Purchasing Manager Jobs in Kitchener, ON (NOW HIRING)

Materials Manager
Job Type: Full-Time Permanent
Work Location: Wallenstein, ON (On Site)
Compensation: $85,000 - $95,000

At Earthscape Play, we create beautiful, innovative custom playground sculptures and structures that inspire children and adults to creatively play. By partnering with some of the most prestigious Landscape Architecture firms in North America, we bring brilliant playground concepts to life. Our award-winning design-build firm is located just outside of Elmira, Ontario in Waterloo Region.

Together, our ambitious team designs, engineers, builds, and installs state-of-the-art timber playgrounds that become iconic and well-loved destination spaces. The work environment we've created is positive, productive, fun, and rewarding. To see our one-of-a-kind projects, visit www.earthscapeplay.com.

Summary of the Role:
The Materials Manager is a strategic and operational leader responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle, data integrity, and spatial efficiency of all physical assets at Earthscape Play. Reporting to the Supply Chain Manager, this role has accountability over the material control ecosystem, overseeing the warehouse, yard operations, inventory accuracy, and logistics.

We are looking for a system-minded leader who thrives on process optimization and bridges the gap between sophisticated digital supply chain data (ERP) and physical execution. You will directly manage the receiving, kitting, shipping, and material handling teams, as well as the Fleet Coordinator, ensuring our production workshop and site installers have exactly what they need, when they need it.This role requires a high degree of emotional intelligence and professional maturity to handle shifting priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide direct leadership, accountability, and professional development to the shipping, receiving, kitting, and material handling teams.
• Supervise the safe and efficient operation of heavy material handling equipment (telehandlers, forklifts, skid steers) supporting daily production.
• Champion an elite culture of occupational health and safety across the entire physical footprint, ensuring strict compliance with regulations.
• Maintain a calm, professional, and solution-oriented demeanor during peak production and high-stress delivery windows, serving as a stabilizing presence for the team.
• Collaborate with neighboring business units (e.g., Landscape) to coordinate and maximize shared property utilization.

• Oversee the entire lifecycle of custom project materials, including receiving, staging, kitting, storage, and shipping.
• Optimize warehouse and yard layout designs, continuously refining workflows to maximize spatial efficiency and material accessibility.
• Govern physical inventory control, implementing rigorous data-to-shelf tracking, flagging variances, and partnering with purchasing to align on material availability.
• Standardize consistent, high-quality packaging and presentation protocols so materials leave the facility looking professional and organized.
• Synchronize the digital-to-physical picking process, tracking how information flows across engineering, purchasing, and production teams.

• Manage and support the Fleet Coordinator to ensure efficient dispatching, optimized delivery schedules, and the timely, cost-effective transport of custom playground components to project sites.
• Oversee the compliance and reliability of all company vehicles, trailers, and transport equipment, ensuring the Fleet Coordinator maintains strict adherence to Ministry of Transportation (MTO) regulations and preventative maintenance schedules.
• Provide high-level escalation support for transport capacity challenges, helping balance production deadlines with driver and fleet availability.
  

Ideal candidates will have the following qualifications:

• 4-6 years of progressive experience in materials management, warehouse operations, or supply chain logistics-with at least 2 years in a direct people-management role.
• Proven experience working within a custom-manufacturing, project-based, or construction environment.
• Strong competency in inventory control systems, kitting workflows, and proficiency with ERP/digital supply chain information flows.
• Experience managing both floor staff (handlers, pickers) and specialized administrative or coordinating roles (like fleet or logistics personnel).
• Solid knowledge of heavy equipment operations (forklift certification is an asset) and a high-level familiarity with MTO fleet compliance and safety standards.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills with a proven ability to collaborate constructively with upper management, engineering, and production-remaining professional, approachable, and solution-focused under high-pressure scenarios.

What's in it for you?

This job will offer you the opportunity to work on some of North America's most innovative playground projects. The pace, challenges and problem-solving opportunities will mean you are never bored. You will have the chance to develop and refine a wide variety of skills in our rapidly growing business. Your colleagues are dynamic, and highly skilled. They have an impressive range of backgrounds, skills and expertise.

We believe in great compensation for great employees, and we reward our staff with a combination of:

• Profit sharing and performance bonuses
• Employee share ownership opportunities (ESOP) after 1 year of service
• Six-week sabbatical after 14,000 hours worked
• Tuition reimbursement
• Extended health and dental benefits
• Flex time with options to work remotely to support work-life balance
• Company events
• Casual dress code

Accommodation: We are committed to treating all people in a way that respects their dignity and independence. Should you require any accommodation during the recruitment process or otherwise, please notify us of this when you apply, and we will work with you to meet your accessibility needs.

Pre-employment checks: As part of our selection process, successful candidates may be required to consent to background checks relevant to the role, prior to receiving a job offer. These could include: work references, education and credential confirmation, employment verification, identity check, criminal offense and driver's license record.

At Earthscape Play, we are committed to building an environment where everyone feels included, valued, and heard. Diversity, inclusion, and belonging are an important part of our everyday work, and it is our belief that they enable us to reach our goal of bringing incredible play spaces to life. We strongly encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities and/or people with intersectional identities.