Job Description
Position Responsibilities:
Serving as a critical point of contact for the business, the Demand Manager role is to drive alignment on a consensus forecast that will be communicated back to the supply chain organization to drive supply. Three (3) focus areas of responsibility that help create that forecast are:
Demand Forecasting:
- Create and refine demand forecasts for the Business Unit (BU), integrating feedback from management and other departments to ensure accuracy.
- Evaluate and analyze key factors influencing the forecast, understanding their impact on risks and operations.
- Highlight critical forecast issues, tradeoffs, and necessary decisions for scenario planning and alignment meetings.
- Serve as the central point for consolidating and communicating the full BU demand plan from various sources.
- Determine the financial impact of demand planning decisions and aligning with BU strategy and long-term goals.
- Recognize and resolve forecasting exceptions, optimize forecast fit
- Identify and lead the implementation of opportunities to improve forecast accuracy.
Scenario Analysis:
·Lead scenario analysis efforts, using Kinaxis Maestro to assess the impact of changes in demand drivers such as pricing, seasonality, inventory, and distribution.
- Examine the effects of different risk and opportunity scenarios on the demand forecast and make recommendations to the LT.
- Assist in developing strategies for the most significant scenarios in collaboration with business planning leadership.
Cross-Functional Collaboration:
- Engage proactively with various departments to understand forecast drivers, gather business insights, and incorporate necessary adjustments into the demand planning process.
- Organize and facilitate monthly S&OP meetings (i.e., Demand Alignment and Consensus Meeting)
- Work with Sales to determine trends, identify new products, new customers and evaluate risks
- Manage agreed upon adjustments / overrides to the statistical forecasts based on market intelligence
- Explain the forecast and develop consensus. Identify major issues affecting the accuracy of the forecast.
Position Qualifications:
- BA/BS degree in Supply Chain, Economics, Business Administration, or related fields, or equivalent amount of work experience
- Strategic thinking with the ability to translate data into actionable business strategies.
- Strong financial and analytical skills, including a deep understanding of forecast models and predictive analytics.
- Proficiency in data analysis and trend recognition.
- Comprehensive knowledge of customer operations and demand drivers.
- Solid background in supply chain management and operations.
- Excellent communication skills and executive presence.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment, prioritize tasks, and adapt to changes.
- Strong cross-functional networking and influencing abilities throughout the organization.
- Intellectual curiosity and problem-solving skills.
- Recent experience in S&OP, IBP, or demand planning.
- Statistical modeling and predictive analytics are preferred.
- Experience in a customer-facing role preferred.
- Experienced using Kinaxis Maestro.