Director, Customer Facing Demand Planning

McKesson•Irving, TX

10d•$136,300 - $227,100•Hybrid

About The Position

McKesson is an impact-driven, Fortune 10 company that touches virtually every aspect of healthcare. We are known for delivering insights, products, and services that make quality care more accessible and affordable. Here, we focus on the health, happiness, and well-being of you and those we serve – we care. What you do at McKesson matters. We foster a culture where you can grow, make an impact, and are empowered to bring new ideas. Together, we thrive as we shape the future of health for patients, our communities, and our people. If you want to be part of tomorrow’s health today, we want to hear from you. Position Summary The Director, Customer Facing Demand Planning sits within the demand planning organization, part of the Supply Chain Inventory Planning team and serves as the primary owner of customer–level demand execution for an assigned segment. This role leads a team of ~10 FTE and reports to the Sr. Director of Customer Facing Demand Planning. They execute the customer-specific demand remit for the assigned segment, managing inventory positioning, and service levels at the account level, while capturing and qualifying inbound demand signals including new product launches, and translating that customer intelligence back into the consensus planning process.

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.
Elevating the quality and reliability of the demand signal entering the consensus planning process through disciplined intake governance and rigorous enrichment practices.
Building trusted relationships with customers and cross–functional partners while maintaining the objectivity required to make hard calls on the forecast.
Managing a high volume, operationally intensive account portfolio with precision.
Functional proficiency in Kinaxis Maestro or comparable advanced planning system.
Demonstrated experience leading customer-facing teams in a complex, high-volume distribution, pharmaceutical environment, with direct accountability for service levels.
Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills.
Proven ability to influence without direct authority across a matrixed organization.

Nice To Haves

Strong communication skills - ability to represent the segment credibly in leadership forums and translate operational complexity into clear strategic framing.
Experience managing sequestration programs, or high-touch strategic customer inventory models.
Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally across demand planning, supply planning, and inventory management teams.
Demonstrated ability to balance customer advocacy with the analytical discipline required to challenge demand signals that do not reflect system or market reality.
Familiar with demand planning analytics and reporting tools, including dashboards and data queries that support account-level service level management.

Responsibilities

Manage the day-to-day customer-facing demand function for the assigned segment, ensuring the team executes against established standards as a high-responsiveness partner to customers and cross-functional stakeholders.
Maintain the sequestration and strategic customer program model for the assigned segment, ensuring inventory is accurately bucketed, program commitments are honored, and customers have reliable access to the inventory they are entitled to; oversee customer portfolio management including formulary changes, product switches, and customer-specific inventory positions.
Direct the customer onboarding function for new accounts, ensuring inventory builds, allocation planning, and system setup are executed in a coordinated, go-live ready manner.
Manage escalations and serve as the primary point of escalation for customer facing communication within the assigned segment, resolving service level inquiries, and ensuring contractual requirements are tracked and met, escalating to the Sr. Director when required.
Ensure customer-specific award switch execution is completed accurately and on time for the assigned accounts.
Execute the demand signal intake process for the assigned segment, ensuring the team captures, validates, and enriches customer intelligence against established quality standards before passing inputs to the consensus demand planning team.
Monitor and manage upstream demand inputs for the assigned segment, including program changes, new launch items, promotional activity, and customer specific shifts ensuring they are captured proactively and reflected in the plan before they create a supply risk.
Maintain an active working relationship with the consensus demand planning team, ensuring demand signal inputs are understood, accepted, and incorporated into the consensus forecast without delays or misalignment.
Manage service level performance for assigned segment, ensuring the team produces accurate, timely service level reports and national tracking metrics that enable proactive management of service risk.
Conduct and direct root cause analysis on service level escalations and omits for assigned accounts, holding the team accountable to identifying precipitating events and driving remediation.
Maintain and improve analytical capability within the team, including dashboards, data queries, and reporting tools that surface allocation and policy decisions faster and with greater accuracy.
Manage and develop a customer-facing demand team for assigned segment, holding team members accountable to performance expectations, role clarity, and the operating standards set by the Sr. Director.
Coach and develop team members toward greater ownership and capability, providing regular feedback, identifying development opportunities, and creating visibility into advancement paths within the demand planning organization.
Partner with the other Directors of Customer Facing Demand to drive continuous improvement efforts, share leading practices and drive consistency across teams.
Maintain a close pulse on team workload, capacity, and execution quality across accounts, proactively identifying resource constraints or process gaps before they affect customer service or demand signal accuracy.