Demand Planner

This role oversees the global demand planning processes for the North American region of the Sun Chemical Packaging & Graphics division. Main interactions of this role are to collaborate with relevant Regional Sales/Commercial, Product Management and Business Leadership teams, being the key link to Supply Chain and Operational key stakeholders to contribute to a global demand forecast.  The role will focus on different global directives and strategies that ensure quality forecasting processes, improving market intelligence and transparency in the S&OP.  Demand input provides the foundation of a successful supply plan, resulting in optimized material availability and inventory levels.

Core Responsibilities:

• Be accountable for rolling 12 months forecast accuracy and quality (i.e. measured by MAPE and Forecast bias or other standard metrics) on a monthly basis at the agreed aggregation level with strong market trend intelligence.
• Perform monthly global demand forecasting process and validation meetings with Regional Sales Leaders to ensure market intelligence is captured on the relevant forecasting levels: statistical / baseline, Customer-SKU-Location and Region-SKU, ensuring the collaborative forecast is properly represented in the demand planning system.
• Prepare relevant material for demand review discussion and reconcile significant forecast variances to reflect updated sales and marketing assumptions (i.e. price development, promotion plan and sales, growth opportunities, gains, losses and changes).
• Evaluate statistical/baseline forecast quality by reviewing historical sales trends, AOP budget and NetSales Forecast, researching demand drivers in regions/countries for the respective industries.
• Drive / support initiatives to improve Demand Planning excellence across the Demand Planning team by validating and executing forecast segmentation strategy, demand pattern analysis and any qualitative improvements tools.
• Provide feedback to Supply Chain Planning teams and Commercial teams on the opportunities and risks according to customer replenishment performance metrics and global differentiated portfolio steering.
• Provide input for business scenarios preparation in constrained supply situation.  Support Commercial, Product Management and Supply Chain team on the unconstrained forecast to maximize profitability and efficient assessment of business prioritization while maintaining long-term business and customer relationships.
• Represent Demand Planning organization in essential meetings/processes throughout the organization. As well as fostering customer meetings to improve forecast optimization and build-up relevant general market and customer insights.

Education & Experience Requirements:

Education:

• BA/BS degree in Business, Logistics, Industrial Engineering or related field

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of related experience in supply chain management, with a strong focus on demand planning (1–2 years) and a proven track record of improving forecast accuracy.

Knowledge/Skills:

• Strong leadership and change management skills
• Excellent organizational, communication, collaborative and interpersonal skills
• Strong analytical skills and entrepreneurial drive
• Highly motivated and enthusiastic self-starter who can work independently under general supervision
• High MS Excel capabilities, with experience in other MS Office applications
• Preferred experience with ERP and/or Supply Chain software… SAP/APO, Kinaxis