Demand Planner

Oats Overnight Jobs•Phoenix, AZ

About The Position

The Demand Planner builds and maintains forecasts across retail, club, direct-to-consumer, and marketplace channels to help guide production, purchasing, and logistics. The role owns assigned channels and items, maintains statistical forecasts, gathers input from Sales, Marketing, and Finance, and tracks forecast accuracy. It partners with Supply Planning and other functions to incorporate promotions, new items, customer orders, and other demand drivers into a clear demand picture. This entry-level position is intended for someone early in their supply chain career, including recent graduates, and offers exposure to demand planning across channels, with training and manager support. The position contributes to the monthly Integrated Business Planning process, monitors sales and order data for demand changes, and identifies risks and opportunities such as spikes, shortfalls, and excess inventory exposure. It also maintains planning and ERP master data, builds recurring reports and dashboards, documents assumptions and processes, and helps improve forecast quality and automate routine analysis using data and AI tools. The role is part of a growing demand planning function in a fast-paced environment where processes and infrastructure are still being developed.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, operations, business analytics, or a related field, or 0 to 2 years of relevant experience; recent graduates are welcome.
Strong Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, and formulas.
Strong analytical skills and comfort working with large data sets.
Strong organizational skills and follow-through.
Ability to partner with and influence people at different levels, and explain forecasts to Sales and Finance partners.
Ability to handle multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment where processes are still being built.
Openness to AI tools and willingness to experiment and learn.
Flexible, willing, and quick to learn new processes, technology, and ways of thinking.
Relentless drive to get things done.

Nice To Haves

Coursework, internship, or project experience in forecasting or planning.
Exposure to SQL, Power BI, Tableau, or similar tools.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain statistical forecasts by item, customer, and channel across retail, club, DTC, and marketplace.
Apply historical sales, seasonality, and trends, adjusting for promotions, price changes, distribution gains and losses, and new item launches.
Update forecasts regularly and explain the drivers behind changes in demand.
Monitor retailer point-of-sale and shipment data, DTC order trends, and marketplace sales to identify demand shifts early.
Gather and document Sales, Marketing, and Finance input on promotions, launches, and customer plans, and challenge assumptions with data.
Prepare forecast materials and reports for the monthly Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process.
Partner with Supply Planning so production and materials plans reflect the latest demand picture.
Flag demand risks and opportunities, including spikes, shortfalls, and excess inventory exposure.
Measure and report forecast accuracy and bias by item, customer, and channel, and investigate the largest misses.
Build recurring reports and dashboards that provide Sales, Supply Planning, and leadership with visibility into demand and inventory coverage.
Document forecasting assumptions and processes so work can be repeated as the business grows.
Clean and maintain item, customer, and forecast master data in planning and ERP systems.
Identify ways to reduce manual work and improve forecast quality, using data and AI tools to automate routine analysis.
Contribute to the ongoing development of the demand planning function as it scales.
Perform other duties as assigned.