Demand Planner Manager - Retail

Job Summary

The role converts POS and syndicated data, retailer replenishment patterns, promotions, seasonality, customer plans, and product lifecycle events into a reliable, explainable, and actionable demand signal that supports service, inventory, capacity, and business decision-making. This is an individual-contributor role with functional leadership responsibility and no direct reports. The position leads the Retail Demand Review, challenges assumptions with data and commercial insight, drives forecast discipline and influences cross-functional stakeholders toward one aligned consensus plan.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Own the Retail consensus demand plan at the customer, item, and channel levels, integrating statistical baseline, promotional, seasonal, and new-item demand.
• Own and maintain the Retail demand plan in ADD*ONE, ensuring timely and accurate updates to statistical baselines, promotional inputs, forecast overrides, customer/item assumptions, and product lifecycle events in alignment with the IBP calendar.
• Build, size, and validate promotional forecasts, including event lift, cannibalization, pantry-loading, post-promotion dips, and recurring customer programs.
• Lead the monthly Retail Demand Review within the IBP cycle, ensuring clear assumptions, forecast changes, risks, opportunities, decisions, and follow-up actions.
• Leverage POS, syndicated, retailer replenishment, account-level, and customer planning data to improve forecast quality and identify emerging demand signals.
• Lead demand planning for new product launches, customer listings, category resets, transitions, and discontinuations.
• Partner with Sales, Category Management, Marketing, and Customer Service to validate commercial assumptions, promotional plans, customer activity, and large-account forecasts.
• Partner with Supply Planning and Finance to translate demand changes into clear service, inventory, capacity, and business implications, and ensure an effective handoff into Supply Review.
• Ensure the consensus demand plan, assumptions, risks, opportunities, major forecast changes, and required mitigation actions are clearly communicated and actionable across the broader IBP process.
• Measure and improve forecast accuracy, bias, and forecast value-add, with particular focus on promoted items, high-velocity items, and large retail accounts.
• Perform root-cause analysis on forecast misses and recurring planning gaps, and drive corrective actions across data, assumptions, tools, and processes.
• Provide functional leadership by challenging unsupported forecast overrides and commercial assumptions with data, business logic, and sound planning judgment, while driving disciplined use of ADD*ONE as the primary demand planning tool.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Operations, Engineering, Analytics, or a related field; MBA, ASCM/APICS, or IBF certification preferred.
• 7+ years of experience in Retail or CPG demand planning, S&OP/IBP, or supply chain planning.
• Proven experience leading or facilitating a Retail Demand Review, consensus planning, or cross-functional forecasting process.
• Demonstrated expertise in promotional forecasting, including baseline separation, event lift, cannibalization, and post-promotion demand patterns.
• Strong experience using POS, syndicated, retailer replenishment, and account-level data to build and improve customer/item forecasts.
• Strong analytical, statistical forecasting, root-cause analysis, and problem-solving skills, with solid knowledge of forecast accuracy, bias, and demand planning KPIs.
• Proficiency with demand planning systems, ERP platforms, reporting tools, and advanced Excel or data analytics tools.
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority, challenge assumptions constructively, and communicate clear, data-driven business recommendations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in CPG, food and beverage, consumer products, or other complex retail environments.
• Experience supporting grocery, mass, club, specialty, or e-commerce retail customers.
• Familiarity with Joint Business Planning, CPFR, trade promotion management, demand sensing, or scenario planning.
• Experience improving IBP maturity, forecast governance, data quality, or planning process discipline.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance
• Basic Life Insurance
• Voluntary Life Insurance
• Flexible spending accounts & Health Savings Accounts
• 401k Retirement Plan
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Vacation
• Employee Assistance Program
• Short term/Long term disability
• Volunteer time off (VTO)
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Pet insurance