Key Responsibilities
JOB DESCRIPTION
Policy Development and Governance
- Author and maintain the Demand Planning Policy, defining the principles, authorities, escalation paths, and compliance requirements for all forecasting activities
- Establish governance cadences (monthly policy reviews, quarterly audits) to ensure adherence to approved planning standards
- Define roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities (RACI) for all participants in the demand planning process
- Develop and enforce data governance standards for forecast inputs, ensuring traceability, version control, and audit readiness
- Recommend and implement policy amendments in response to organizational changes, market shifts, or audit findings
Procedures and Standard Operating Practices
- Design, document, and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for statistical forecasting, consensus building, assumption logging, and exception management
- Define the end-to-end demand planning workflow, including trigger points, decision gates, approval hierarchies, and handoff protocols between functions
- Establish procedures for new product introduction (NPI) forecasting, product phase out, and promotional demand overlays
- Define escalation and exception handling procedures for forecast overrides, ensuring all adjustments are justified, documented, and approved per policy
- Maintain a controlled document library for all demand planning procedures, ensuring version control and periodic review cycles (minimum semi-annual)
Metrics, Measurement, and Continuous Improvement
- Conduct root cause analysis on forecast variances and recommend corrective actions with documented remediation plans
- Propose new practices such as demand sensing, machine learning augmented forecasting, and external signal integration (e.g., leading economic indicators, channel sell through data)
- Lead periodic process maturity assessments and recommend capability uplift initiatives
- Benchmark internal practices against industry standards and recommend adoption of emerging methodologies
SIOP/S&OP Process Ownership
- Own and govern the demand review step of the Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP) process, including the meeting cadence, agenda structure, and output requirements
- Define and enforce the procedures for preparing, reviewing, and approving the consensus demand plan prior to executive presentation
- Establish the standard format and content requirements for SIOP demand submissions, including scenario analyses, risk registers, and assumption logs
- Reconcile top-down financial targets with bottom up statistical and sales driven forecasts per documented reconciliation procedures
- Recommend process enhancements to the SIOP cycle based on post meeting retrospectives and stakeholder feedback
Cross-Functional Collaboration and Procedural Alignment
- Partner with Sales and Product Management to establish procedures for incorporating pipeline intelligence, NPI forecasts, and customer insights into the demand plan
- Collaborate with Supply Planning and Procurement to define the handoff procedures and service level agreements (SLAs) for demand signal transmission
- Work with Finance to align demand forecasting procedures with revenue planning cycles, ensuring consistent assumptions and reconciliation checkpoints
- Engage with regional and country teams to validate local market assumptions per standardised regional input templates
Systems, Tools, and Automation
- Define system usage policies and user access protocols for demand planning tools and ERP modules
- Recommend and implement automation opportunities to reduce manual effort, improve repeatability, and enforce procedural compliance
- Develop dashboards and reporting aligned to the approved KPI framework, providing visibility into demand performance, process adherence, and policy compliance
- Champion data quality initiatives by establishing validation rules, exception reports, and remediation workflows for forecast input data
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Finance, Business or related field
- 8-10 years of related experience in a material planning/ sales inventory control/ logistics/ customer service within a manufacturing and operations environment.
- Has Business analytics, data science knowledge
- Strong understanding of Continuous Improvement and Lean Techniques and applications
- Demonstrates proficiency in all MS office applications
- Excellent verbal and written communications skills
- Skilled in data visualization tools (PowerBI, Smartsheet, Microsoft List/Planner)
- Demonstrated leadership and organization skills with a team orientation.
- APICS / CPIM Certificate would be an asset.
About The Team
Work Authorization
No calls or agencies please. Vertiv will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States. This is not a position for which sponsorship will be provided. Individuals with temporary visas such as E, F-1, H-1, H-2, L, B, J, or TN or who need sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, are not eligible for hire.
Equal Opportunity Employer
We promote equal opportunities for all with respect to hiring, terms of employment, mobility, training, compensation, and occupational health, without discrimination as to age, race, color, religion, creed, sex, pregnancy status (including childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity / expression (including transgender status or sexual stereotypes), genetic information, citizenship status, national origin, protected veteran status, political affiliation, or disability.
