Senior Director, Global Demand Planning & Forecasting

About the Role

Johnson Controls is standing up a global demand planning capability for its fast-growing Data Center business, and we are looking for the leader to design it, scale it, and make it deliver results. As the Sr. Director, Global Demand Planning & Forecasting, you will build and lead a first-of-its-kind global demand planning organization for Johnson Controls' Data Center business, spanning the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. You will own the end-to-end demand signal – in both units and dollars – across our applied equipment and thermal management portfolio, consolidating regional and product-line forecasts into a single, consensus global demand plan. Partnering closely with Sales, Finance, Product Management, and the manufacturing plants, you will translate top-down growth targets into an actionable forecast that drives capacity, capital, and supply decisions across 8 manufacturing plants. This is a highly visible, build-from-the-ground-up leadership role that directly shapes how we plan, produce, and deliver to the world's largest data center customers.

Reports to: VP, Revenue Operations – Data Centers. Location: Milwaukee, WI (Hybrid).

Responsibilities

• Build the capability: Design and stand up the global demand planning process – including product hierarchy, planning levels, scope (conventional vs. data center demand), decision rights, and accountable handoffs – beginning with a bounded pilot before scaling to a recurring global demand review.
• Lead the team: Recruit, develop, and lead a global team of regional Demand Planning Managers (Americas, EMEA, APAC) and global product demand planners, each supported by dedicated analysts.
• Own the forecast: Own the monthly consensus demand plan, consolidating qualitative and quantitative inputs, reconciling conflicts between statistical and commercial forecasts, and producing a single global plan in units and dollars.
• Drive accuracy: Establish forecast accuracy targets, statistical forecasting models, and bias/variability tracking; use recent results to continuously improve model accuracy and planning behaviors.
• Integrate S&OP: Provide the demand-side handshake to Supply Chain and the plants, translating the plan into product mix, factory capacity, capital needs, and supplier requirements ahead of demand realization.
• Plan for growth & NPI: Accommodate different data center business models and the uncertainty of new products – including customer-specific programs, NPI, and products without historical demand patterns – through robust lifecycle and phase-in / phase-out planning.
• Partner cross-functionally: Chair the monthly demand review, align the demand plan with Finance's outlooking and revenue/backlog planning, and ensure the process drives operational results – not meetings for their own sake.
• Connect the signal: Integrate major-customer QBR and account-planning insights into the demand signal, ensuring the voice of the customer shapes the forward plan.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Operations, Business, Engineering, Finance, or a related field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in demand planning, forecasting, and S&OP, including 5+ years leading and building teams.
• Demonstrated success establishing or transforming a demand planning / S&OP process at a product-region level in a global, multi-plant manufacturing environment.
• Deep expertise in statistical forecasting, consensus demand planning, forecast accuracy measurement, and demand/supply reconciliation.
• Strong financial acumen – able to plan and translate demand in both units and dollars and align to revenue, backlog, and financial outlooking.
• Proven ability to influence and align senior Sales, Finance, Product, and Operations leaders without direct authority.
• Excellent communication skills and executive presence, with the ability to drive decisions in cross-functional review meetings.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree (MBA or Supply Chain) and/or APICS/CPIM or IBF (CPF) certification.
• Experience in HVAC, applied equipment, thermal management, or the data center / mission-critical industry.
• Hands-on experience with advanced demand planning systems (e.g., ketteQ, Kinaxis, SAP IBP, or similar) and modern analytics/AI-assisted forecasting.
• Experience integrating acquisitions and new business models into a common planning process.

Pay

Hiring salary range: $160,000.00 – 240,000.00 USD Annual. Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.

Benefits

This position includes a competitive benefits package. For details, please visit the About Us tab on the Johnson Controls Careers site: https://jobs.johnsoncontrols.com/about-us