Raw Materials Lead

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

Safety & Environmental

• Lead by example and reinforce all safety rules, regulations, procedures, and required training during the assigned shift.

• Promote 100% safety engagement, complete shift safety routines, and support proactive hazard identification.

• Correct unsafe conditions within the scope of the role and promptly escalate incidents or significant risks to the Raw Material Supervisor or appropriate plant leadership.

• Ensure environmental compliance and proper housekeeping of raw material receiving areas, silos, railcar areas, and storage locations during the shift.
• Understand and accumulate working knowledge of Raw Material Attendant job duties, required tasks, and overall scope of work to ensure business continuity and operational performance.

Raw Material Operations & Shift Leadership

• Work alongside employees while providing hands-on leadership for raw material receiving, unloading, storage, inventory control, and related shift activities.

• Assign daily shift responsibilities, coordinate immediate coverage needs, communicate priorities, and verify completion of assigned work.

• Provide real-time coaching, reinforce standard work, and identify training or performance concerns for escalation to the Plant Controller where necessary

• Serve as the primary raw material contact during the assigned shift and communicate material availability, delivery delays, equipment issues, and production risks to Operations, Planning team (WHQ based), Third-Party Carriers, Contractors  and other stakeholders.

• Maintain accurate raw material inventories by ensuring assigned cycle counts and inventory checks are completed accurately and on time.

• Verify that materials delivered during the shift, including railcars, trucks and transloaded material, are received accurately and on time in SAP.

• Investigate shift-level inventory discrepancies, receiving errors, and transaction issues; resolve within established authority or escalate promptly.

• Coordinate railcar placement, unloading, documentation, release, and communication with raw material unloaders and other support functions.

• Maintain the railcar tracking log and promptly communicate conditions that may create detention or demurrage exposure.

• Monitor inbound deliveries and verify that all items delivered during the shift are received into SAP.

• Support timely correction of COGI errors and other transaction issues to help maintain accurate product cost allocation.

• Coordinate with Quality and Production when deliveries are damaged, nonconforming, delayed, SMOI or otherwise present a risk to production.

• Ensure damaged or rejected product is identified, contained, documented, and recorded according to established processes.

• Monitor raw material levels using a just-in-time approach and escalate shortages or abnormal usage that may affect production continuity.

• Support adequate Friday and weekend inventory levels and follow established raw material plans for extended downtime and start-up.

• Lead shift handoff communication, including inventory status, pending deliveries, equipment concerns, open actions, and production risks.

• Monitor shift performance, identify abnormalities, and support corrective and continuous-improvement actions.

• Assist with training and cross-training employees on standard work, SAP transactions, safety expectations, and raw material processes.

• Escalate attendance, discipline, staffing, and significant performance matters to the Plant Controller for resolution; this role does not independently own formal employment decisions.

• Support coverage for raw material operations and perform other duties as assigned by the Plant Controller or plant leadership.

Desired Skills & Abilities

• Hands-on leadership style with the ability to direct work while contributing to daily operations.

• Strong communication, coaching, organization, and problem-solving skills.

• High level of attention to detail and accountability for accurate, timely shift execution.

• Ability to prioritize changing demands and make sound decisions within established procedures.

• Ability to work effectively with employees, third-party vendors, carriers, suppliers, and cross-functional partners.

• Continuous-improvement mindset with a desire to learn, develop others, and reinforce consistent standards.

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated understanding of inventory controls, receiving processes, and basic SOX requirements.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and Word.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

• Knowledge of warehouse management systems; SAP proficiency is highly desirable.

• Demonstrated ability to lead work, coach peers, reinforce standards, and make sound shift-level decisions.

Required education:

• Minimum: High school diploma or equivalent.

• Preferred: Associate degree or relevant coursework in Inventory Management, Logistics, Supply Chain, Business, or a related field.

Required experience:

• Minimum: Manufacturing, warehouse, logistics, supply chain, or inventory management experience.

• Preferred: 3+ years of warehouse rail operations,  or general operations experience, including lead, trainer, coordinator, or other hands-on work-direction responsibility.