Demand Planning Manager

TITLE: Demand Planning Manager

REPORTS TO: Chief Financial Officer

BLU DOT: Blu Dot (www.bludot.com), an award-winning designer and maker of modern home furnishings, is currently searching for Demand Planning Leader to join our dynamic and values-driven company.

Company Purpose

Inspire a more creative way of living through good design that’s good to everyone.

Core Values

– Good design is good. Good design should be reflected in everything we do.

– Keep it simple. Strive for economy in all that you do.

– Everyone is invited to our party. Treat every individual with respect & dignity.

– Our glass is half full. Focus on the positive.

– Be humble. We take nothing for granted.

– Turn it up to 11. Determine what is expected and do a little more.

– Stay curious. Try, learn, improve, repeat.

ABOUT THE ROLE: The Demand Planning Manager will oversee all aspects of planning and forecasting demand for the Blu Dot Brand (BDB) Segment products across all channels and for our global factory network in support of our sales and inventory management strategy. This strategy is to ensure we have the right product, at the right time, in the right amount to provide the optimal customer experience while also adhering to our financial objectives. This includes responsibilities for long-range planning to provide our factory partners with capacity requirements, 13-month rolling forecasts to ensure factories have the optimal resources in place, near-term order plans, annual budgets, and support for our monthly financial projections. This role will actively collaborate and partner with our product/assortment teams, sourcing and procurement, finance, and each of the BDB segment sales channels (these include: Online, Retail, Wholesale and Trade & Contract).

This role supports the BDB segment business and will oversee one direct report in the near term with additional resources added in alignment with the company’s long range plans. The Demand Planning Manager will report directly to the CFO in the near term until future organizational structures are complete. In the future, this role will fall within the Sales & Operations capabilities.

KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITIES:

Facilitate the Open-to-Buy process and manage the monthly forecast versioning process
Collaborate with Product Assortment, Sales, Finance and Procurement to build an efficient and effective Sales, Inventory & Operational Planning (SIOP) process
Develop a suite of reporting and KPI’s that provide the health metrics needed to quickly assess the state of inventory
Provide recommendations on products that should be evaluated for discontinued status
Own the accuracy and hygiene of the data that supports the models and forecasts for demand planning

IDEAL EXPERIENCE/QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor’s degree in quantitative disciplines – Business, Finance, Economics, Strategy, Mathematics or Statistics
MBA a plus, but not required
Minimum of 5 years of experience within supply chain management, procurement, planning and forecasting within a retail, manufacturing, or direct-to-consumer organization
Experience with previous demand planning software like TM1 or other similar modeling platforms are a plus
Technical skills with applications and scripting tools like SQL, Excel, Access, R, Tableau are preferred
Solid retail math acumen, including elements of mark-up, margin planning, open-to-buy and inventory productivity measures
Demonstrated ability to collaborate with multiple levels across the organization and build strong relationships
Deep curiosity and the ability to analyze large amounts of data through exception management
Ability to anticipate business needs and ability to demonstrate a strategic mindset
Organizational agility, decision quality, driving vision & purpose and solid business & financial acumen

KEY METRICS:

Forecast accuracy by product/time horizon/forecast version
In-stock percentage
Inventory turnover

*These are ‘nice to have’ credentials, but we always welcome candidates with unique and diverse backgrounds. We see the value in a wide range of experiences and always love connecting with people excited about opportunities to join Blu Dot.