Demand Planning Manager

Role overview

This role focuses on building short-range and up to two-year demand forecasts at the item and customer level. The planner will combine consumption patterns, promotional sales data, new product marketing plans, and statistical methods to generate a demand signal that supports planning decisions. Each month, the objective is to produce a rolling demand plan that is accurate and aligned across functions. A major part of the job is to create, document, refresh, and test the assumptions behind the forecast.

Key responsibilities

• Champion the company culture by modeling the Five Principles and reinforcing the expected business environment across the organization.
• Show leadership in promoting the Royal Canin business purpose throughout the company.
• Influence internal partners on opportunities related to the business, customers, and market conditions.
• Use business unit and market intelligence to assess the impact on the business.
• Track monthly KPIs so the organization can build the most accurate view of future customer demand and support end-to-end supply chain execution.
• Partner across functions to build and improve a rolling 24-month statistical forecast at SKU level for more than $1B in annual US sales.
• Serve as the US key user for the OMP Demand Planning system.
• Keep OMP as the main forecasting tool for market trends, historical trends, and sales/marketing DMR decisions.
• Take part in monthly demand review meetings with Sales and Marketing to capture market updates and reflect them in the forecast.
• Work with Sales and Marketing to create forecasts for new products.
• As a major contributor to the S&OP+ process, maintain and present KPIs and detailed business insights to business unit and senior leadership teams.
• Use analytics to influence functional decisions presented to senior management and business unit leaders.
• Work with Sales Planning Managers in Demand Management Review and feeder meetings involving Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain.
• Contribute to the execution and ongoing improvement of the S&OE and short-term planning process.

Functional and technical strengths

• Comfort working with senior leaders and contributing to monthly demand planning review discussions.
• Strong analytical ability with the skill to identify what drives forecast accuracy and explain the plan to cross-functional partners.
• Ability to challenge other teams with fact-based reasoning.
• Good prioritization and independent working ability.
• Problem-solving skills for periodic root-cause analysis across demand planning, customer service, and inventory metrics.
• Comfort handling ambiguity, adapting to change, taking informed risks, and making decisions with limited direction.
• Strong quantitative and statistical capability for handling large data sets and turning them into business conclusions.
• Business acumen, organizational agility, and the ability to work with higher management.
• Problem solving, analytical thinking, written communication, verbal communication, channel planning, and execution skills.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, or a related business field is required.
• An MBA or another related master’s degree is preferred.
• At least 5 years of business experience in CPG, working with customers in demand planning, supply chain, logistics, marketing services, or similar functions.
• Strong understanding of the demand planning process.
• Advanced computer and systems literacy, including MS Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, and Word.
• Working knowledge of the industry and the S&OP+ process is preferred.
• Strong project management capability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to speak effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Solid analytical experience.
• Team-oriented mindset with problem-solving ability and the capacity to motivate others.

Compensation and benefits

The base salary for this role at the start of employment is USD 86,720 to USD 119,240 per year. Actual pay may differ based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other individualized factors. The full compensation package also includes variable pay, medical and dental coverage, participation in a 401(k) plan, and paid time off. Benefit details are shared during the offer stage.

Additional information

This posting applies to the US locations listed in the job ad. The role is supported by a compensation range that spans all of those locations.