Commercial Excellence Demand Lead

Position Summary

The Commercial Excellence Demand Lead owns and orchestrates all inventory demand signals and field inventory control from a commercial perspective and serves as the commercial business partner within the company’s SIOP (Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning) process. The role leads demand planning and forecasting, kit planning and the “control tower,” field inventory balancing, and kit/CAPEX planning and release to the field. As the commercial owner of the demand signal, this role represents the commercial organization in SIOP—building consensus forecasts and aligning sales, marketing, finance, and operations around a single demand picture. While it works closely with and draws on many operations functions, it is not an operations role; rather, it ensures that what is planned, kitted, and released to the field reflects commercial priorities, sales momentum, and field needs.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Demand Planning & Forecasting
  - Own the commercial demand plan, translating sales forecasts, field intelligence, and market signals into an actionable demand picture
  - Build statistical baseline forecasts and refine them into a consensus demand plan, tracking forecast accuracy (e.g., MAPE, bias) to drive continuous improvement
  - Consolidate and reconcile demand signals across regions, product lines, and channels
  - Partner with sales and marketing to validate demand assumptions and shape the forward demand outlook

• Kit & CAPEX Control Tower
  - Own the kit and CAPEX “control tower,” providing end-to-end commercial visibility of kit availability, instrument sets, and consigned inventory across the field
  - Lead kit and CAPEX planning and release to the field, prioritizing investment in instruments, sets, and consigned inventory by field demand and commercial return
  - Set and manage inventory par levels by Agency, balancing field service levels and case coverage against asset investment and working capital
  - Drive asset turn rates and utilization, redeploying idle or underperforming kits and CAPEX from low-velocity Agencies to higher-demand territories
  - Govern release-to-field decisions, aligning kit and CAPEX deployment with commercial strategy, field priorities, and availability

• Field Inventory Balancing
  - Manage field inventory balancing to optimize availability, utilization, and working capital across field locations
  - Identify and redeploy excess or slow-moving field inventory to where demand exists
  - Set and govern field inventory targets, par levels, and replenishment logic from a commercial standpoint
  - Reduce field stockouts and overstock by aligning field inventory to real demand

• SIOP Business Partnership & Commercial Ownership
  - Serve as the commercial business partner and voice of the field within the SIOP process, leading the demand review and driving a single consensus plan
  - Build alignment across sales, marketing, finance, and operations, challenging assumptions and resolving demand-supply tradeoffs with data
  - Retain commercial ownership of all inventory demand signals and field inventory control, ensuring decisions reflect commercial priorities rather than purely operational efficiency

Additional Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain demand and field inventory dashboards tied to commercial KPIs

• Drive continuous improvement in demand planning accuracy and field inventory performance

• Lead cross-functional alignment across commercial, operations, and finance teams

• Influence without authority across sales, marketing, operations, and finance

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree from a four-year accredited college or university in Business, Analytics, Finance, or related field (or equivalent experience)

• Several years of demand planning and forecasting experience, with a proven track record as a commercial business partner within a SIOP / S&OP process

• Hands-on experience with demand planning and forecasting systems (e.g., SAP IBP, Kinaxis, o9, Anaplan, or Blue Yonder) and strong data analysis skills (advanced Excel, Power BI or Tableau)

• Demonstrated use of statistical forecasting methods and forecast-accuracy metrics (e.g., MAPE, bias) to improve the demand signal

• Medical device / med-tech experience preferred, including familiarity with regulated environments (FDA/ISO)

Job Prerequisites

• Ability to challenge demand assumptions with data

• Strong commercial acumen and executive communication, with the ability to translate field needs into demand signals

• Proven ability to act as a trusted business partner and drive accountability across the SIOP process without direct authority

• Effective written and oral communication skills

• Strong organizational, planning, and execution skills

• Exceptional attention to detail and commitment to accuracy

• Able to lead, motivate, coach, and develop others toward high performance standards