IT Manager – Supply Chain Planning and Scheduling
Novolex
Lake Forest, IL · Posted October 8, 2026
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About the job
Company Overview
Why Choose Us?
Novolex is a leading manufacturer of food, beverage, and specialty packaging that supports multiple industries including foodservice, restaurant delivery and carryout, food processing, grocery and retail, and industrial sectors. Novolex manufacturing and sourcing expertise spans a diverse range of substrates including resin, paper, molded fiber, aluminum and more. We provide customers a broad array of stock and customized solutions with 120 product categories, 250 brands and over 39,000 SKUs.
Our Sustainability Commitment
The Novolex sustainability vision is built upon three pillars: our products, our operations and our people. Each is critically important to our growth and future as a business. These pillars form the foundation of our company-wide commitment to sustainability, helping us achieve our ambitious goals through our wide-ranging initiatives.
Job Description
Position Summary:
Novolex is seeking a Manager – Supply Chain Planning and Scheduling to help lead the design, integration, and delivery of our next-generation Integrated Business Planning (IBP) capabilities.
This role will sit at the intersection of business planning, manufacturing, supply chain, data, and enterprise technology . The successful candidate will combine strong functional knowledge of SAP Production Planning (PP), SAP PP/DS, and Kinaxis with an understanding of S&OP / Integrated Business Planning principles and how planning processes operate across a complex, multi-system manufacturing environment.
This is not simply an SAP configuration role. The position will be expected to understand the end-to-end planning process, translate business requirements into scalable technology solutions, work across multiple platforms and integration points, and help engineer the future planning architecture for Novolex.
The IT Manager will lead a team of two while working closely with Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Commercial, Finance, Data, Enterprise Architecture, ERP teams, implementation partners, and other technology organizations.
A key initial responsibility will be helping design, engineer, and deliver Novolex's new Integrated Business Planning capability , establishing the technology and integration foundation required to connect strategic, tactical, and operational planning.
Key Responsibilities:
Integrated Business Planning
Partner with business and technology leadership to design and implement Novolex's future Integrated Business Planning operating and technology model .
Translate S&OP / IBP business processes into technology capabilities, integration requirements, data requirements, and system architecture.
Help establish the technology required to connect:
Demand planning
Supply planning
Production planning
Detailed scheduling
Material requirements planning
Inventory planning
Capacity planning
Manufacturing execution
Order fulfillment
Financial and business planning
Understand the difference between strategic, tactical, and execution-level planning and ensure appropriate integration between each planning horizon.
Partner with business leaders to improve planning visibility, exception management, scenario planning, and decision support.
SAP Production Planning & PP/DS
Serve as a functional and technical leader for SAP Production Planning (PP) and SAP PP/DS .
Provide leadership around production planning processes including:
Material Requirements Planning
Master Production Scheduling
Production and process orders
Bills of material
Routings and recipes
Work centers and resources
Capacity planning
Production versions
Detailed scheduling
Planning parameters and master data
Understand integration between SAP PP / PP-DS and adjacent SAP capabilities including MM, SD, WM/EWM, QM, CO, master data, and order fulfillment.
Kinaxis
Provide technology leadership for the use of Kinaxis within the planning ecosystem.
Understand Kinaxis capabilities across demand, supply, capacity, scenario, and supply-chain planning.
Help determine the appropriate division of responsibilities between Kinaxis, SAP, and other enterprise platforms.
Ensure planning outputs can be translated into executable plans within manufacturing and ERP systems.
Identify and resolve gaps between planning assumptions and operational execution.
Enterprise Integration
The successful candidate must be comfortable working beyond individual applications and understanding how information moves across an integrated enterprise landscape.
Responsibilities include:
Define business and system integration requirements between planning, ERP, manufacturing, warehouse, transportation, master-data, analytics, and financial systems.
Work with integration and architecture teams on interfaces, APIs, batch integrations, middleware, and data flows.
Understand upstream and downstream consequences of planning-system changes.
Identify where process, data, integration, or system design is creating planning problems.
Help simplify architecture and reduce unnecessary duplication of planning logic across platforms.
Data & Master Data
Understand the importance of high-quality planning master data, including:
Material masters
Bills of material
Routings
Resources and work centers
Production versions
Planning parameters
Lead times
Lot sizes
Safety stock
Capacity
Transportation and sourcing relationships
Required Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, or related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
Approximately 5–7+ years of progressive experience supporting enterprise manufacturing or supply-chain technology.
Strong hands-on functional knowledge of SAP Production Planning (PP) .
Experience with SAP PP/DS or advanced production planning and detailed scheduling.
Experience with Kinaxis RapidResponse or Kinaxis Maestro .
Demonstrated understanding of manufacturing and supply-chain planning processes.
Working knowledge of S&OP and Integrated Business Planning principles .
Experience integrating planning platforms with ERP and other enterprise applications.
Experience translating business processes and requirements into technology solutions.
Experience supporting complex, cross-functional technology initiatives.
Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
Ability to communicate effectively with both technical teams and business executives.
Demonstrated ability to operate successfully across multiple teams, systems, and organizational boundaries.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with SAP S/4HANA Production Planning .
Experience with embedded SAP S/4HANA PP/DS .
Experience designing or implementing an enterprise Integrated Business Planning capability.
Experience in a complex, multi-site manufacturing organization.
Experience in environments operating multiple ERP platforms.
Understanding of supply-chain planning concepts including:
Demand planning
Supply planning
MRP
MPS
Capacity planning
Finite scheduling
Inventory optimization
Available-to-Promise
Scenario planning
Experience with SAP integration across MM, SD, EWM/WM, CO, QM, and master-data processes.
Experience with modern integration technologies, APIs, middleware, and cloud platforms.
Experience working with global systems integrators and software vendors.
Prior people-management or team-lead experience.
Leadership Characteristics:
The successful candidate will:
Think end-to-end rather than application-by-application .
Understand that planning problems can originate in process, data, organization, integration, or technology.
Be comfortable moving between strategy and detailed execution.
Challenge complexity rather than simply automate it.
Build credibility with manufacturing and supply-chain professionals.
Take ownership for outcomes rather than limiting responsibility to individual systems.
Work effectively in a changing transformation environment.
Develop internal capability while appropriately leveraging external partners.
Initial Key Deliverables:
During the first 12–18 months, this leader will be expected to contribute significantly to:
IBP Architecture & Roadmap Help establish the target technology architecture and roadmap supporting Novolex's Integrated Business Planning strategy.
Planning Process Integration Define how demand, supply, production, detailed scheduling, and execution processes interact across Kinaxis, SAP, and other platforms.
SAP / Kinaxis Integration Improve the reliability, transparency, and scalability of integration between planning and ERP environments.
Future S/4HANA Planning Model Help establish the strategy for SAP S/4HANA PP and PP/DS as Novolex evolves its ERP landscape.
Planning Data Foundation Identify and address the master-data and transactional-data capabilities required for reliable planning.
IBP Program Delivery Provide technology leadership through design, build, integration, testing, deployment, and stabilization of the new IBP capability.
Internal Capability Development Build a strong internal Supply Chain Planning technology capability and reduce unnecessary dependency on external consultants.
How Success Will Be Measured:
Success in this role will ultimately be measured by business outcomes rather than system implementation alone, including:
Improved integration between planning and execution.
Increased planning stability and visibility.
Better alignment between demand, supply, capacity, and manufacturing plans.
Reduction in manual planning activities and disconnected spreadsheets.
Improved quality and reliability of planning data.
Faster identification and resolution of supply-chain exceptions.
Successful delivery and adoption of Novolex's Integrated Business Planning capabilities.
Creation of a scalable planning architecture that can support Novolex's broader ERP and supply-chain transformation.
Compensation:
A reasonable estimate of the current range is $125,000 - 135,000 + bonus + benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. At Novolex, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.
The benefits for this role include 401(k) plan with company match, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, flexible spending and health savings accounts, paid vacation, and sick days, paid parental leave, paid holidays and wellness program.
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Company Benefits
What You'll Get From Us
Benefits
With safety as our top priority and a commitment to employee well-being an important focus, we offer comprehensive and competitive benefits that include medical, dental and vision insurance as well as a variety of other well-being resources focused on mental, physical and financial health. Specific benefits and well-being programs may vary depending on where you work.
Community Engagement
At Novolex, giving back to the local communities that support us is important. Our Focused Giving Program prioritizes support for organizations whose missions promote sustainability initiatives or address food and hunger needs. We also encourage facility level support of activities in the communities where our employees live and work.
Training and Development
We offer constant opportunities for advancement. From skills development to advanced education programs, training and development programs and courses are available through MyLearning. Programs include company and industry training curricula, support for formal education through the Tuition Reimbursement Program (Non-Union), and a Learning Management System that supports and enhances employee skills at all levels of the organization.
Novolex is committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all employment practices, including but not limited to selection, hiring, promotion, transfer, and compensation to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to age, race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, handicap or disability, genetics, citizenship status, service member or veteran status, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law. Any individual who, because of his or her disability, needs an accommodation in connection with an aspect of the Company's application process should contact myHRservices@novolex.com.
Formerly Pactiv Evergreen