Demand Planning & S&OP Lead

Role Summary

The Demand Planning & S&OP Lead owns the end-to-end demand planning process and facilitates the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) cycle across the organization.

The role is accountable for delivering a single, robust, and decision-ready demand plan while supporting Markets and Countries in improving forecast quality, stability, and reliability.

The Demand Planning & S&OP Lead acts as the integrator and facilitator of the S&OP process. The role ensures disciplined handovers, aligned assumptions, and facilitates structured decision-making across all S&OP steps (on Supply planning level, site/head SC and finally global corporate level).

Key Responsibilities

1. Demand Planning Ownership & Market Support

Owns and consolidates the demand forecast across all products and markets (one demand number).

Support and coach Markets and Countries to improve forecast quality, consistency, and stability over time.

Identify and escalate early signals, irregularities, and small demand alarms before they become supply or service issues.

Smooth forecast volatility by challenging unjustified swings, one-off events, and optimism bias.

Apply statistical forecasting, historical analysis, and commercial insight to improve forecast accuracy and reduce bias.

Translate promotions, launches, lifecycle changes, and market dynamics into the demand plan.

Contribute to preventing stock-outs and overstocking by ensuring timely identification and escalation of demand risks.

Maintain planning accuracy KPIs and continuously improve forecasting models, data quality, and reporting.

2. S&OP Facilitation & Governance

Facilitate the full monthly S&OP cycle across all four steps:

Demand Review Supply Review Pre-S&OP Executive S&OP.

Ensure clear data handover, cut-off, and freeze between each S&OP step.

Ensure roles and ownership are clearly respected:

Markets own demand inputs

Senior Supply Planners fully own supply visibility, constraints, and supply scenarios

Prepare and orchestrate cross-functional discussions to ensure fact-based alignment.

Build and present demand-driven scenarios (base / upside / downside), highlighting risks, opportunities, and trade-offs.

3. Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Alignment

Act as the primary interface with Markets and Customer Service for demand-related topics.

Partner closely with Finance and Commercial teams on budget, rolling forecast, and outlook alignment.

Ensure gaps between demand forecast, budget, rolling forecast, and commercial submissions are clearly identified, explained, and either corrected or explicitly planned for.

Escalate misalignments and risks in a structured manner to Supply Planners and the Head of Supply Chain when required.

4. Reporting, Analysis & Performance Management

Own monthly demand and S&OP reporting using advanced Excel and Power BI.

Deliver standardized reporting to internal and relevant external stakeholders, e.g. OTIF, FA, Bias, ABC performance.

Perform detailed variance analysis, including but not limited to:

Forecast vs actuals

Forecast vs budget / rolling forecast

Volume, mix, and timing variances

Conduct root-cause analysis on deviations and drive corrective actions with Markets.

Escalate unresolved or recurring issues to Supply Planners and Head of Supply Chain as needed.

5. Systems, Data & Continuous Improvement

Ensure high data quality, discipline, and consistency across planning systems and tools.

Be highly proficient in Excel-based modeling, simulations, and analysis; Power BI dashboards are a core deliverable.

Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance forecast accuracy, stability, and decision quality.

Required Skills & Experience

Technical & Analytical

Strong experience in Demand Planning, S&OP, or Business Planning.

Advanced Excel skills are mandatory (advanced Excel test will be part of the selection process).

Strong Power BI experience for reporting, dashboards, and variance analysis.

Strong systems mindset; experience with ERP / planning tools (e.g. SAP, Anaplan, Kinaxis, o9).

Business & Stakeholder Skills

Strong ability to work with countries, sites, and Customer Service teams.

Excellent influencing skills without formal authority.

Comfortable challenging assumptions while maintaining constructive relationships.

Personal Attributes

Highly organized, detail-driven, and structured.

Strong ownership and accountability mindset.

Excellent attention to data accuracy and consistency.

Experience

810+ years of experience in Demand Planning, S&OP, Supply Chain Planning, or related roles.

Pharmaceutical or FMCG experience strongly preferred.

Experience working with multi-country or regional organizations.