Forecast Analyst
About The Position
The Forecast Analyst supports demand planning and supply-chain decision-making by developing and maintaining accurate product forecasts. This position analyzes historical sales, customer demand, inventory levels, promotions, seasonality, and market trends to identify changes in demand and improve forecast accuracy. The Forecast Analyst works closely with Sales, Product Management, Operations, Purchasing, Finance, and other cross-functional partners to ensure forecasts reflect current business conditions. The ideal candidate is analytical, detail-oriented, comfortable working with large data sets, and able to clearly communicate findings and recommendations.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, business, finance, economics, statistics, data analytics, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
- One to three years of experience in forecasting, demand planning, inventory analysis, supply-chain analysis, financial analysis, or a related analytical role.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including pivot tables, lookups, formulas, charts, and the analysis of large data sets.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to identify trends and translate data into practical business recommendations.
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy.
- Effective written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet established deadlines.
- Ability to work collaboratively with employees and leaders across multiple departments.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in a manufacturing, distribution, automotive, consumer-products, or aftermarket environment.
- Experience working with an ERP, MRP, demand-planning, or forecasting system.
- Familiarity with demand-planning concepts and metrics such as forecast accuracy, forecast bias, MAPE, and WAPE.
- Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or another reporting and visualization tool.
- Exposure to S&OP or integrated business-planning processes.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain forecasts at the product, customer, and SKU levels.
- Analyze historical sales, demand trends, seasonality, promotions, new-product introductions, and product lifecycle changes.
- Review forecast performance and identify significant variances, trends, risks, and opportunities.
- Track forecast accuracy, forecast bias, and other relevant planning metrics.
- Partner with Sales and Product Management to incorporate customer information, promotional plans, and market intelligence into forecasts.
- Collaborate with Purchasing, Operations, and Inventory teams to support appropriate inventory levels and product availability.
- Assist with monthly demand-planning and Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) activities.
- Prepare reports, dashboards, and presentations that clearly communicate forecast changes and business impact.
- Investigate inventory shortages, excess inventory, and slow-moving products to determine potential forecasting causes.
- Support forecasting for new products, discontinued products, and products with limited historical data.
- Maintain accurate planning data within the company’s ERP, forecasting, or demand-planning systems.
- Recommend improvements to forecasting tools, reports, processes, and data quality.
- Complete ad hoc analysis and other supply-chain projects as assigned.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
