Senior Demand Planner

Smithfield Foods•Smithfield, VA

19h

About The Position

As a Senior Demand Planner, you'll be at the heart of our forecasting strategy, driving accuracy and alignment across finished goods, customers, plants, and distribution centers. This high-impact role blends analytical precision with cross-functional collaboration to ensure our products meet market demand with confidence. In this role, you’ll develop and refine SKU-level forecast models for your product categories, integrating insights from Sales, Business Management, Finance, and syndicated data sources like Nielsen. You’ll lead monthly consensus meetings with Sales and Business Development, aligning forecasts with business goals and market realities. As a key contributor to Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), you’ll help shape strategic decisions across the organization. You’ll collaborate with stakeholders across departments to gather intelligence and build robust, data-driven forecasts. As a trusted advisor and mentor to Associate-level planners, you’ll share your expertise and elevate team capabilities. With deep expertise in Demand Planning and a passion for coaching and development, you’ll play a vital role in driving forecast accuracy, process improvement, and a culture of continuous learning. As consumer preferences evolve and supply chains grow more complex, your expertise will be instrumental in ensuring the right products are in the right place at the right time. In the dynamic world of food, where freshness, timing, and precision are everything, the Senior Demand Planner plays a critical role in delivering quality and consistency to our customers—every single day.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university in business, statistics, data modelling or a related field, and 5+ years of relevant experience in forecasting or planning; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
Strong verbal and written communication skills.
Demonstrated analytical skills, including mathematical aptitude and problem-solving capabilities.
Highly organized with exceptional attention to detail.
Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic team environment.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of SAP, Business Intelligence (BI), and Anaplan.
Understanding of strategic sales analysis and planning.

Responsibilities

Create statistical forecasting models: Leverage data and statistical tools to build and refine accurate forecasts, validate inputs from Sales and Business Management, execute modeling software, review outputs, and apply error analysis to drive continuous improvement.
Collaborate with Sales and Business Development: Partner with cross-functional teams including Sales, Marketing, and Supply Chain to present and refine demand forecasts, integrate feedback, and recommend adjustments that align with operational goals. Review promotional plans, monitor new and lost business inputs, and proactively update forecasts to reflect changing market conditions and customer demand.
Achieve consensus for operational demand forecasts: Prepare materials to support research and team discussions; investigate and reconcile significant forecast variances; refine models based on updated sales and business assumptions; analyze shipment trends and category dynamics to shape and validate total volume forecasts; and maintain clear, consistent communication with supervisors and stakeholders to ensure alignment throughout the planning process.
Annual volume planning: Facilitate monthly meetings to build demand consensus between business functions and supply chain using the S&OP process.
Maintain demand planning system: Drive accurate weekly SKU/location forecasts by leveraging market insights, ensuring data integrity with tools like Anaplan, SAP, and BI, and providing timely analysis to support Supply Chain scenario planning.
Leadership: Drives a positive employee experience through leadership by way of employee development and coaching.

Benefits

Robust, flexible and affordable benefit plans and programs to support our team members and their loved ones, and with out-of-pocket costs, on average, 20 percent less than plans offered by other employers.
Medical plans.
Be Well programs offer tools and resources to enhance your quality of life, at no additional cost.
Programs uniquely tailored to our Smithfield team and provide support for elective surgeries, weight loss, mental health, cancer, kidney disease, diabetes, smoking cessation, asthma, maternity management and more.
Comprehensive training and professional development programs designed to help you reach your full potential.
LinkedIn Learning, employees can access on‑demand courses, professional certificates, and skill‑based training to build capabilities aligned with career and business needs.
Partnership with GUILD supports your continuing education with tuition assistance covering English language learning, high school completion, and degree programs.
Leadership development initiatives nurture high‑potential talent.
Smithfield Scholarship Program for employees’ children.
Smithfield’s Education Reimbursement Program provides financial reimbursement to team members who want to further their formal education by obtaining a GED/High School Equivalency (HSE) Diploma or by pursuing an academic degree at an accredited college or university that is not a Guild learning partner.