Director, Demand Planning

About the role

The Director of Demand Planning is a senior cross-functional leader responsible for owning and elevating the end-to-end demand planning process across e-commerce, retail, and wholesale channels. This individual develops accurate, data-driven sales, margin, and inventory forecasts that directly inform business decisions and financial targets. Serving as a critical bridge between Commercial, Merchandising, Finance, Channel Leads, and Supply Chain teams, this role leads the S&OP cycle, drives forecast accuracy improvements, and ensures inventory is optimised to support growth while minimising risk.

Responsibilities

• Demand forecasting & financial planning
• Own and maintain rolling 12–18 month demand forecasts at a top line, channel, and department level, incorporating statistical baselines, seasonality, promotions, and market trends.
• Lead development of annual sales, gross margin, and inventory budgets, as well as multi-year long-range plans across all channels.
• Reconcile forecasts to gross sales and financial targets, clearly communicating risks, opportunities, and variance drivers to senior leadership.
• Open to Buy & Ladder planning
• Own and maintain rolling 12–18 month Open to Buy by department at an omni and channel, incorporating statistical baselines, seasonality, product life cycle, and market trends.
• Define and manage Key Item Ladders on Core styles at size level forecasting out sales, receipts, and inventory while managing the introduction of new styles to be on ladders and the profitable and timing sunset of non go forward Ladder styles.
• Lead development by department of annual sales, gross margin, and inventory budgets, as well as multi-year long-range plans across all channels.
• Reconcile forecasts to gross sales and financial targets, clearly communicating risks, opportunities, and variance drivers to senior leadership.
• S&OP leadership & cross-functional alignment
• Lead the monthly demand forecast as part of the S&OP cycle, facilitating consensus meetings with Product, Channel Leads, Brand, and Finance stakeholders.
• Translate commercial strategy and sales plans into executable demand signals for all teams.
• Identify risks and opportunities early and drive cross-functional mitigation plans to protect product levels and financial performance.
• Serve as the primary point of accountability for forecast integrity and demand signal quality across the organisation.
• Inventory management & optimisation
• Oversee inventory planning to WOS targets, inventory turn goals, and returns across channels and accounts.
• Manage receipts along Merchandising Planning, Finance, and Product teams to ensure receipt flow with financial forecast to ensure healthy WOS and react to any change in trend.
• Performance management, reporting & insights
• Own and communicate demand-related KPIs including forecast accuracy, forecast bias, service levels, and inventory health.
• Own weekly reporting and company scorecard on topline business performance and align with cross functional leaders on go forward actions.
• Deliver executive-level monthly and quarterly business hindsights with clear insights, risks, and recommended actions.
• Develop and maintain reporting tools and dashboards to support leadership decision-making.
• Champion continuous improvement across forecasting methodologies, planning tools, and processes — including system implementations relevant to demand planning.
• Team leadership & development
• Lead, coach, and develop a strong planning rigor across the entire company, fostering a culture of best in class planning process and language, intellectual curiosity, and continuous improvement.
• Act as a demand planning expert and thought leader internally, contributing to knowledge sharing across the broader organisation.