How To Become A Senior Material Planner: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior material planner and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior material planner. For example, did you know that they make an average of $36.07 an hour? That's $75,035 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -38,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSenior Material PlannerUS Average

Salary

5.9

Avg. Salary $75,035

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.8

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.53%

Asian 7.06%

Black or African American 9.29%

Hispanic or Latino 17.02%

Unknown 4.95%

White 61.15%

Gender

female 37.93%

male 62.07%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

7.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.9

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior material planner

Explore senior material planner education requirements

Most common senior material planner degrees

Bachelor's

64.5 %

Associate

20.0 %

Master's

11.2 %

Start to develop specific senior material planner skills

Skills	Percentages
Supply Chain	13.27%
Material Planning	7.21%
Logistics	5.70%
ERP	5.03%
Purchase Orders	4.19%

Complete relevant senior material planner training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior material planners learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior material planner based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior material planner resumes.

Research senior material planner duties and responsibilities

Lead and support the training and maintenance of ERP and planning skills within the organization.
Manage OEM inventory to meet warranty and customer requirements.
Analyze BOM, run rates, and safety stock level to eliminate stock-out and ensuring appropriate material flow.
Re-Design the layout of WIP so all parts have an identify location.

Get senior material planner experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a senior material planner. The most common roles before becoming a senior material planner include materials planner, buyer team lead and planner/buyer.

Prepare your senior material planner resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior material planner resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior material planner resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable senior material planner resume templates

Build a professional senior material planner resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your senior material planner resume.