Senior Demand Planner
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Hybrid)
Industry: Personal Care Product Manufacturing
Work Setting: Hybrid
Are you passionate about transforming data into actionable demand forecasts, driving supply chain excellence, and collaborating across business functions to optimize planning outcomes?
We are seeking a highly analytical and strategic planning professional to lead demand forecasting and planning activities across a portfolio of products. This role will be responsible for developing accurate shipment forecasts, facilitating cross-functional planning processes, and delivering insights that support inventory optimization, product launches, financial planning, and overall business performance.
Key Responsibilities
Demand Forecasting & Planning
- Own and maintain shipment forecasts at both product and portfolio levels, ensuring alignment with business objectives and operational requirements.
- Develop consensus forecasts through collaboration with cross-functional teams and planning stakeholders.
- Lead recurring demand review meetings, providing forecast assumptions, performance analysis, and recommendations to support decision-making.
- Utilize historical sales data, market intelligence, customer insights, and business trends to improve forecast accuracy.
- Apply statistical forecasting techniques and advanced analytics to generate demand projections and identify risks and opportunities.
- Monitor forecast performance and continuously improve forecast accuracy, bias, and planning effectiveness.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Build strong partnerships across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Planning, Commercial Operations, and Product teams.
- Support product launches by developing forecasts for new products and assessing potential impacts on existing product performance.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to evaluate promotional activities, packaging variations, and special product initiatives.
- Provide demand insights that support strategic planning, business reviews, and operational decision-making.
- Facilitate discussions regarding product vulnerabilities, market shifts, and other factors affecting demand projections.
Analytics & Business Insights
- Analyze shipment, consumption, customer, and market data to identify trends and forecast drivers.
- Develop reporting frameworks, dashboards, and key performance metrics to monitor demand planning effectiveness.
- Deliver actionable recommendations that improve inventory management, service levels, and supply chain performance.
- Support long-term business planning and financial forecasting activities through data-driven insights.
- Translate complex data into meaningful business recommendations for leadership and cross-functional teams.
Process Improvement & System Support
- Lead demand planning process improvements and continuous enhancement initiatives.
- Identify opportunities to improve forecasting methodologies, planning workflows, and system capabilities.
- Support forecasting systems, product hierarchies, master data management, and planning tools.
- Troubleshoot reporting, data, and system issues while recommending scalable solutions.
- Serve as a subject matter expert on demand planning systems, processes, and data management practices.
Inventory & Operational Excellence
- Support inventory optimization efforts, including management of slow-moving and excess inventory.
- Evaluate demand variability and business risks to improve planning resilience.
- Ensure forecast assumptions are reflected appropriately in operational and business plans.
- Contribute to initiatives that strengthen end-to-end supply chain efficiency and service performance.
Leadership & Knowledge Sharing
- Mentor and train team members and business stakeholders on forecasting methodologies, planning tools, and best practices.
- Promote collaboration and knowledge sharing across planning and operational teams.
- Support organizational capability development through coaching, process documentation, and continuous learning initiatives.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Economics, Supply Chain, Operations, Mathematics, Statistics, Analytics, or a related field.
- Several years of experience in demand planning, forecasting, supply chain, sales operations, logistics, category management, or analytics.
- Experience utilizing statistical forecasting techniques in dynamic business environments.
- Strong proficiency in Excel, reporting tools, and enterprise planning systems.
- Experience working with forecasting, ERP, or supply chain planning platforms.
- Demonstrated ability to analyze large datasets and convert findings into actionable business insights.
- Strong project management and process improvement experience.
- Familiarity with integrated business planning methodologies and cross-functional planning processes.
