Global Process Owner - Planning & Systems
Location
Hamburg, Germany (preffered) can be flexible to candidates in other locations
Overview
An exciting opportunity to join a fast-growing international consumer goods business undergoing significant supply chain transformation and organisational growth across Europe. The organisation has established a Supply Chain Planning Centre of Excellence (CoE) and is continuing to invest heavily in people, processes, systems, and capabilities to support both organic and acquisition-led expansion.
The Global Process Owner (GPO) will be responsible for defining, standardising, and governing end-to-end planning processes while acting as the critical bridge between business stakeholders and future planning technology capabilities. This individual will play a pivotal role in shaping global planning ways of working and preparing the organisation for the implementation of o9 Solutions.
This is a highly visible role suited to a senior supply chain professional who combines deep operational planning expertise with strong process design and systems transformation experience.
Key Responsibilities
Process Ownership & Governance
- Own and continuously improve global planning processes across:
- Demand Planning
- Supply Planning
- Inventory Planning
- External Manufacturing Planning
- S&OP / Integrated Business Planning
- Define future-state planning operating models, governance frameworks, KPIs, and best practices.
- Drive process harmonisation across regions, business units, and functions.
- Establish global standards while ensuring scalability to support rapid business growth.
- Lead process documentation, training, and governance initiatives.
Planning Transformation
- Support the continued development and maturity of the Supply Chain Planning CoE.
- Design and implement best-in-class planning processes and workflows.
- Identify process inefficiencies and improvement opportunities through data-driven analysis.
- Collaborate with planning teams to improve forecast accuracy, inventory performance, service levels, and operational agility.
- Drive change management and stakeholder alignment across the business.
Systems & Digital Enablement
- Act as the business owner for planning systems and future technology capabilities.
- Serve as the key interface between Supply Chain, IT, Finance, Data, and external implementation partners.
- Define business requirements and translate planning needs into scalable system solutions.
- Play a leading role in the upcoming o9 implementation journey, ensuring business requirements are effectively captured and deployed.
- Evaluate current-state processes and system limitations while defining future-state digital planning capabilities.
- Support the transition from highly manual and Excel-based planning processes towards integrated planning technologies.
Stakeholder Management
- Partner closely with Supply Chain, Commercial, Finance, Manufacturing, Procurement, and Digital teams.
- Facilitate workshops and process design sessions with senior stakeholders.
- Influence and align regional and global teams towards common planning processes and standards.
- Act as a trusted advisor on planning process excellence and systems strategy.
Profile
- 8+ years of experience within Supply Chain Planning, Supply Chain Excellence, Planning Transformation, or Business Process Ownership.
- Strong operational understanding of Supply Planning and broader end-to-end planning processes.
- Experience working within complex international supply chains.
- Proven track record driving process improvement and transformation initiatives.
- Hands-on experience operating within planning environments before moving into process ownership or transformation roles.
- Experience translating business requirements into system and process solutions.
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
Highly Desirable
- Experience supporting or leading o9, SAP IBP, Kinaxis, Blue Yonder, Anaplan, or similar planning platform implementations.
- Previous experience acting as a Business Process Owner (BPO), Global Process Owner (GPO), Process Excellence Lead, or Planning Transformation Lead.
- Experience bridging the gap between business users and technology teams.
- Exposure to ERP environments, particularly SAP.
- Understanding of Finance integration and planning data flows.
- Experience building or supporting Planning Centres of Excellence.
Industry Background
Preferred experience within:
- FMCG
- Consumer Goods
- Food & Beverage
- E-commerce
- Nutrition or Health Products
- Fast-growth international businesses
Languages
- Fluent English required.
- German is advantageous but not essential.