- Field
- Supply chain and procurement
- Location
- Northampton, MA
- Work model
- Onsite
- Level
- Manager
- Pay
- $100k to $110k
What you would own
- Develop, maintain, and improve statistical and consensus-based demand forecasts across product lines, customers, channels, and regions.
- Lead the demand-planning component of the S&OP/IBP process, ensuring cross-functional alignment on forecasts, assumptions, risks, and business priorities.
- Analyze historical sales, customer demand, market trends, seasonality, promotional activity, new product introductions, and other internal and external factors affecting demand.
- Partner with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Planning to gather business intelligence, challenge assumptions, and establish one approved demand plan.
- Monitor forecast performance using key metrics such as forecast accuracy, MAPE, bias, and accuracy by product or customer segment.
- Identify the root causes of forecast variances and implement corrective actions to improve planning accuracy and reliability.
- Support inventory strategies by providing demand-based recommendations for safety stock, service levels, and inventory positioning.
- Identify and mitigate risks related to shortages, excess inventory, supply constraints, changing customer requirements, and demand volatility.
- Develop demand plans for new product introductions, product transitions, engineering changes, phase-outs, and discontinuations.
- Identify and quantify demand risks and opportunities, develop planning scenarios, and communicate recommendations to leadership.
- Work closely with Supply Planning to balance customer demand with production capacity, material availability, lead times, and inventory objectives.
- Drive continuous improvement in demand-planning processes, systems, reporting, data quality, and cross-functional collaboration.
- Evaluate and apply advanced analytics, automation, and AI or machine-learning forecasting capabilities where appropriate.
- Prepare and present demand reviews, KPI dashboards, forecast scenarios, and executive-level summaries.
- Establish demand-planning policies, procedures, and best practices that support scalable and consistent business processes.
What they are looking for
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Operations, Statistics, Engineering, or a related field.
- Minimum of five years of progressive experience in demand planning, forecasting, supply chain planning, production planning, or a related discipline.
- Demonstrated experience leading or actively contributing to S&OP or IBP processes.
- Proven ability to improve forecast accuracy and convert complex data into actionable business recommendations.
- Experience working within an ERP/MRP environment and using demand-planning or supply-chain planning systems.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and experience with reporting, visualization, or analytical tools.
- Strong understanding of inventory management, safety stock, capacity planning, and supply-and-demand balancing.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present information and recommendations to senior leadership.
- Ability to collaborate across multiple departments, influence stakeholders, and challenge assumptions constructively.
- Preferred Qualifications Master's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Analytics, Engineering, or a related field.
- APICS/ASCM certification, such as CPIM or CSCP.
- Demand-planning experience within aerospace, defense, or a complex manufacturing environment.
- Experience managing demand for products with long lead times, constrained materials, engineering changes, or complex bills of material.
- Experience with advanced forecasting tools, business-intelligence platforms, or AI/ML-supported planning applications.
Everything above is the hiring company’s own words, with the company name taken out. The name, the team, and the interview steps come with the first conversation.