Senior Director, Global Demand Planning & Forecasting

Johnson Controls•Glendale, AZ

21h•$160,000 - $240,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Johnson Controls is establishing a global demand planning capability for its rapidly expanding Data Center business and is seeking a leader to design, scale, and drive results for this new function. This role will build and lead a global demand planning organization for the Data Center business, covering the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. The position is responsible for the end-to-end demand signal in both units and dollars across the applied equipment and thermal management portfolio, consolidating regional and product-line forecasts into a single, consensus global demand plan. This role will collaborate with Sales, Finance, Product Management, and manufacturing plants to translate growth targets into an actionable forecast that influences capacity, capital, and supply decisions for 8 manufacturing plants. This is a high-visibility, foundational leadership position that will significantly impact how the company plans, produces, and delivers to major data center customers.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations, Business, Engineering, Finance, or a related field.
10+ years of progressive experience in demand planning, forecasting, and S&OP.
5+ years of experience leading and building teams.
Demonstrated success in establishing or transforming a demand planning / S&OP process at a product-region level within a global, multi-plant manufacturing environment.
Deep expertise in statistical forecasting, consensus demand planning, forecast accuracy measurement, and demand/supply reconciliation.
Strong financial acumen, with the ability to plan and translate demand in both units and dollars and align with revenue, backlog, and financial outlooks.
Proven ability to influence and align senior Sales, Finance, Product, and Operations leaders without direct authority.
Excellent communication skills and executive presence, with the ability to drive decisions in cross-functional review meetings.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree (MBA or Supply Chain) and/or APICS/CPIM or IBF (CPF) certification.
Experience in HVAC, applied equipment, thermal management, or the data center / mission-critical industry.
Hands-on experience with advanced demand planning systems (e.g., ketteQ, Kinaxis, SAP IBP, or similar) and modern analytics/AI-assisted forecasting.
Experience integrating acquisitions and new business models into a common planning process.

Responsibilities

Design and implement the global demand planning process, including product hierarchy, planning levels, scope, decision rights, and handoffs, starting with a pilot before global rollout.
Recruit, develop, and manage a global team of regional Demand Planning Managers and global product demand planners, each with dedicated analysts.
Own the monthly consensus demand plan, integrating qualitative and quantitative inputs, resolving discrepancies between statistical and commercial forecasts, and producing a unified global plan in units and dollars.
Establish forecast accuracy targets, statistical forecasting models, and bias/variability tracking to continuously improve model accuracy and planning behaviors.
Provide the demand-side input for Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), translating the plan into product mix, factory capacity, capital needs, and supplier requirements.
Incorporate different data center business models and new product introductions (NPI) into the planning process, including customer-specific programs and products without historical data, through robust lifecycle and phase-in/phase-out planning.
Chair the monthly demand review meetings, align the demand plan with Finance's outlook and revenue/backlog planning, and ensure the process drives operational outcomes.
Integrate insights from major customer Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and account planning into the demand signal to ensure customer needs influence the forward plan.