Supply Chain Manager (FTC)

Main Purpose of Role

Responsible for all aspects of supply chain management for a busy aerospace company. This includes driving and leading the end-to-end supply chain process, from strategic sourcing and procurement to inventory management, logistics, and compliance with aviation industry standards. The role is critical to ensuring the availability of parts and materials outcomes to support DEA’s engineering, maintenance, and flight operations.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Supply Chain Strategy

Develop and implement supply chain strategies that align with DEA's operational goals and regulatory requirements.

Procurement & Sourcing

Oversee the procurement function, identifying suppliers where required, managing supplier selection, contract negotiation, and ongoing performance to ensure quality, cost-efficiency, and on-time delivery outcomes.

Inventory Management

Optimize inventory control processes for all aircraft components and raw materials to ensure availability of critical stock while minimizing excess and obsolete parts.

Logistics & Distribution

Lead logistics planning, ensuring the correct identification, traceability, storage, and timely release of aircraft parts to maintenance hangars and third-party customers.

Compliance

Ensure strict compliance with all relevant aviation regulations, import/export controls (including HM Revenue and Customs legislation and other trade controls), and internal quality procedures.

Risk Management

Identify potential supply chain risks and implement contingency plans to mitigate disruptions, such as parts shortages, delivery delays or even alternative suppliers.

Performance Monitoring

Monitor and report key performance indicators (KPIs) for supply chain efficiency, such as lead time, fill rate, and proactively identify cost savings.

Team Leadership

Provide short-term planning, scheduling of team workload, daily task allocation, and performance monitoring for direct reports and work as part of an integrated project team to deliver outcomes.

Technical Experience and Qualifications

Experience: Minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in Supply Chain Management, with a significant portion in the aerospace or a highly regulated engineering/manufacturing environment.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field.

System Proficiency: Demonstrable working knowledge and experience with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system (e.g., SAP, Oracle, AMOS) and supply chain software.

Procurement Expertise: Proven ability to strategically source, manage a portfolio of suppliers, and negotiate complex contracts, demonstrating commercial awareness.

Regulatory Knowledge: Familiarity with aviation industry standards and regulatory compliance (e.g., EASA/CAA/FAA requirements related to parts acceptance and traceability and trade controls).

Skills Profile

Strategic & Analytical Thinking: Ability to think long-term, align supply chain with business objectives, and use a data-driven approach for problem-solving and decision-making.

Communication & Negotiation: Excellent written and verbal communication, relationship management, and negotiation skills for building positive relationships with suppliers and internal teams.

Leadership: Strong leadership, team management, and coaching skills to drive operational excellence and team development and able to operate as part of a project team to deliver outcomes.

Process Improvement: Knowledge of Lean principles or certification (e.g., Lean Six Sigma, APICS CPIM/CSCP) to drive continuous improvement initiatives.

Risk Management: Strong understanding of risk mitigation and contingency planning to address potential supply chain interruptions.

Shift Pattern

37.5 Hours Per Week