Demand Planner

PetSmart • Phoenix, AZ

11h • Hybrid

About The Position

As a Demand Planner, you are directly responsible for managing store instocks and fill rates, purchase order creation and management, purchase order on-time ship and fill rates, inventory forecasting, inventory turnover, and open-to-buy within your book of business. Demand Planners own inventory from purchase order creation to point of sale, spanning seasonal, inline, and one-time-buy programs. This position ensures correct inventory quantities are at distribution centers to support store sales demand and merchandising objectives, keeping all stores full and supporting presentation minimum requirements. Forecast accuracy at a sku/store level is critical, and demand planners utilize the demand planning system to assess forecasts and other inventory levers. As an integral part of the merchandising cross-functional team, collaboration with buying, planning, store operations, supply chain, and vendors is essential to achieving sales, margin, and inventory goals. Thorough communication to the cross-functional team and the Demand Planning manager is critical for timely business decisions. This role is also responsible for establishing and maintaining vendor relations and managing vendor order projections, acting as a key contact for vendors and DCs to support smooth order flow and PO issue resolution. A Demand Planner should balance strong execution of fundamental job responsibilities with strategic thinking, identifying, articulating, and creating action plans for opportunities to drive personal success and long-term business growth.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from a 4 year college or university and/or 2+ years inventory demand planning experience
• Intermediate to advanced knowledge of Excel, Microstrategy, Outlook, SAP and Relex Replenishment System
• This role requires collaboration, teamwork, and face-to-face interaction with colleagues, leaders, and/or clients.
• Being in the office ensures access to leaders, cross-functional partners, and resources necessary to make timely decisions and drive results.
• On-site presence in accordance with our FlexSmart policy supports our culture of innovation, mentorship, and engagement, which is integral to our success in developing the best team.

Responsibilities

• Achieves Sales, Margin, Inventory Turnover, and other KPIs as outlined in Plan and Forecast
• Develop overall division strategy vision, policies, resources, and execution plans to align to the corporate strategy
• Participates in the seasonal, annual, and long-range strategic and financial planning across a wide array of vendor (direct and external), customer, and merchandising segments
• Use consumer insights and data combined with a structured test and learn approach to maximize growth opportunities
• Leads, initiates and measure performance against the business planning and product creation calendars to initiate timely and informed decision making
• Supports the VP & Director to present within various strategic meetings for the division (i.e. Open-To-Buy, Vendor, QBR, and other meetings)
• Owns the end-to-end management of demand planning and allocation optimization, including in-stock and service levels for funded items and promotional product; set targets and achieves plans for inventory and space productivity required to support the sales, gross margin and in-stock plans, maintain high levels of promotional product availability during promotional periods while minimizing ad residue, and optimizing end-caps, aisle, and in-line story telling and integration consistent with consumer shopping patterns.
• Ensure department and sku level planning reflects unique store and merchandise assortments, including localization, that allows for sharp transition between selling periods
• Leads the development and execution of demand planning, including information sharing and problem solving with vendors around purchase orders, capacities, forecasting, and network inventory flow and optimization.
• Responsible for the creation, accuracy, communication and management of vendor demand plans.
• Responsible for management and maintenance of order policy and all business metrics within.
• Actively create and lead special projects that create growth opportunities
• Integrate processes and systems to optimize accuracy, efficiency, inventory productivity, space utilization, and margin optimization.
• Coordinates the timely response to questions from the stores and management regarding product level availability

Benefits

• Pet-friendly environment, bring your pets to work and enjoy the on-site dog park!
• On-Site Events & Adoptions, enjoy community-building opportunities, including pet adoption days, seasonal celebrations, family events, art events, & holiday festivals
• “Top Dog” gym with equipment, fitness classes, massage therapists, personal trainers, and wellness spaces
• “Sit & Stay” Café serving fresh breakfast and lunch options, snacks, & more
• “Lil Paws” NAEYC-accredited onsite childcare facility providing high-quality early education
• Paid Volunteer Opportunities to spend time doing good for causes close to heart
• Print Center and Business Services, Dry Cleaning, Mother's Rooms, Sustainable Infrastructure & more

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level