Head of Planning - Food Retail

AlFuttaim; Dubai; On-site; AED 420,000 - 650,000; Full time

Job summary

Al-Futtaim Retail invites a senior planning leader to own food demand forecasting, replenishment, and inventory planning across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. You will set strategy, governance, and standards while driving value from the RELEX platform and collaborating with technology, commercial, and operations teams.

The role requires a minimum of 10 years in retail planning, strong cross-market experience, and a proven track record of leading planning transformation and change

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business Management, Retail, Operations Management, or related discipline.
• MBA or equivalent professional qualification is desirable.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in retail planning, supply chain planning, inventory planning, or food retail.
• Proven leadership across demand planning, forecasting, replenishment, or inventory functions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the regional food planning function across MEA and Asia.
• Define the regional planning strategy aligned to commercial priorities.
• Establish governance for demand forecasting, replenishment, and inventory planning.
• Lead planning transformation and organizational change across markets.

Skills

Inventory Planning and Management

Food retail planning

Demand forecasting

Replenishment planning

Inventory optimization

Forecast accuracy management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business Management, Retail, Operations Management, or related discipline

MBA or equivalent professional qualification

Tools

RELEX

SAP

Power BI

Microsoft Excel

Job description

Head of Planning - Food Retail

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Industry: Retail

Function: Inventory Planning and Management

Experience: Minimum 10 years

Job Type: Full-time

Role Overview

Head of Planning - Food Retail in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is a senior retail hiring opportunity responsible for leading food demand forecasting, replenishment, inventory planning, and planning transformation across markets in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. The role owns the planning strategy, governance framework, operating standards, and capability required to maximize commercial value from the RELEX planning platform. This position is suited to an accomplished retail planning leader with extensive experience in food categories, multi‑market operations, inventory optimization, advanced forecasting, organizational change, and cross‑functional stakeholder management.

Responsibilities

• Lead the food planning function across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.
• Define the regional planning strategy in line with commercial priorities, customer demand, and operational capability.
• Establish clear governance for demand forecasting, replenishment, inventory planning, and planning performance.
• Standardize planning processes, decision rights, controls, and ways of working across markets.
• Develop a long‑term roadmap for planning capability, technology, automation, and team development.
• Act as the principal business owner for the RELEX planning platform.
• Ensure RELEX delivers measurable value through improved forecasting, replenishment, availability, inventory productivity, and waste control.
• Define system governance, user responsibilities, planning workflows, and platform operating standards.
• Work with Technology and implementation partners to improve system configuration and performance.
• Prioritize enhancements, integrations, automation opportunities, and analytical capabilities.
• Promote effective platform adoption across planning teams and operational stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain planning policies for all food categories and markets.
• Establish appropriate planning parameters, lead times, review cycles, service levels, safety stocks, and replenishment rules.
• Review parameters regularly to reflect product characteristics, demand patterns, seasonality, promotions, and supply constraints.
• Ensure planning decisions are supported by reliable data and consistent analytical methods.
• Lead advanced demand forecasting across fresh, chilled, frozen, ambient, bakery, and other food categories.
• Improve forecast accuracy through appropriate models, segmentation, exception management, and planner intervention.
• Account for seasonality, promotions, events, new products, discontinuations, and market‑specific demand patterns.
• Establish processes for measuring and improving forecast bias and forecast accuracy.
• Lead replenishment planning to maintain strong product availability across stores and digital channels.
• Balance service levels with inventory investment, storage capacity, shelf life, and waste exposure.
• Monitor stock‑outs, overstocks, slow‑moving inventory, expiry risk, and excess holdings.
• Develop corrective actions for recurring availability, waste, and inventory performance issues.
• Guide teams in managing short shelf‑life and perishable inventory efficiently.
• Improve inventory turnover while protecting customer service and sales opportunities.
• Define and monitor planning key performance indicators across markets and categories.
• Produce clear reporting on availability, forecast accuracy, bias, stock cover, waste, service levels, and inventory productivity.
• Use RELEX, SAP, Power BI, and Excel to analyze trends and identify commercial improvement opportunities.
• Present strategic findings and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Translate complex planning data into practical actions for commercial and operational teams.
• Identify exceptions requiring executive decisions, investment, or cross‑functional intervention.
• Lead, coach, and develop demand planning and replenishment planning teams.
• Set clear objectives, performance expectations, accountability standards, and development priorities.
• Build technical capability in forecasting, replenishment, inventory optimization, analytics, and planning systems.
• Develop succession plans and strengthen the pipeline for future planning leadership roles.
• Create an environment that encourages commercial judgement, disciplined execution, and continuous learning.
• Partner with Buying teams to align forecasts, promotions, launches, range changes, and commercial priorities.
• Work with Supply Chain and Logistics to match planning decisions with supplier and distribution capabilities.
• Collaborate with Retail Operations to address store execution, product availability, and local demand patterns.
• Coordinate with Technology teams on platform reliability, integrations, data quality, and automation.
• Maintain a strong working relationship with Marks and Spencer UK on planning standards, practices, and regional requirements.
• Influence senior stakeholders across commercial, operational, supply chain, and technology functions.
• Lead planning transformation and organizational change across markets.
• Introduce automation, artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and exception‑based planning where appropriate.
• Review existing processes and remove manual activities that do not add commercial value.
• Apply continuous improvement methods to strengthen planning speed, accuracy, and consistency.
• Manage communication, training, adoption, and governance during major planning changes.
• Track realized business benefits from planning initiatives and technology investments.
• Ensure planning decisions support profitable growth, customer satisfaction, and operational resilience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business Management, Retail, Operations Management, or a related discipline.
• MBA or equivalent professional qualification is desirable.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in retail planning, supply chain planning, inventory planning, or food retail.
• Proven leadership experience across demand planning, forecasting, replenishment, or inventory functions.
• Previous responsibility for regional or multi‑market planning operations.
• Strong understanding of food retail, including short shelf‑life products, waste exposure, seasonality, promotions, and availability requirements.
• Advanced capability in demand forecasting, replenishment planning, and inventory optimization.
• Hands‑on experience implementing, operating, or transforming advanced planning platforms.
• Strong experience with RELEX is preferred.
• Familiarity with other artificial intelligence‑enabled planning platforms is advantageous.
• Proficiency in SAP, Power BI, and Microsoft Excel.
• Strong analytical capability with experience interpreting complex planning and commercial data.
• Ability to establish planning policies, parameters, governance structures, and performance standards.
• Demonstrated success leading organizational change and planning transformation.
• Experience developing high‑performing planning teams through coaching and succession planning.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to balance sales, availability, margin, inventory, and waste.
• Confident decision‑maker capable of working with incomplete or rapidly changing information.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Experience partnering with Buying, Supply Chain, Logistics, Retail Operations, and Technology teams.
• Ability to communicate strategic recommendations clearly to senior leadership.
• Strong planning, organization, problem‑solving, and execution skills.
• Adaptable leadership style suited to a complex regional Retail environment.

Skills Set

• Inventory Planning and Management
• Food retail planning
• Demand forecasting
• Replenishment planning
• Inventory optimization
• Forecast accuracy management
• Forecast bias analysis
• RELEX
• Artificial intelligence planning
• Planning governance
• Planning policy development
• Planning parameter management
• Safety stock optimization
• Service level planning
• Stock cover management
• Availability optimization
• Waste reduction
• Perishable inventory planning
• Short shelf‑life planning
• Promotional forecastingSeasonal demand planning
• New product forecasting
• Inventory productivity
• Stock‑out reduction
• Excess stock control
• SAP
• Power BI
• Microsoft Excel
• Data analytics
• KPI reporting
• Exception‑based planning
• Process automation
• Strategic planning
• Change management
• Continuous improvement
• Commercial decision‑making
• Multi‑market operations
• Stakeholder management
• Leadership and coaching
• Succession planning
• Planning transformation

Why Join Us

This opportunity provides strategic ownership of food planning across a large and diverse regional retail operation. The Head of Planning will directly influence product availability, customer satisfaction, inventory investment, waste reduction, operational efficiency, and the value generated from advanced planning technology. The role offers significant exposure to multi‑market leadership, artificial intelligence‑enabled planning, commercial decision‑making, and enterprise‑wide transformation. It is an excellent opportunity for an experienced planning executive seeking to build a best‑in‑class function while working with recognized international brands and senior stakeholders across the region.

About the Company

Al‑Futtaim Retail operates a diverse portfolio of international brands across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, covering food, fashion, furniture, home improvement, beauty, and children’s retail. As a major regional partner of Marks and Spencer, the division manages a substantial store network supported by integrated buying, supply chain, logistics, planning, technology, and retail operations teams that work together to improve product availability, customer experience, inventory efficiency, and sustainable business growth.