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Career Advice
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Industry Insights
Friddy Hoegener
16 February 2026
Supply chain companies are desperately searching for mid-level talent while simultaneously automating away the very roles that create it.
Entry-level hiring has collapsed by 29 percentage points since January 2024, according to Randstad's Gen Z Workplace Blueprint. Not slowed. Collapsed. Junior tech roles declined 35%, logistics by 25%, and finance by 24%. Meanwhile, companies are posting job descriptions for "junior" positions requiring 3-5 years of experience, proficiency in SAP IBP or Kinaxis, and the ability to lead cross-functional stakeholder meetings.
Companies want experienced professionals but eliminated the positions where people gain that experience.
This goes beyond a temporary hiring freeze. It's a structural dismantling of the supply chain talent pipeline, and the consequences are already showing up in your P&L.
We've weathered automation before. ERPs in the 1990s changed workflows. Advanced planning systems in the 2000s shifted how we forecasted. But those tools still needed human operators for data entry, exception handling, and decision execution.
Agentic AI is different.
Modern AI doesn't just follow rules. It reasons through workflows, makes decisions within parameters, and executes tasks across systems without human intervention. It attacks the learning curve itself.
Consider what's being automated right now:
In Procurement:
Matching invoices to purchase orders
Chasing suppliers for acknowledgments
Basic spend categorization
Tail spend negotiations via chatbots
In Logistics:
Track-and-trace coordination
Manual freight auditing
Carrier selection and routing
Exception flagging and resolution
In Planning:
Cleaning historical sales data
Adjusting safety stock levels
Aggregating sales inputs
Basic forecast smoothing
These were the tasks that trained an entire generation of supply chain professionals. Junior planners learned to spot demand anomalies by manually correcting 1,000 forecast lines. Junior buyers developed negotiation instincts by reviewing 500 routine contracts.
When AI handles the routine 80% of transactions, only the complex 20% remains: the exceptions. But handling exceptions requires the deep context and experience that juniors haven't developed yet.
The role is no longer suitable for entry-level. It requires senior-level expertise. And suddenly, "junior" positions demand 3-5 years of experience.
MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics calls the manual work "pedagogical." It served a critical teaching purpose. By handling exceptions, scrubbing dirty data, and interacting with supply chain friction, junior employees developed tacit knowledge.
Tacit knowledge is the unwritten wisdom that lets you know:
A specific supplier will be late during harvest season
That carrier always over-promises on capacity
Port strikes affect more than just lead time metrics
The trade-offs involved in expediting freight
Without foundational context, we're creating "paper generals." These are planners who can optimize in a digital twin but can't navigate the chaos of an actual supplier insolvency or factory floor disruption.
For professionals trying to navigate this new landscape, understanding how to future-proof your supply chain career becomes critical. The skills that matter are shifting from tactical execution to strategic judgment.
The math is brutal and unforgiving: if you don't hire and train entry-level workers today, you won't have mid-level workers in 2030. You can't manufacture five years of experience. You can only grow it over five years.
Here's what the broken pipeline looks like:
Career Stage
Traditional Path
The "Missing Rung" Path
Consequence
Entry (0-2 yrs)
Learning by doing transactional work
Role automated or outsourced
No training ground, no talent intake
Mid-level (3-7 yrs)
Tactical management, leading juniors
High demand, analyzing AI outputs
Wage inflation, poaching wars
Senior (8+ yrs)
Strategic leadership, mentoring
Managing AI strategy
No successors, high burnout
We're already seeing the damage:
54% of supply chain organizations report leadership turnover has disrupted operations
54% shortage in middle management (the exact level entry pipelines feed)
71% of multinational executives report difficulty finding senior supply chain leadership
77% of organizations lack sufficient leadership depth
As Harvard Business Review argues, entry-level roles are about more than cheap labor. They're crucial for developing future leaders, fostering innovation, and enriching organizational culture. Automation cannot replace these developmental pathways.
The shift: "Demand Planner" roles are evolving into "AI Forecast Coach" positions. The junior work of aggregating sales inputs and smoothing data in Excel is gone. Kinaxis, o9 Solutions, and SAP IBP handle it automatically.
The risk: Demand planning goes beyond math. It's about influence. Juniors used to learn stakeholder management by physically chasing sales reps for numbers, sitting in sales meetings, understanding the "why" behind spikes.
The outcome: We're creating surplus data scientists who can tune forecast models but can't convince a VP of Sales that their numbers are optimistic. Statistically accurate forecasts that are operationally irrelevant because the business doesn't trust them.
The shift: Transactional buying (cutting POs, managing renewals, verifying pricing) is increasingly automated. The focus shifts entirely to strategic sourcing and supplier relationship management.
The risk: Strategic sourcing requires understanding the product and market. A buyer who never handled tactical purchasing of resins doesn't understand commodity markets, feedstock price impacts, or supplier pain points.
The outcome: Procurement professionals who excel at contract administration but struggle with commercial strategy. They become reliant on supplier data rather than generating their own insights.
Understanding which supply chain roles remain in-demand in 2026 reveals how dramatically these functions are changing and what skills now command premium salaries.
The shift: "Logistics Coordinators" who booked trucks and tracked shipments are being replaced by "Predictive Logistics Operations Managers" who manage AI-flagged exceptions.
The risk: The pathway from warehouse supervisor to corporate logistics role is breaking. As corporate roles become data-heavy (requiring SQL, Tableau, PowerBI), that mobility path is severed.
The outcome: Dangerous disconnect between corporate strategy and warehouse reality. Corporate teams optimize for theoretical capacity without understanding physical constraints like dock doors, labor realities, and night shift challenges.
When you can't find mid-level talent because the pipeline is dry, the seat sits empty. In supply chain, vacancy is hemorrhage, not savings.
Direct costs:
1.5-2x monthly salary for every month a position remains vacant
For a $120K Supply Chain Manager role: $15,000-$20,000 per month in lost productivity
Cascade effects:
Inventory bloat: Systems default to conservative estimates, driving up working capital
Expedite fees: Air freight becomes the substitute for planning
Burnout and turnover: Remaining staff absorb workload, increasing attrition risk
Lost revenue: Delayed product launches, missed contract renewals, unfavorable auto-renewals
Salary compression crisis:
Mid-level talent (3-7 years experience) is commanding unsustainable premiums. Senior Demand Planner salaries have pushed past $130K-$140K in markets where $100K was the ceiling two years ago. Candidates with niche skills like SAP IBP implementation or cold chain logistics command 20-30% premiums.
For context on current market rates, our 2026 salary guide shows exactly how dramatically compensation has shifted for roles requiring specialized experience.
Meanwhile, entry-level roles viewed as "automatable" see stagnating starting salaries, making supply chain less attractive than finance, tech, or consulting for top university talent.
The talent cliff is hitting precisely when U.S. manufacturing needs people most.
Driven by the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act, U.S. manufacturing construction has hit record highs. We're building factories, but we don't have people to run them.
The gap:
2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030 (Deloitte & The Manufacturing Institute)
Baby Boomer skilled workers retiring en masse
U.S. fertility rate at 1.62, below replacement level
Reshoring requires operational talent: people who understand production scheduling, MRO procurement, shop floor control, quality assurance. These are the exact skills learned in entry-level roles companies have been automating for a decade.
Regional hotspots feeling the pain:
Southeast "Battery Belt" (Georgia, Tennessee, Carolinas)
Midwest industrial heartland
Both need boots-on-ground talent, not remote data analysts
The "missing rung" is a warning sign. Companies that continue deleting entry-level roles for short-term efficiency are consuming their own seed corn.
They're building a future where they'll be held hostage by a shrinking pool of expensive senior contractors and consultants, lacking internal bench strength to navigate the next crisis.
The current generation of Supply Chain VPs and CSCOs learned the ropes in the 1990s and 2000s, before AI and widespread digitization. They have the tacit knowledge we discussed earlier.
When this generation retires, who replaces them? If the group behind them is small due to the hiring freezes and automation waves of the 2020s, organizations will face a desperate shortage of qualified executive leaders.
Deloitte's 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report shows that 66% of managers say recent hires are "not fully prepared," citing experience as the number one failing. Even when companies do hire, candidates lack the depth required to perform.
We're seeing the emergence of a "barbell" shaped workforce: a large number of entry-level roles (often outsourced or automated) and a heavy top layer of leadership, with a dangerously thin middle. This structure is unstable. It provides no path for upward mobility, leading to high turnover among ambitious juniors who see no way to advance.
We can't reverse automation, nor should we. AI offers efficiency gains essential for modern supply chains. But we must re-engineer how we build talent.
The companies that win in 2026 and beyond will:
Re-architect entry-level roles for an AI-native world
Build pipelines where humans provide context, ethics, and strategy while machines provide speed and scale
Value operational context as much as code
Recognize that automating tasks is not the same as automating talent development
Don't require candidates to match every single item on job descriptions.
Instead:
Prioritize problem-solving and learning agility over specific tool proficiency
A candidate who understands demand planning logic (seasonality, trend, bias, error) can learn Kinaxis in three months
Someone who knows the software buttons but lacks supply chain intuition fails the moment the model breaks
Passive talent: The top 10% of talent aren't checking job boards. They're currently employed and delivering results. You need a partner who can headhunt them, tell your story, and engage them on the promise of career growth and impact, not just salary.
The 2026 supply chain job market rewards preparation and strategic positioning for both candidates building skills and companies defining what they actually need.
Formalize tacit knowledge transfer even when grunt work is gone.
Forced context through shadowing:
Even if a junior role is 80% data analytics, mandate 20% time shadowing physical operations
Ride along with truckers
Walk warehouse floors for a week
Sit with buyers during tough negotiations
Spend time in customer service listening to complaints
This forced context replaces the organic context they used to get from manual work.
Make juniors the AI auditors:
Their job goes beyond just doing work. It's auditing the AI that does the work
Teach them to question data, spot anomalies, understand algorithm logic
This builds critical thinking and systems logic they'll need as leaders
Years of experience is a poor proxy for competence. In a world where technology changes every 18 months, 10 years of experience might be one year repeated 10 times.
Outcome-based hiring:
Instead of asking for "5 years of sourcing experience," ask for examples of managing a TCO reduction project
Ask for evidence of resolving a critical supply disruption
Rethink degree requirements:
Re-evaluate if a four-year degree is truly needed for every role
Many of the best logistics coordinators and planners come from the warehouse floor
They possess gritty operational context graduates lack
Creating pathways for "blue collar to white collar" mobility solves talent shortages and builds a loyal, operationally savvy workforce
Generalist recruiters see "Supply Chain" and think "Logistics." They send keyword matches that waste your time.
Why specialization matters: A Supply Chain Manager in pharmaceutical cold chain is completely different from one in automotive JIT manufacturing. Specialized recruiters understand industry terminology (APICS, S&OP, last-mile, Incoterms) and can vet candidates for context, not just content.
Realistic market feedback: If you want a Senior Planner for $80k, a good recruiter will tell you that role doesn't exist in the current market. They'll show you the data and propose alternatives: hiring a high-potential Junior Planner for $80k and investing in a structured mentorship plan often provides better long-term ROI.
BUILD (Internal): Create a formal Supply Chain Development Program rotating high-potential employees through Planning, Procurement, and Logistics.
BUY (External): For critical strategic roles where you can't wait for training, work with specialized supply chain recruiters who understand the difference between pharmaceutical cold chain and automotive JIT manufacturing. Our data shows average time-to-fill for focused searches is 4.5 weeks.
BORROW (Contingent): Use interim leadership and consultants for project work (SAP implementation, network optimization) rather than burning out full-time employees or hiring permanent staff for temporary spikes.
In a market where mid-level talent is scarce, retention becomes as critical as recruitment.
Keeping talent engaged requires more than competitive salary. It demands clear career development paths, meaningful work, and visible examples of internal advancement.
Companies that can't articulate a compelling growth path will lose talent to those that can.
The industry's current path represents "short-term gain and massive long-term implications." The question is whether enough organizations will act in time to prevent the damage from becoming structural and permanent.
If you're facing critical talent gaps and need partners who understand both the technical requirements and the cultural fit necessary for long-term success, working with experienced supply chain recruiters can help organizations secure the right talent faster. Build your talent pipeline while competitors struggle to fill theirs.
Q: Are entry-level jobs being replaced by AI?
Yes. AI is taking over basic tasks like data entry, PO processing, and tracking. Entry-level roles now focus on reviewing AI output, which often requires prior experience.
Q: What happens when companies eliminate entry-level roles?
It breaks the talent pipeline. Without entry-level roles, companies stop developing future managers and lose practical, on-the-ground supply chain knowledge over time.
Q: How can candidates prepare if entry-level jobs are replaced by AI?
Candidates need to move beyond data gathering and learn how to interpret information and manage exceptions. Hands-on operational experience, such as working in a warehouse, builds context AI cannot provide.
Q: What is Gen Z supposed to do when AI takes entry-level jobs?
Gen Z should look for apprenticeship or rotational programs that offer real exposure to experienced leaders. They should also build human skills like negotiation and crisis management.
Q: Will entry-level jobs come back?
Traditional data-entry roles will not return. New entry-level roles will exist, but they will require stronger technical skills and critical thinking from the start.
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