Director, Consensus Demand Planning

McKesson•Irving, TX

5d•$136,300 - $227,100•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Consensus Demand Planning sits within the Demand Planning organization, part of the Supply Chain Inventory Planning team and serves as the primary owner of the consensus level demand plan. This role reports to the VP of Demand Planning and owns the end-to-end process of converting demand signals into a single, trusted consensus forecast that the supply chain executes against. The role leads a specialized team oriented around two complimentary functions: channel-aligned demand planners who translate market intelligence into forecast inputs, and a technical forecasting resource who own the integrity of the statistical baseline in the planning system. This leader sets the direction, operating standards, and performance expectations for both functions, and is accountable for the quality and credibility of the consensus plan that the team produces.

Requirements

12+ years in supply chain, demand planning, or customer operations roles with at least 4+ years in a leadership capacity managing teams and driving cross functional outcomes.
Functional proficiency in Kinaxis Maestro or comparable advanced planning system.
Demonstrated experience leading demand planning functions in a complex, high-volume distribution or pharmaceutical environment.
Proven ability to influence without direct authority across a matrixed organization.
Setting the strategic direction for a consensus demand function and translating that direction into clear team accountabilities and operating standards.
Building trusted relationships with cross - functional partners while maintaining the objectivity required to make hard calls on the forecast.
Project leadership and execution in complex technical environments.
Championing cross-functional collaboration and enterprise-first mindset.
Leading change and fostering adoption of new technologies and processes.
Balancing statistical discipline with market intelligence, knowing when the model is right and when the business signal should take precedence.
Executive presence and strong communication skills - ability to represent the consensus demand function credibly in senior leadership forums and translate operational complexity into clear strategic framing.
Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally across demand planning, supply planning, and inventory management teams.
Change management orientation, with experience supporting organizations through system or process transitions.
Proficiency in analyzing data to identify trends, patterns, and insights.
Familiarity with reporting and data visualizations tools such as excel, Power BI, Tableau or similar.
Basic SQL knowledge or Business Objects querying language or writing.
Ability to identify issues, assess the impact and develop solutions.

Responsibilities

Lead the consensus demand planning function, establishing the process, governance model, and operating norms for how McKesson converts cross-functional demand signals into a single agreed-upon plan.
Own the demand planning inputs into the S&OP cycle, ensuring all signals are reconciled, enrichments are complete, and the consensus forecast is defensible and ready for cross-functional review.
Define the decision rights, participation expectations, escalation paths, and accountability structures that make the consensus process function as a governed business process rather than an ad-hoc coordination exercise.
Own the process for identifying, evaluating, and incorporating external demand-side signals into the statistical baseline forecast, including macroeconomic trends, payer policy changes, healthcare system dynamics, and geopolitical disruptions; establish and maintain a structured framework for how signals are sourced, assessed for credibility, documented, and weighted against the baseline when they diverge.
Monitor the external environment on an ongoing basis, proactively surfacing signals that warrant a forecast adjustment and applying clear judgment on when a signal is material enough to adjust the baseline versus when it should be held as a risk assumption.
Partner with cross functional teams to ensure long-range market assumptions are captured, validated, and reflected in the planning horizon with appropriate confidence levels.
Ensure all enrichments are documented and traceable so that forecast decisions can be explained, audited, and used to improve future enrichment quality over time.
Lead the technical forecasting function within the team, directing the resource responsible for baseline forecast generation, model configuration, algorithm integrity, and data input quality in Kinaxis Maestro.
Own forecast accuracy and bias management at the portfolio level, holding the team accountable to measuring forecast error, diagnosing root causes, and continuously improving statistical performance over time.
Establish the governance framework for statistical model performance, including thresholds for intervention, protocols for bias correction, and standards for when system outputs require human override.
Ensure data inputs feeding the statistical baseline are accurate, complete, and arriving on time; partner with the COE and IT to resolve upstream data integrity issues that degrade forecast quality.
Build, develop, and retain a high-performing Consensus Demand team, setting clear performance expectations, role clarity and accountability structures.
Drive succession and career development within the team, with a particular focus on creating a visible path from junior to senior levels.
Create the conditions for the team to operate with increasing autonomy as the planning system matures, investing in structured ways of working that do not depend on institutional knowledge.
Ensure the team’s processes and documentation evolve in step with the system capabilities, retiring manual workflows as system-enabled workflows mature.
Partner with the Customer Facing Demand Planning Lead and the COE to ensure the consensus team is integrated into the broader planning rhythm and that handoffs are clean.