Inventory Planning & Data Analyst

Adorama•New York, NY

11d•$75,000 - $85,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Inventory Planning & Data Analyst combines hands-on inventory planning, SQL, business intelligence, and reporting automation to improve product availability, strengthen purchasing decisions, and optimize inventory investment. Reporting to the Head of Inventory and Demand Planning and working directly with Merchants, the analyst investigates inventory, demand, and supply issues, identifies root causes, and turns findings into actionable SKU-level recommendations. The role independently builds dashboards and analytical tools, owns recurring analysis and replenishment reviews, and follows corrective actions through resolution within established planning policies and purchasing authority. The role provides exposure to forecast optimization, warehouse distribution, lead time, and excess inventory management initiatives, with opportunities to improve data use and reduce recurring manual work. It requires three on-site days weekly and a standard 40-hour work week.

Requirements

At least 3 years of relevant experience in inventory planning, replenishment, demand planning, or supply chain analytics, including hands-on inventory analysis and business reporting.
Demonstrated experience independently building and maintaining operational dashboards and automating recurring reporting in Looker, Tableau, or Power BI, including data preparation, metric definitions and calculations, refresh configuration, validation, and troubleshooting; candidates must demonstrate their own contributions and resulting business impact.
Very strong Excel skills, including Power Query, PivotTables, XLOOKUP and other lookup functions, advanced formulas, data reconciliation, and analysis of large SKU-level datasets.
Hands-on SQL proficiency, including independently writing, validating, and troubleshooting queries using joins, aggregations, and CTEs, and identifying duplicate records, missing data, and discrepancies across sources.
Strong understanding of weeks of supply, run-rate, lead time, inventory turns, GMROI, aged inventory, overstock, backorders, and open PO management.
Strong attention to detail, root-cause analysis, organization, and communication; ability to explain findings clearly and follow issues through resolution.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of Python and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for analysis, reporting automation, and maintenance of existing scripts or Excel tools.
Experience with BigQuery, ERP or replenishment systems, JIRA, or automated planning workflows.
E-commerce, retail, consumer electronics, or marketplace inventory experience.

Responsibilities

Apply established inventory, weeks of supply (WOS), and aged inventory targets when reviewing PO recommendations and inventory health; flag exceptions, recommend corrective actions, and follow through with Merchants.
Investigate merchant questions, identify root causes, provide clear item-level recommendations, track agreed actions, and escalate unresolved issues.
Review daily replenishment and PO needs against inventory and WOS targets, run-rate, lead time, available inventory, open POs, backorders, and demand trends.
Validate system recommendations before execution, particularly for high-velocity, high-value, long-lead-time items and SKUs with demand spikes or overstock risk.
Release purchase orders within approved authority and follow up with vendors on past-due POs, delivery changes, and supply constraints.
Monitor backorders and stockout risk; escalate issues affecting availability, inventory exposure, or merchant goals and track corrective actions through resolution.
Build, maintain, and enhance inventory and planning dashboards in Looker, including data preparation, calculated metrics, filters, and reporting validation.
Write and maintain SQL queries to extract, join, aggregate, and validate sales, demand, inventory, item master, and PO data.
Monitor dashboard refreshes and reporting accuracy, reconcile outputs with source data, and troubleshoot discrepancies with BI and technical partners.
Automate recurring reporting and build exception dashboards that prioritize stockout risk, aged inventory, overstock, backorders, past-due POs, demand anomalies, and data gaps; identify affected SKUs, priorities, recommended actions, and follow-up owners.
Maintain reporting that monitors inventory, WOS, and aged inventory against established targets; verify their application in replenishment and PO review, investigate variances, and recommend corrective actions for approval.
Support approved initiatives in forecast optimization, warehouse distribution and transfers, slow-moving and excess inventory reporting, and lead time and customer ETA reporting through data validation, analysis, and follow-up.
Work with Merchants and Item Master to keep planning-related item fields accurate and current; identify missing, outdated, or incorrect attributes affecting replenishment and reporting.
Follow up on item setup and planning feed issues that cause inaccurate recommendations, reporting gaps, or poor inventory decisions.
Investigate exceptions involving aged inventory, overstock, past-due POs, backorders, planning overrides, unusual demand, and data gaps to determine root causes and recommend corrective actions.
Perform root-cause analysis of demand shifts, vendor delays, lead time changes, PO timing issues, item setup errors, and execution gaps; recommend practical corrective actions.
Account for promotions, one-time sales spikes, new items, vendor transitions, and opportunity buys when evaluating planning recommendations.
Partner with Merchants to validate demand changes, product lifecycle status, vendor realities, and purchasing needs; respond to requests with data-backed recommendations.
Coordinate with Vendors, Item Master, Warehouse Operations, Finance, and BI to resolve inventory issues; own related JIRA tickets from intake through closure.
Maintain a structured daily replenishment and exception review, weekly merchant action follow-up, and recurring KPI reporting cadence.
Document and maintain established workflows and reporting definitions; recommend improvements to replenishment execution, data quality, and merchant follow-up for approval by the Head of Inventory and Demand Planning.