Job Summary:

The Demand Planning Director will partner with Sales, Marketing, Operations and Finance to develop an accurate demand forecast for all SKUs in the designated area of the business.  Accountable to provide focus and integration of data from Marketing, Sales, Customer Marketing, and Finance, which are used to develop accurate and timely forecasts supporting Operations, Sales and Financial Planning. Ensure consistency of forecast assumptions across the business unit, including base business trends, promotional plans, new launch volumes, planogram changes and seasonal volume.

Responsible for understanding and reinforcing manufacturing, marketing and financial processes to link/align with forecasting processes.  Provide guidance / oversight of SKU level forecasts, to ensure alignment with business direction and consistency with market trends. Communicate demand forecast plans and the assumptions behind them through the supply chain.  Work closely with the Supply Planning/MSL team to identify and resolve changes in the forecast and their impact on the supply chain. Establish and manage SKU level statistical forecasts for their specific area of accountability.  Gather and incorporate all sources of market intelligence to produce the best possible operational forecast. Update and monitor process key performance indicators and diagnostics to ensure continual forecast improvement efforts and prepare written analyses, documentation, reports or other data of a quality requiring minimal supervisory review.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required; preferably in the area of Supply Chain, Mathematics, Statistics, Operations Research, or other quantitative business discipline)
• Minimum 8 years work experience preferably within a FMCG industry; minimum of 5-7 years forecasting experience
• Prior management experience preferred
• Software Skills: Proficiency with MS Office required, intermediate MS Excel required, advanced Excel helpful; experience with a forecast modeling tool preferred, SAP experience helpful
• Working knowledge of:
• Use of quantitative methods to analyze situations and solve business problems
• Data management/databases
• OLAP tools
• Mass market retail environment
• Consumer marketing
• Supply chain operations
• Must have ability to work cross functionally, build relationships and excel in a team environment