Sales & Operations Planning Manager

Location: Raleigh, NC, USA. Reports to Commercial Planning Lead Manager.

About the role

This position leads the quarterly sales cycle planning process that supports go-to-market execution across the Retail Sales organization. The Manager brings together inputs from Sales, Marketing, Finance, and other key stakeholders to translate commercial priorities, brand initiatives, trade programs, pricing actions, and field execution needs into structured, actionable, and capacity-aware plans. The role uses store segmentation, sales performance data, and KPI insights to help ensure initiatives are directed toward the right retail outlets and can be realistically executed by the field organization. The Manager also identifies planning dependencies, potential conflicts, and resource constraints, helping stakeholders prioritize activities and make informed decisions. In addition, the Manager develops and coordinates clear cycle plan deliverables, including planning timelines, execution guidelines, summaries, and supporting materials, ensuring the sales organization has the information and resources needed to execute approved plans with clarity and consistency. The role works within established commercial strategies, brand priorities, trade program guidelines, store segmentation frameworks, and sales force capacity parameters, with a strong focus on cross-functional collaboration and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Cycle Planning & Commercial Coordination – Leads the quarterly sales cycle planning process to ensure go-to-market plans are developed in a structured, timely, and collaborative manner; coordinates planning inputs from Sales, Marketing, Finance, and other key stakeholders; aligns commercial priorities, brand initiatives, trade programs, pricing actions, and field execution needs within the cycle planning process; establishes and manages planning timelines, milestones, dependencies, and required stakeholder inputs; ensures key commercial priorities are translated into clear and actionable plans for the sales organization; incorporates KPI results and post-activity learnings into future planning cycles to continuously improve planning effectiveness; facilitates cross-functional alignment and identifies issues requiring prioritization or resolution.
• Store Planning & Segmentation – Applies store segmentation and planning frameworks to ensure initiatives are directed toward the appropriate retail outlets; partners with Sales and other stakeholders to validate store targeting and planning assumptions; considers store-level requirements and commercial priorities when developing cycle plans; ensures execution guidance reflects the needs and characteristics of targeted retail outlets; uses available sales and market information to improve the relevance and effectiveness of store-level planning; supports consistent application of segmentation frameworks across planning cycles.
• Capacity, Feasibility & Prioritization – Assesses proposed cycle activities against sales force capacity, timing, workload, and operational constraints; evaluates whether proposed plans can be realistically executed within available field resources and timelines; identifies potential conflicts, dependencies,