Director Of Demand Planning

The Director of Demand Planning is responsible for forecasting product demand with a goal of ensuring optimal sales-to-stock ratios. You will create and maintain forecast models that incorporate business intelligence and market trends,  while managing the demand plan and inventory levels for all existing and new sales channels across product categories (Footwear, Apparel, Accessories).

This role is highly collaborative and partners cross functionally to develop both a short term and long range demand plan.

How You’ll Do It:

• Prepare monthly unit forecasts for Wholesale, E-Commerce and other channels in close collaboration with sales teams factoring in the dynamics of seasonality, marketing, product life cycle, and other sales drivers.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to meet inventory weeks of supply, turnover, etc.
• Communicate clearly with senior leadership on a regular basis regarding inventory trends, insights, and future risks to the business.
• Continuously improve the existing planning process and its underlying tools, especially as we enter new sales channels and introduce new products.
• Partner with external partners to create and maintain weekly/monthly sell-through reporting and hindsight recaps across wholesale.
• Provide a root cause analysis to “actual” versus “targeted” forecasts and troubleshoot when they are not aligned.
• Monitor tracking to targets through detailed sales analysis with attention to inventory flow, marketing spend, promotional offerings, and out of stock limitations.
• Continuously refine the demand planning model to understand and reflect updated assumptions and new learnings.
• Manage open-to-buy process, ensuring buy-in from all key stakeholders before decisions are made.

Team Leadership:

• Lead a small remote team with a focus on mentorship and professional development.
• Foster a collaborative team environment focused on achieving department OKRs.

What You Need to Succeed:

• 6-10 years of sustained success in managing all aspects of demand planning.
• Ability to manage remote employees.
• Advanced technical proficiency with Excel, ERP/MRP systems.
• Experience managing budgets and overall spend in excess of $200M.
• Strong analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Execute within tight timeframes with superior attention to detail and accuracy.
• Drive for continuous improvement by streamlining processes and eliminating redundancy.
• Sound strategic thinking to ensure all forecasts are rooted in data.
• Move seamlessly between tactical day-to-day issues and long-term process improvement projects.
• Translate complex data sets into clear insights and recommendations for leadership.
• Background in footwear, apparel, retail, D2C experience preferred.
• Willingness to manage multiple time-zones and adjust schedules to accommodate.