Master Planner, Operations

Base Power
Austin, TX
On-site

Who this role is best for

Best suited to cross-functional planners with manufacturing experience working in a fast-evolving startup environment.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with cross-functional leadership experience in manufacturing and supply chain planning
    — “Ability to influence and align people who do not report to you
  • Individuals with 4+ years in high-volume manufacturing S&OP or master planning roles
    — “4+ years owning a master production schedule, a master planning function, or an S&OP process in a high-volume manufacturing environment
  • Detail-oriented engineers comfortable with building custom planning tools
    — “Build your own tools. As needed, stand up dashboards, planning models, and analysis

Things to consider

  • Startup environment requires adaptability to shifting priorities and responsibilities
    — “priorities shift and evolve quickly. Your role may expand or change
  • In-office work is expected, with no mention of remote flexibility
    — “We work in-person. It’s not a 9-to-5. We are all-in.

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with MRP systems and daily grain planning in resume and interviews
    — “You have run MRP, capacity planning, and production activity control yourself
  • Demonstrate software requirements specification skills with engineering teams
    — “Experience writing software requirements and working with engineers
  • Emphasize inventory optimization and cost-risk balance in planning scenarios
    — “balancing working capital against the risk of stockout and install cancellations
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Mid

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Owned the operations plan of record
  • Built and maintained master production schedule
Typical background
Experience in manufacturing and supply chain planning

Skills & requirements

Required

Master PlanningProduction PlanningInventory ManagementFactory Transition Planning

Preferred

Software DevelopmentMRP Logic

Stack & domain

Operations PlanningMaterial PlanningDeployments PlanningProduction PlanningInventory ManagementSoftware DevelopmentMRP LogicDashboardsPlanning ModelsAnalysisCollaborationCelebrationIntensityProblem-solvingDecision MakingRoot Cause AnalysisAutomationReportingToolingManufacturingSupply ChainPlanningProductionInventory

About the role

Original posting from Base Power via Ashby

ABOUT BASE

Base is America’s next-generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization–electricity–by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Base designs its own hardware, builds it in its own factory, installs it at homes, and sells the power. That vertical integration is our advantage, and it means supply and demand have to line up across marketing, sales, deployments, manufacturing, and supply chain. As we've ramped up in-house manufacturing of our Base-designed and Base-sourced battery product, we have an increasing need for a cross-functional planner across our core operations who can make calls when individual functional plans conflict.

The Master Planner owns the operations side of Base’s plan of record. Our material planners, deployments planners, and production planners bring their plans to you. You dig in with each of them to find the gaps, pressure test the assumptions, resolve any constraints, and make the call on the tradeoff.

You are also the individual contributor for production planning. You build and own the master production schedule for BF1 and the factories that follow it, including factory transition and launch planning as we move product generations and stand up new lines.

Base builds most of its own software, and planning tooling is no exception. You will own requirements and direction for our in-house planning systems, working directly with the software team to build the data model, MRP logic, and interfaces that our planners live in. You will also build a fair amount of tooling yourself, because waiting is worse than shipping.

This scope will grow. As Base scales into more products, more geographies, and more factories, we expect this role to take on broader ownership.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

  • Own the operational plan of record. Consolidate the material plan, install and deployments plan, and manufacturing plan into one coherent plan, at daily grain, and keep them in sync when any one of them changes.
  • Run the recurring planning cadence (S&OP) with the material, install, and production planners. Review plan versus actuals, surface constraints and gaps, work the root cause with each planner, and make the call.
  • Own production scheduling as an individual contributor. Build and continuously update the master production schedule and build plan by line, component, and day, driven by install demand, inventory targets, and capacity.
  • Set factory shift schedules and staffing requirements from the build plan, with clear visibility into the inventory and cost implications of schedule changes.
  • Manage inventory targets and netting across finished goods, work in progress, and raw material, balancing working capital against the risk of stockout and install cancellations.
  • Automate the reporting. Blockers and opportunities across the system should surface on their own.
  • Set requirements and direction for Base’s planning software. Work with the Factory and Supply Chain software team to spec the data model, MRP capability, scenario planning, and planner-facing interfaces.
  • Build your own tools. As needed, stand up dashboards, planning models, and analysis where a formal software project is not the right answer.
  • Partner closely with Finance & Business Operations to keep operational plans tied to the financial plan, demand planning, and company-level targets.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

  • Ability to influence and align people who do not report to you, across manufacturing, supply chain, deployments, software, and finance.
  • 4+ years owning a master production schedule, a master planning function, or an S&OP process in a high-volume manufacturing environment. You have run MRP, capacity planning, and production activity control yourself, not just reported on someone else’s.
  • Excellent analytical skills. You build models from a blank page, work comfortably at daily grain across large datasets, and can defend every assumption in your plan.
  • Experience writing software requirements and working with engineers. You can describe what a planner needs, why, and what good looks like, then partner through the build.

Please note: Base is a startup, which means priorities shift and evolve quickly. Your role may expand or change based on the needs of the business at any given time, so the responsibilities listed may not be exhaustive.

OUR VALUES

  • First Principles Thinking: Question assumptions. Principles > rules.
  • Operate at Base Pace: Focus on what matters, act quickly, and learn by doing.
  • Give & Get Feedback: Be direct, be humble, and maintain a growth mindset.
  • Everyone’s an Owner: Follow through on commitments and own results.
  • Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Drive clarity and make calls with imperfect information.
  • Committed to the Mission: Rebuilding the grid is a big challenge. We work hard because we care deeply about the impact we’re creating. We work in-person. It’s not a 9-to-5. We are all-in.
  • Fun & Optimism Coexist with Grit: Collaboration and celebration coincide with the intensity of building real things.

DO THE BEST WORK OF YOUR LIFE AT BASE.

Source: Base Power careers (Ashby)

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