Senior Demand Planner, Corporate

What you will do...

The Sr. Demand Planner creates, reviews, publishes, and refines demand forecasts across multiple hierarchies to deliver high-quality and consistently improving demand projections to ensure the right product, at the right place, at the right time. This role supports the demand steps within the IBP process and collects input from cross-functional partners such as sales, marketing, finance, consumer and customer Insights (CCID), and commercialization to achieve world class forecast accuracy and bias which supports a coordinated service level and inventory strategy with supply planning.

The Sr. Demand Planner has product line responsibility for multiple Brands within the business unit that s/he supports. The duties include: working with marketing, sales, and logistics to understand the drivers of demand and forecasting implications of activities, working with the Supply and Procurement teams to support case fill and inventory objectives, as well as, to bring visibility to long term forecasts for capacity, raw material and commodity procurement, and playing a support role to develop and execute the strategic direction for objectives in improving forecast accuracy and bias.

• Supports the monthly forecasting process for several product lines within the business unit s/he supports aimed at delivering high-quality and consistently improving demand visibility to ensure the right product, at the right place, at the right time. Manages the forecasting performance review process by monitoring forecast metrics and adjusting statistical models and market intelligence accordingly. Collects market intelligence (customer events, pricing actions, competitive insights) from cross functional participants and leverages judgement to improve forecasts accordingly.
• Creates statistical forecasts for Brands that fall under the rigorous IBP process and supports the Demand Step of the Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process by delivering monthly consensus forecasts within the business unit s/he supports, as well as supports the development of the Annual Operating Plan (AOP). Develops and ensures compliance with common templates for key stakeholders within IBP process.
• Coordinates the inter-functional resolution of day-to-day challenges related to demand and supply discrepancies and plays a role in ensuring that there is effective "lessons learned" documentation. Ensures that significant unexpected out of stock situations are reviewed and resolved with participation from key functional areas. Ensures that action plans on key day to day exceptions situations are communicated to appropriate stakeholders.
• Supports process improvement projects in partnership with the Center of Excellence to improve forecast accuracy and bias results. Maintains and enhances process documentation.
• Lead key strategic initiatives or projects individually or on cross-functional teams.
• Develops forecasts for new items with key cross-functional inputs and collaborates with Supply Planners to develop and execute strategies for new items and items to be transitioned or discontinued.
• Extracts data and reports from various sources to support team needs, including the monthly IBP cycle and performs data analysis to support brand/channel forecasting needs.
• Maintains superior data quality by ensuring that the data sources (Sales, IT, and Financial systems) are under control and in a continuous improvement stage. Ensures that planning software interfaces and parameters maintenance have been documented and reasonable processes developed. Administers appropriate product, customer, and location hierarchy as well as other forecasting model parameters.

• Develops item, location, weekly forecasts for a 24-month rolling horizon for a subset of categories using historical trends, customer intelligence, and other demand drivers which provides a signal for the broader organization.
• Addresses planning/forecasting related issues that the manufacturing plants or stakeholders bring to the table, evaluating the problems, and finding the best course of action.
• Minimizes inconsistencies in information as this position works between and within numerous platforms to obtain all required information to manage the business, e.g., SAP, Terra Technology, WMS, and various reporting tools.
• Supports the organization to Best-in-Class IBP standards that are benchmarkable against world class companies.
• Drive collaboration and consensus with a diverse set of internal stakeholders to create quality decisions with unbiased direction on specific business units/ brands.

What you bring to the table...

• Bachelor's Degree required.
• Minimum of 5 years in supply chain planning or comparable analytical role required.

It would be great to have...

• Excellent Microsoft Office skills, including Excel. MS Access skills or aptitude to quickly learn is important.
• Manugistics Demand Planning, SAP, or other Supply Chain planning software experience preferred.
• Familiarity with and experience extracting information from syndicated data (ie IRi) preferred
• Ability to make assumptions and defend them
• Consumer products industry experience preferred
• Business/Supply Chain discipline or related field preferred.