Lead Demand Planning - North America (Centennial, CO, USA)
About The Position
At Orica, we're looking for a Demand Planning Lead to own the North America demand forecast and help transform demand planning into a proactive, strategic capability that drives business performance, customer satisfaction, and sustainable growth. This role will play a critical part in advancing AI-enabled forecasting, improving forecast accuracy, and helping the business anticipate future market, customer, and supply chain changes. You will partner closely with commercial, manufacturing, operations, supply chain, and finance leaders to turn complex data into actionable business decisions across North America. As our Demand Planning Lead, this is more than a forecasting role. We're seeking a strategic planner with strong business and financial acumen who can look beyond monthly numbers to understand the broader business landscape, identify emerging trends, challenge assumptions, and influence decisions that impact customer service, inventory performance, manufacturing plans, and business growth. Success in this role means helping evolve demand planning from a transactional forecasting process into a trusted business partnership that delivers insights, scenario planning, and long-term value.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, Economics, Marketing, Analytics, Finance, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- 5+ years of experience in demand planning, supply planning, S&OP, integrated business planning, forecasting, commercial planning, analytics, manufacturing, operations, finance, product management, or similar business planning functions.
- Proven ability to translate data into meaningful business recommendations.
- Strong analytical, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
- Demonstrated business and financial acumen.
- Ability to influence decisions across multiple functions and levels of the organization.
- Strategic mindset with the ability to connect operational decisions to long-term business outcomes.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with SAP, S/4HANA, IBP, Oracle, or similar planning and ERP platforms.
- Experience with Power BI or other advanced business intelligence and visualization tools.
- Experience utilizing forecasting models, predictive analytics, or AI-enabled planning tools.
- Experience managing large product portfolios, SKU complexity, customer segmentation, or demand segmentation.
- Experience in manufacturing, industrial products, chemicals, consumer goods, packaged goods, or other complex supply chain environments.
- Continuous improvement or project management experience.
- Experience working across geographically dispersed teams and stakeholder groups.
Responsibilities
- Own the monthly demand planning and S&OP process across North America.
- Develop consensus forecasts that balance market intelligence, commercial insights, operational realities, and business strategy.
- Identify assumptions, risks, opportunities, and emerging trends before they impact performance.
- Help stakeholders move from reactive decision-making toward proactive planning.
- Partner with stakeholders to maximize the value of newly implemented AI-enabled forecasting capabilities.
- Evaluate AI-generated forecasts against business assumptions and market inputs.
- Analyze forecast performance, forecast accuracy, and forecast bias to identify opportunities for improvement.
- Support the continuous refinement of forecasting methodologies, assumptions, and planning processes.
- Utilize advanced analytics and business intelligence tools to generate actionable insights.
- Partners with Sales, Marketing, Manufacturing, Operations, Supply Planning, and Finance leaders across North America.
- Translate data into recommendations that support inventory, capacity, sourcing, allocation, and growth decisions.
- Present insights and recommendations to senior leaders and align planning decisions with business strategy.
- Influence stakeholders through strong communication, business storytelling, and data-driven decision-making.
- Improve demand planning processes, forecasting methodologies, and data quality.
- Drive deeper analysis at the customer, product, and SKU level.
- Support long-term planning, budgeting, and business transformation initiatives.
- Help establish best-in-class demand planning capabilities across North America.
Benefits
- Medical/Prescription Drug – Three (3) plans to choose from
- Dental – Two (2) plans to choose from
- Vision – Two (2) plans to choose from
- Health Savings Account
- Flexible Spending Accounts
- Basic Employee Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance
- Voluntary Employee/Dependent Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance
- Company provided Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
- Company provided Employee Assistance Program
- Voluntary Hospital Indemnity, Critical Illness & Accident Plans
- Voluntary Identity Theft Protection
- Voluntary Legal Plan
- 401(k) + Company Match
- Company provided Maternity Leave
- Company provided Bonding Leave
- Accrued Paid Time Off
- Paid Sick & Safe Time
- Nine (9) Scheduled Holidays + Two (2) Floating Holidays
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
