Demand Planner

Aston Carter•Sacramento, CA

9d•$35 - $46•Onsite

About The Position

The Demand Planner supports the end-to-end demand planning process within an Integrated Business Planning (IBP) framework, developing accurate and actionable forecasts to inform supply chain, commercial, and financial decisions. The role develops and maintains a rolling 0–24 month operational forecast at the item/location level using the IBP Demand module. It uses market insights, historical trends, promotional data, and other demand drivers to create a plan that reflects market demand in a CPG/ingredient environment. The Demand Planner participates in monthly demand review activities and supports consensus planning, forecast performance analysis, financial forecasting, and business initiatives such as new product launches, product transitions, SKU rationalization, and capacity planning. The role collaborates with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, Supply Planning, IT, and R&D to improve inventory, service levels, and operational efficiency, while contributing to continuous improvements in IBP processes, analytics, and forecasting capabilities.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree.
Three years of experience.
Experience in data collection, planning, analysis, reporting, and project leadership.
Functional knowledge of supply chain processes, such as production planning, inventory, and deployment.
Working knowledge of Microsoft Office and SAP.
The posting also lists six years of production planning, inventory management, and logistics experience.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain a rolling 0–24 month operational forecast at the item/location level using the IBP Demand module.
Analyze demand drivers, including sales plans, syndicated consumption data, distribution changes, shipment history, competitive dynamics, seasonality, and marketing initiatives.
Analyze forecast performance, including MAPE and bias; identify trends and communicate insights, risks, and opportunities to stakeholders.
Participate in the monthly IBP Pre-Demand Review process and support alignment on a consensus demand signal, including visibility into assumptions, risks, and opportunities.
Partner with Demand Planning leadership to prepare for the IBP Integrated Demand Review.
Work with Sales and Commercial Planning to evaluate customer performance, promotional effectiveness, trade events, distribution gains and losses, and SKU lifecycle changes, incorporating findings into the demand plan.
Support demand planning for innovation launches, product transitions, and SKU rationalization, considering pipeline fill, cannibalization, and phase-in/phase-out strategies.
Support financial forecasting cycles, including the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) and periodic Latest Estimates (LEs), aligning demand, revenue, and financial expectations.
Assist with IBP system and process improvements, including adoption, standardization, and enhancement of demand planning tools and forecasting capabilities.
Partner with Supply Planning and Operations to translate demand plans into supply requirements, identify risks, and support service-level and inventory optimization.
Participate in cross-functional planning meetings and provide demand insights to support alignment across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, IT, and R&D.
Contribute to a culture of data-driven decision-making, collaboration, and continuous improvement within demand planning and IBP.