Senior Demand Planner

The Role:

This position is responsible for creating and maintaining a 12+ month Brand/Sku forecast for all products sold utilizing a consensus approach with cross functional partners. The Demand Planner II monitors and facilitates the entire forecasting process, tracks inputs and outputs, and influences business decisions in order to minimize forecast error and enable effective supply planning.

What you will do:

• Analyze drivers to determine appropriate forecast by Sales Org/Brand/Sku or other hierarchical level. Variables may include POS (Point of Sale) data, Consumption (Nielsen) data, historical sales trends, statistical modeling, upcoming product launches and/or initiatives, advertising, media spend, competitive activity, promotional activity, new distribution and de-listings, and trade inventory.
• Facilitate the consensus forecast process amongst Demand Planning, Supply Planning, Marketing, Trade Marketing, Customer Business/Sales, and Finance functions. Ensure accurate assumptions and documents. Recommend forecast adjustments based on latest inputs and trends. Hold all functions accountable for their contributions to the forecasting process.
• Measure the pace or attainment at which the forecast is being consumed within the period. Make necessary adjustments to the forecast, and communicate short term trends to supply planning and other relevant functions. Maintain forecasts within SAP and/or other forecasting tools timely and accurately.
• Organize and document forecast assumptions. Create and distribute necessary reports for forecasting reviews.
• Contribute to SCM (Supply Chain Management) projects, initiate and drive process improvements and optimization.
• Perform Gap analysis, reconciling the Consensus forecast against Budget and Latest Estimates. Investigate variances to ensure the forecast is aligned to business expectations.
• Track performance against Key Performance Targets (KPTs) and other objectives. This includes creating, updating, and distributing reports from SAP, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and BI. Develop action plans to minimize variances to targets.

What you will need:

• Bachelor's degree required, preferably in Operations or Supply Chain Management concentrations.
• APICS (America Production & Inventory Control Society), IBF (Institute of Business Forecasting) or other Certification preferred.
• Experience in Supply Chain or Operations: Minimum 3+ years.
• Demonstrated proficiency in forecasting and forecasting methods, also understanding their financial and operational impacts on downstream activities. Understanding of statistical tools.
• Proficiency to constructively influence decision making across functions. Ability to engage partners to ensure a collaborative environment and approach to forecasting. Assertive, without being aggressive.
• Demonstrated ability to develop clear and compelling justification for proposed process changes or improvements, to drive the change through implementation, and to engage appropriate members within the role out of the change.
• Aptitude for pulling out insights from various data streams that may not be readily apparent in order to drive forecasting improvements at the sku level.
• Proficiency in Excel/PP, SAP, BI, and other relevant systems, and capability to build presentations on process overviews, KPTs (key performance targets) variances, improvement activities, and other topics as needed.

A reasonable pay range is $75,000 - $90,000.

How we work: Having been selected among the World´s Most Ethical Companies for 17 consecutive years, we are a company with a purpose and strong corporate values. We never compromise on quality and craft our products with care for the consumer and the environment. At Kao, each employee can actively shape their job and their career. We work collaboratively to achieve our common goals, always aiming to deliver the best for our customers.

What we offer: A friendly and flexible work environment with competitive salaries, benefits package, ongoing development and the opportunity to enhance your skills and deliver tangible results. At Kao your voice will be heard. Your opinion really counts. We believe that change comes from taking opportunities into your own hands, so we value and reward entrepreneurial thinking and innovation.

Hiring Process: Kao embraces the diversity and the individual personalities of its people because we believe it is diversity that makes us strong. This is why we welcome applications from all areas of the global community.

Want to learn more: If you feel you are as unique as our products and want to find out why 33,000 people across the globe opted for a career with us please visit our Americas website (https://www.kao.com/americas/en/).

EOE, including disability/vets