Sr. Blackberry Forecast Manager

About the Opportunity
The Sr. Blackberry Forecast Manager is responsible for leading the supply forecasting effort for Blackberries for Driscoll's. Through their leadership, they will conduct data analysis, develop forecast processes and deliverables, field data and information gathering, infield training, facilitate plan execution, provide critical input to the annual operating plan, and lead the publication of short and mid-term forecasting for their berry.
This role serves as the lead point of contact for commercial supply information to the organization. Their work explicitly supports Sales, Inventory Planning, Plan Execution, and organizational insight for volume expectations. This role is vital in accurately signaling the organization's supply expectations and timely, effective communication when deviations occur to ensure the opportunity to deliver the highest service possible to our stakeholders. This position is critical to the various forecasting horizons and supply planning efforts. This position requires cross-functional working relationships with District Production Teams, Supply Planning, S&OP, Sales, Demand Management, and Product Leadership. Developing and maintaining a strong, aligned partnership across all these groups and teams is critical for success.
This is a highly visible and cross-functional role with an opportunity to make a significant organizational impact. This role is perfect for someone who seeks an opportunity for high impact and has a natural desire for continuous improvement, is highly organized, has attention to detail, and has an elevated technical acumen to leverage data to drive insights and results. This role will serve as the lead for proactively facilitating information and responding to events that impact or pose a risk to our Blackberry supply volume.
Responsibilities

• Development and leadership of Supply forecasting processes and tools. Ensures DOTA-wide Supply forecasting process adherence and accuracy.
• Leads the functional effort in forecasting for respective berry.
• Serves as the subject matter expert in forecasting for Blackberries.
• Responsible for providing stakeholders with timely forecast volumes and anticipated supply changes.
• Serves as the organizational lead for annual production activity, rational, and leading production communication.
• A critical participant on the Berry Execution Teams and functional representative of current and future production activity.
• Responsible for delivering timely rationale for deviations.
• Utilizes in-depth understanding of berry production principles to lead cross-functional teams in developing and improving forecasting processes and tools.
• Liaison between functional areas and proactively resolve any technical or operational issues with critical contacts professionally.
• Responsible for the collection, aggregation, and dissemination of regional forecast information.
• Reviews and analyzes short and mid-range district forecasts daily/weekly and develops strategic solutions to address and manage variability.
• National representative to districts regarding forecasting and has the authority to reject and send forecasts back to the district for review and re-submittal.
• Leads meetings and other communications with a geographically and functionally diverse group to address supply questions and issues.
• Interacts with districts concerning berry forecasting. Review district forecast accuracy and provide consultative support/training to regions to improve forecasting accuracy.
• Formulates assumptions and identifies measurable drivers to enhance insights, which leads to forecast accuracy.
• Leads the functional effort of Blackberries to advance supply forecast and management efforts.
• Keeps current on district and forecasting methodologies with a solid understanding of the industry and fosters knowledge transfer within and between districts and departments.
• Leads the quarterly reforecast process and can articulate the rationale behind assumptions.
• Aides in the advancement and identification of new technologies.
• Serves as the annual supply manager leads and validates supply plan execution.
• Leads GIS mapping effort for respective berry within DOTA. Ensures all pertinent details are logged and mapped within our GIS platform to enable forecasting and supply management visibility.
• Gathers and evaluates data to develop production, variety, and application performance solutions.
• Support the input and creation of the DOTA supply plan (Quantrix model), focusing on budgeting.
• Co-create, understand, and validate the assumptions of the Supply Plan.
• Awareness of the DVS plant orders and help with any engagement regarding the order and the district.
• Support the DOTA LVS meetings and process that serves to launch new genetics.
• Responsible for providing supply variance analysis.
• National representative to districts

Candidate Profile

• A Bachelor's degree in Agriculture, Business, Mathematics, Operations, Research, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of skills and experience, is required.
• 5+ years of production planning and forecasting experience are optimal, specifically in an analytical capacity, reviewing data and extrapolating information.
• High energy, highly driven, results-oriented, innovative, self-starter
• Berry production or field-related work experience is a plus.
• High proficiency with data systems and spreadsheet tools, specifically traditional Microsoft applications such as Excel, Word, and PowerPoint required. Quantrix and the ability to learn new techniques as necessary are essential.
• Experience with Visio, Access, Info-Analysis, Tableau, and ESRI preferred.
• Experience in SQL, Python, and Machine Learning is a plus
• Strong math and analytical & reasoning skills are required.
• Excellent communication and writing skills are required, with the ability to make verbal and written explanations of forecast data that accurately and concisely represent what is happening.
• Proven experience leading process improvement projects.
• A detail and result-oriented focus is a must.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including diplomacy and collaboration, and the ability to maintain strong working relationships as an individual contributor, leader, and team member.
• Ability to manage up, down, and across to influence others, resolve conflict, recognize cultural differences, and adopt alternative methods.
• Strategic long-range, mid-range, and short-range thinking and the ability to multitask with a sense of urgency in a quick cycle time and fast-paced environment.
• Must be a self-starter, able to work independently and work well across functional teams with management, and flexible with time as needed.
• Working and communicating independently and contributing to group processes are critical.
• Ability to build strong, productive relationships with all stakeholders based on integrity, trustworthiness, and humility.
• Bilingual (Spanish and English) is strongly preferred.
• Must be skilled in working in a Matrix environment. Possess skills and competencies around conflict resolution, empathy, influence, and self-awareness.
• Ability to travel to key U.S., South America, and Mexico supply regions.
• A valid passport and traveling internationally without restrictions are also required.
• A California driver's license and the ability to be covered under a company-sponsored vehicle insurance program are also required.

Other: Follow Company policies and practices while representing Driscoll's in an ethical and business-like manner in all interactions with employees, governmental agencies, growers, customers, etc. Ensure the security of Driscoll's confidential and proprietary information and materials. Perform other duties as assigned.
This job description is intended to describe the general nature of the work performed by employees in this job. It is not an exhaustive list of all the job's responsibilities.
At Driscoll's, all of our jobs include broad responsibilities for continually improving the processes we use to develop our products.
The following information is provided in good faith as a general description of the salary range and benefits for the position posted. The actual compensation offered to the successful candidate is dependent upon experience, skills, education, work location, internal pay equity, and other objective job-related factors.
Salary Range estimated for the Sr. Blackberry Forecast Manager: $89, 958 to $132,600 USD.
Driscoll's is committed to a culture of care and offers an attractive benefits package that includes comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, life insurance, and disability coverage for positions working more than 30 hours per week. Other benefits include: 401(k) with employer match, profit-sharing participation, paid sick time, paid vacation, paid personal and family care leave, and a free Employee Assistance Program (EAP). More detailed information regarding the benefits package, will be shared during the application process.