Manager - Demand Planning & Supply Chain Projects

Position Snapshot

Title: Manager - Demand Planning & Supply Chain Projects

Location: Dubai & Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Position Type: Full Time

Department: Supply Chain

Overview:

The role is responsible for owning the demand forecast for key categories, ensuring high forecast accuracy and alignment across commercial, finance, and supply chain teams. It leads key cross-functional supply chain improvement initiatives aimed at driving agility, efficiency, and business transformation. The role also supports and enhances the Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process by aligning forecasts, improving risk visibility, and developing capabilities across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

IBP (Integrated Business Planning) Process Leadership

• Lead monthly Pre-Demand Reviews and provide critical inputs for Demand Review meetings.
• Ensure alignment on demand assumptions with Commercial and Finance teams across horizons.
• Maintain a clear audit trail of forecast changes and assumption shifts to enable cross-functional accountability.

Forecast Management

• Own the generation and maintenance of baseline and promotional forecasts for assigned categories across short-, mid-, and long-term horizons.
• Integrate key business inputs such as innovation plans, discontinuations, and commercial activities.
• Update the forecast (M+1 to M+3) to support accurate supply planning and service optimization.
• Analyze and reduce forecast bias and error through historical review, event debriefs, and continuous improvement cycles.

Supply Chain Projects

• Lead loss visibility and mitigation initiatives, developing analytics around material variances, aging stock, and forecast accuracy.
• Implement inventory optimization frameworks, using demand variability, service levels, and segmentation to define safety stock strategies.
• Develop and maintain automated KPI dashboards for Forecast Accuracy, Bias, OTIF, and Root Cause Analytics.
• Standardize SKU segmentation and lifecycle management for improved forecasting and supply visibility.
• Support digital transformation projects in planning tools.
• Implement risk-based allocation and planning logic for constrained SKUs and promotional spikes.
• Lead the creation of SOPs and training programs to support tool rollouts and capability-building.
• Drive performance improvement programs focused on forecast accuracy, planner capability, and systemic root cause resolution.
• Mentor supply chain community members involved in planning operations or project execution.

Demand Supply Integration & Loss Analysis

• Champion the connection between Demand Planning and Supply Planning by creating structured handshakes during the IBP cycle, ensuring seamless flow of information from consensus demand to supply planning inputs.
• Leverage experience in end-to-end (E2E) supply chain and S&OP processes to build an integrated planning rhythm that improves decision-making and visibility across horizons.
• Lead loss analysis initiatives to identify and eliminate inefficiencies caused by inaccurate demand signals, aged or excess inventory, supply imbalances, and planning disconnects.
• Partner with Supply Planners and Procurement to translate demand plans into executable supply signals while maintaining agility and responsiveness.
• Drive root cause analysis (RCA) processes for service failures, stockouts, or excess inventory, aligning corrective actions across functions.
• Create clear alignment on supply risks and capacity constraints during Demand and Supply Review steps, enabling faster escalation and resolution.
• Establish metrics and dashboards to track the health of demand-supply handshakes, highlighting mismatches and proposing proactive solutions.

Reporting and Analytics

• Publish and present demand KPIs across horizons (M-1, M-3) with commentary and action plans.
• Track forecast assumptions and communicate changes transparently to relevant stakeholders.
• Highlight risks, opportunities, and potential gaps vs. targets during monthly IBP cycles.