Senior Manager, Demand Planning

BIC•Norwalk, OH

12d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Demand Planning is a critical leader within BIC USA’s Supply Chain organization, responsible for leading demand planning across a roughly $1 billion U.S. business spanning three categories and more than 1,400 SKUs. The role owns the end-to-end demand planning process and creates a single forward-looking view of demand to support commercial, financial, supply, and inventory decisions across multiple planning horizons, including near-term execution, 0–24 month planning, AOP, Latest Estimate, and Long-Range Planning. As a strategic partner to Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Planning, Operations, Customer teams, and other stakeholders, this leader translates market intelligence, commercial strategy, customer dynamics, promotions, innovation, pricing, distribution changes, and external trends into actionable demand plans. The role challenges assumptions, surfaces risks and opportunities, improves forecast accuracy and bias, optimizes inventory, supports customer service, and advances IBP/S&OP maturity. The Senior Manager also leads and develops a high-performing demand planning team, strengthens planning capabilities, drives digital and analytical transformation, and establishes best-in-class planning practices. The position calls for a business-leader mindset that combines analytical rigor with commercial acumen and connects demand decisions to revenue, profitability, customer experience, inventory, and operational performance. BIC’s North America headquarters will be located in Norwalk, Connecticut, with a scheduled opening in 2027. The headquarters is designed to support a collaborative, flexible, modern work environment and a hybrid work model.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, Finance, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field.
8–10 years of progressive experience in Demand Planning, Supply Chain, Forecasting, IBP/S&OP, or a related discipline.
At least 3 years of experience leading and developing teams.
Demonstrated experience managing complex CPG/FMCG portfolios with high SKU, customer, promotional, and seasonal complexity.
Proven experience partnering with Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain leadership.
Demonstrated experience with promotional, seasonal, innovation, and lifecycle-driven demand environments.
Experience leading or significantly contributing to IBP/S&OP transformation and process improvement.
Demonstrated experience using data and analytics to influence business decisions and challenge assumptions.
Demand planning and forecasting skills.
Statistical forecasting and modeling skills.
IBP/S&OP knowledge.
Supply chain analytics skills.
Commercial and market analysis skills.
Scenario planning skills.
Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
Power BI skills.
Experience with ERP systems, including JDE, SAP, or Oracle.
Leadership capabilities including strategic thinking, business acumen, enterprise mindset, constructive challenge, sound decision-making, influencing without authority, executive communication, cross-functional leadership, customer focus, talent development, accountability, change leadership, and continuous improvement.

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree.
APICS/ASCM certification or equivalent supply chain certification.
Experience supporting businesses with $500 million or more in revenue.
Lean Six Sigma experience or certification.
Experience with Blue Yonder or other advanced demand planning platforms.
JDE experience.
SQL or data analytics skills.
Experience with advanced forecasting and machine learning applications.
Knowledge of APICS/ASCM methodologies.

Responsibilities

Lead the end-to-end monthly demand planning process across all U.S. categories and own demand plans across near-term execution, 0–24 month planning, AOP, Latest Estimate, and Long-Range Planning.
Establish and continuously improve forecasting methodologies using statistical forecasting, historical analysis, market intelligence, commercial inputs, and scenario planning.
Improve forecast accuracy, forecast bias, forecast value add, and overall demand plan quality.
Establish planning governance, standards, roles, and accountability across the demand planning organization and broader business.
Prepare, consolidate, and present demand inputs for IBP/S&OP and executive planning forums.
Ensure demand plans provide an actionable view of likely business outcomes and appropriately reflect upside, downside, and uncertainty.
Simplify planning processes, eliminate non-value-added activities, and improve the speed and quality of decision-making.
Partner with Sales, Marketing, Category Management, Business Development, Finance, and other commercial stakeholders on demand planning decisions.
Translate commercial strategies, customer plans, promotions, innovation, pricing, distribution changes, competitive activity, and market trends into demand plans.
Challenge commercial assumptions with data, insights, and external market intelligence; distinguish commercial ambition from statistically supported demand.
Partner with Sales and Marketing leadership to understand revenue-plan drivers and identify gaps, risks, and opportunities.
Provide forward-looking insights on business changes and potential actions; support forecasts for launches, line extensions, discontinuations, and portfolio changes.
Improve alignment among revenue plans, demand plans, operational capabilities, and financial expectations.
Serve as Demand Planning leader in the North America IBP/S&OP process, benchmark and share practices with global partners, and continuously improve IBP/S&OP value and executive engagement.
Own the demand review process and prepare accurate, insightful, decision-oriented materials for senior leadership.
Consolidate cross-functional inputs into an aligned demand view; identify and communicate material risks, opportunities, gaps, and emerging trends.
Lead scenario planning and sensitivity analysis, facilitate cross-functional resolution of demand issues, and align demand, supply, inventory, and financial plans.
Establish a fact-based, data-driven approach to planning and decision-making; use analytical tools to improve visibility, forecasting, and decision support.
Develop and monitor demand planning KPIs, dashboards, and performance reporting; lead root-cause analysis of forecast variances, bias, and demand performance gaps.
Distinguish planning-related forecast error from changes in market or customer behavior, and turn complex data into clear business recommendations.
Drive continuous improvement in forecasting methods, processes, tools, and capabilities; partner on digital transformation and future-state planning technology.
Promote demand planning practices aligned with APICS/ASCM principles and leading CPG practices.
Lead, coach, and develop category-level demand planning professionals; set objectives, expectations, and accountability.
Build team capability in forecasting, analytics, commercial acumen, scenario planning, and business partnering; develop succession plans and talent pipelines.
Foster ownership, collaboration, continuous improvement, and fact-based decision-making, and develop proactive business partners.
Recognize and develop high-potential talent and address performance gaps with clarity and consistency.
Partner with Supply Planning, Customer Service, Operations, Procurement, Finance, and Commercial teams to improve end-to-end business performance.
Balance customer service, inventory, working capital, and forecast performance; support inventory-health improvements, reductions in slow-moving and obsolete inventory, and greater supply-chain responsiveness.
Participate in cross-functional transformation initiatives and champion process simplification, automation, new tools, and planning capabilities.
Make enterprise-minded decisions that balance category objectives with total business performance.