Manager, Planning Excellence

Timex Group•Shelton, CT

5d•$85,800 - $126,900•Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager, Planning Excellence focuses on reducing manual workload, automating planning routines, and building synchronized, scalable planning capabilities through technology, analytics, continuous improvement, and change management. The role works within the Demand Planning organization and partners with Supply Chain, Finance, IT, and Commercial teams to improve business planning processes, including Forecast Accuracy, S&OP, and OTB, and to advance planning maturity and digital transformation. The position assesses reporting and data flows, removes non-value-added work, and streamlines data structures to improve transparency, data accuracy, operational standards, and decision-making. It identifies gaps and inefficiencies in planning routines and develops automation using existing planning systems and tools such as Power BI, advanced Excel, and AI, in collaboration with IT and project teams. The role also serves as a subject matter expert, provides technical support to Demand Planners, and trains them on new tools and best practices. This is a hybrid role requiring two days per week on-site at the Shelton, Connecticut office. Remote candidates will not be considered.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Economics, or a related field.
Three to five years of relevant experience in supply chain, planning, data science, or project management roles.
Broad knowledge of planning functions and processes, including S&OP/S&OE, Order Management, and planning tools such as Oracle, Logility, and Demantra.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and demonstrated ability to drive change through influencing others.
Ability to bring structure to ambiguity and turn ideas into well-formed, governed initiatives.
Strong bias toward action, experimentation, and continuous learning.
Result-oriented approach and understanding that maturity improvement is continuous.
Technical proficiency, especially in advanced Excel and macros, SQL, Python, and applying AI to automate.
Experience in performance management, governance, and creating clean reporting.
Strong analytical skills and ability to simplify complexity into clear concepts and logic.

Nice To Haves

MBA or master’s degree.
APICS certification (CPIM, CSCP, or CPF), Lean Six Sigma certification, or Project Management certification.

Responsibilities

Analyze existing processes, data sources, and information in line with departmental priorities and projects, and develop technical solutions to improve efficiency and address gaps.
Understand the business needs behind reporting and planning tools, identify automation and data-efficiency opportunities, execute approved improvements, and ensure transitions do not disrupt core processes.
Select appropriate methods and techniques to solve problems, calculate metrics for complex issues, and develop and implement KPIs and other metrics as needed.
Collaborate with senior internal and external personnel in the area of expertise and share knowledge with the team.
Resolve complex technical issues and provide on-demand support to the organization in scope.
Recommend process improvements to leadership and assist with driving change.
Improve communication between planning teams by replacing touchpoints with better data visibility and automated information flows.
Ensure planning routines are coherent and follow governance standards, documentation practices, and regular training and upskilling.
Explore existing systems’ capabilities and teach Planning Organization members how to use them.
Proactively manage adoption roadblocks through change management and risk mitigation.
Partner with cross-functional teams to align with Business Planning and OTB process needs.
Represent Planning in transformation workshops and governance reviews.