Director, Trade Sales Planning

Red Bull•Santa Monica, CA

13d•$156,000 - $234,000

About The Position

The Director of Trade Sales Planning will lead a team responsible for the trade sales demand planning process and forecast accuracy, innovation planning, and cross-functional collaboration on the end-to-end planning product for Red Bull North America. This role will work closely with the Sr. Director of Supply Chain, VP of Trade Finance, SVP of Finance, and EVP of Distribution. The Director will be directly responsible for maintaining and enforcing new forecasting processes across the sales organization to drive accuracy, transparency, and alignment in demand planning. In addition, the Director of Trade Sales Planning will lead RBNA’s efforts to optimize CPM, in partnership with our global headquarters, to improve field planning efficiency and accuracy. To succeed in this role, the individual must be professional, highly analytical, and possess excellent leadership and communication skills. The successful candidate should also have a deep understanding of advanced mathematics and forecasting methodologies.

Requirements

Minimum of 10 years of experience working for CPG companies, managing forecasting for key accounts.
Experience on both the distributor and supplier sides is required.
Proven track record as a leader with the ability to build strong teams and a positive culture.
Experience participating in Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) consensus calls, including setting objectives, defining outcomes, and managing follow-ups.
Strong business acumen in trade promotion planning and sales forecasting concepts, including baseline, lift, cannibalization, new product introductions, limited-time offers, promotional pre-dip and post-dip, business seasonality, and organic growth.
Self-motivated and resourceful, with the ability to resolve issues by collaborating with multiple stakeholders at different levels within the organization.
Able to communicate clearly and in terms easily understood by internal sales staff, distributors, employees, and vendors.
Proficient in PowerPoint, Excel, data visualization tools, and advanced data analysis.
Experience presenting status reports, issues, and risks to senior executives.
Exceptional communication skills.
Bachelor’s degree preferred

Nice To Haves

Experience in forecasting for beverage businesses is highly desired.
Experience with Trade Promotion Management (TPM) systems and their integration with volume planning is highly desired.
Experience with statistical analysis models and advanced forecasting techniques using Excel, Tableau, and the R programming language.
an advanced degree is a plus.
CPF-C, CPF, or ACPF certification is strongly preferred.
Proficient in English; additional language skills are a plus.

Responsibilities

Provide forecast support to the sales teams through insights, development of new tools, and technical enhancements to the CPM system.
Ensure the monthly S&OP demand plan is accurately loaded from a technical standpoint.
Collaborate with sales, marketing, and customer finance to understand demand forecast drivers by SKU and outlet type for both existing and new products.
Build a monthly bottom-up forecast from the sales teams, consolidating input from more than 150 CPM planners across on-premise and off-premise channels, and develop an independent sales forecast based on business drivers and statistical models.
Create, develop, and deliver regular forecasting reviews to key stakeholders, including the EVP of Sales, EVP of Distribution, and SVP of Trade Finance.
Advise leadership on demand planning recommendations for both the short term and long term.
Minimize the risk of out-of-stock situations across more than 300 distributor warehouses by proactively collaborating with the operations team to identify risks.
Prepare, lead, and manage monthly S&OP consensus forecasting volume calls.
Review and redesign processes and systems to maximize SKU-level accuracy by automating and/or simplifying field inputs, enabling teams to focus on exceptions and changes in SKU mix.
Partner with the Training team to deploy process and tool training resources and materials. Support training facilitation.
Collaborate with the Sales, Finance, Operations, and IT teams at both RBNA and Global Headquarters to lead End-to-End Planning projects that require functional and technical changes to CPM, affect the P&L, and support all reporting, KPIs, and analytics dashboards.
Responsible for overall project management and delivery.
Develop production forecasts for all LTO (Limited Time Offer) and Innovation products and manage the product lifecycle to ensure the right quantities are available in each of our 300+ distributor warehouses, maximizing sales and minimizing product write-offs.
Provide status updates on the entire project portfolio to leadership and global teams.
Accountable for project definition, resource planning, risk mitigation, and establishing realistic timelines in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Collaborate with the Sales team to identify forecasting issues and inventory-related volume problems, and provide timely resolutions.
Work with IT, Finance, and Business Intelligence to define and deliver reports that track progress and measure the health of the process.
Learn Red Bull’s internal processes thoroughly to ensure issues can be resolved effectively and questions can be answered accurately.
Must thoroughly learn Red Bull’s internal tools and processes so that issues can be resolved and questions can be answered.
Translates business requirements into actionable projects for IT development.
Works with Red Bull IT and headquarters to develop, implement, and enhance tools that support the forecasting and planning process.
Oversees improvements in SKU forecast accuracy
Ensures correct and timely input from the sales team
Leads production forecasting for Product Innovation
Manages DP inventory
Drives end-to-end planning solutions from demand planning onward
Delivers projects on time and within budget
Build and manage a high‑performing team of Senior Managers, Managers, and Analysts.
Develop their skills and capabilities for effective cross‑functional collaboration.
Ensure career development for the entire group by providing timely, specific, and direct feedback and coaching.
As a leader on highly visible global projects, the candidate must clearly communicate expectations of excellence to the team.
Create best‑in‑class tools to improve forecast accuracy.