program documentation and communication across customer requirements, forecasts, inventory, purchasing, production, and fulfillment activities.
- Conduct regular customer program reviews and provide updates regarding inventory position, forecast requirements, production status, open issues, upcoming demand, and potential risks.
- Maintain visibility into customer inventory levels, ensuring adequate components and finished goods are available to support current demand and upcoming production requirements.
PLANNING & DELIVERY
- Manage customer-level demand forecasting by reviewing historical usage, customer projections, planned volume increases/decreases, and upcoming program needs.
- Translate customer forecasts into inventory and purchasing requirements, proactively identifying potential shortages, excess inventory, long-lead-time items, and replenishment needs.
- Develop and maintain kitting assembly scheduling and labor plan forecasts based on anticipated short term and long-term kit demand
- Coordinate purchasing and replenishment activities to ensure components are ordered in appropriate quantities and within required lead times to support production schedules.
- Work directly with suppliers and vendors regarding availability, lead times, order status, pricing, terms, freight, and domestic/international shipping requirements, including air and ocean freight when applicable.
- Maintain oversight of production schedules and fulfillment commitments, ensuring customer orders are progressing according to required timelines and escalating risks before they impact delivery.
- Monitor customer SLAs and key program requirements, including production output, order fulfillment, inventory availability, turnaround times, and delivery commitments.
- Partner cross-functionally with Kitting Operations, Quality, Purchasing, Finance, Shipping/Logistics, and external suppliers to ensure successful execution of each customer program.
- Identify opportunities to improve cost, inventory utilization, purchasing efficiency, production planning, fulfillment performance, and the overall customer experience.
- Proactively identify program risks and escalate issues related to inventory, vendor lead times, production capacity, customer forecasts, SLA performance, or delivery timelines.
What You’ll Bring to The Table
Required:
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations or related fields
- 5+ years of experience in customer account or program management, preferably within a kitting, assembly, production, fulfillment, or similar environment.
- 3+ years of experience in inventory management, purchasing, demand planning/forecasting, and assembly labor/material planning.
- Experience working with third-party vendors and suppliers
- Strong customer-facing communication and issue-resolution skills and relationship management skills.
Preferred:
- Experience within clinical trial, laboratory, diagnostic, medical, pharmaceutical/biotech, or other regulated kitting/fulfillment environments.
- Knowledge of kitting process management, procurement, inventory controls, production planning, and customer service requirements.
- Experience with kitting management systems and/or assembly tracking tools.
- Experience working with BOMs, component specifications, lot/expiration controls, and inventory traceability.
- Familiarity with domestic and international freight, supplier lead times, and supply-chain constraints is a plus