Demand Planning Manager

Raymour & Flanigan Furniture and Mattresses•Town of Clay, NY

About The Position

Raymour & Flanigan is seeking a hands-on manager to oversee day-to-day demand planning and purchase order execution for an assigned segment of a catalog of roughly 5,000 SKUs. The role is responsible for building forecasts and buy plans, placing and managing purchase orders, and ensuring products arrive when needed while avoiding excess inventory. Purchasing must also be planned around weekly receiving capacity, including smoothing seasonal pull-ahead volume such as Chinese New Year shipments over several months. The manager reports to the director who leads demand planning and purchasing and works closely with merchandising, transportation, and distribution center operations. The role also tracks vendor commitments and performance, identifies exceptions early, and escalates issues when needed. A central part of the role is improving the function through automation and AI. The manager will identify repetitive work that can be automated, build or prototype initial solutions, and maintain them. Prior AI expertise is not required, but technical savvy, curiosity, and interest in applying these tools are expected. The company is unable to offer visa sponsorship; candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future sponsorship.

Requirements

Strong analytical capability, including working directly with data, building models, and defending the numbers.
Fluency with SQL, BI tools, and advanced Excel.
Ability to learn an ERP or planning system quickly.
Hands-on experience in demand planning, inventory planning, or purchasing, ideally involving a large SKU base and overseas vendors.
Vendor-facing experience, including following up on supplier commitments and influencing supplier performance.
Experience building solutions with automation or AI, or a clear track record of independently learning and applying new tools.
Comfort working within hard physical or operational constraints.
Authorization to work in the United States without visa sponsorship, now or in the future.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain forecasts for an assigned product segment, including new items, seasonal ramps, and end-of-life products.
Translate forecasts into weekly buy plans with clear SKU- and category-level coverage targets.
Recommend inventory levels by category to support in-stock performance without carrying excess inventory, and provide supporting analysis.
Review forecast accuracy and bias regularly and address the underlying drivers.
Place purchase orders according to the required plan cadence.
Smooth purchases against weekly receiving capacity shared across the catalog.
Develop and manage seasonal pull-ahead plans, particularly for Chinese New Year, spreading volume over multiple months.
Obtain vendor acknowledgements and ensure vendors meet committed dates.
Validate cargo ready dates and monitor their accuracy.
Coordinate handoffs with the transportation booking team so bookings, transit, and receipts align with need dates.
Identify PO lifecycle exceptions early and escalate issues to the director when necessary.
Work daily with merchandising, transportation, and distribution center operations.
Track vendor performance against acknowledged dates and cargo ready commitments.
Contact vendors when purchase orders slip and hold them accountable for commitments.
Maintain vendor scorecards and follow the escalation process.
Identify opportunities to automate repetitive monitoring and other processes; build or prototype solutions and keep them running.