Inventory & Business Analyst

Mars, Incorporated; Slough; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global food company is seeking an Inventory & Business Analyst to support decision-making in inventory management. This role involves defining problem statements, providing data insights, and driving analytical solutions, requiring strong business acumen and technical skills. Ideal candidates hold a degree in a related field with 2-3 years of relevant experience. Experience with ERP systems is preferred, and fluency in English is mandatory.

Qualifications

• 2-3 years of experience working in a technical/analytics role.
• Experience with ERP and Advanced Planning Systems is a pro.

Responsibilities

• Define focused planning problem statements based on use-cases.
• Provide insights from data for data-driven decisions.
• Present results clearly to aid business decisions.
• Drive implementation of analytical solutions.

Skills

High business acumen in planning and inventory management

Advanced analytical skills

Technical skills with DataBricks, Python, SQL

Attention to detail

Fluent in English

Education

B.S. or BA in computer science, data science, mathematics, statistics

Master or advanced degree preferred

Tools

DataBricks

SQL

Power BI (PBI)

ERP systems (preferably E2Open or Rapid Response)

Job description

Job Description

THE CONTEXT & ENVIRONMENT

In this rapidly changing world, an agile supply chain (SC) makes the difference for our customer and consumers. Mars is continuously driving their supply chain to become more end-to-end connected, transparent, faster, agile, customer focused and digital. Mars believes that a human centric and digitally connected planning team is key to unlock this as it is the glue for one end to end SC team.

The MW EU Supply Chain Center of Excellence (CoE) sits at the heart of this transformation. We are the digital catalyst to speed up and strengthen the digital planning capabilities. We share the common passion to bring the benefits of a digital way of working to our European planning teams.

Within the CoE, the Insights & Analytics team (I&A) helps defining and solving business challenges and opportunities, by strengtening the data-driven decision muscle. The team exists of business analysts who translate business needs and clarify real problem statement, and data scientists who are working on digital prototyping and solutions.

THE ROLE

The inventory & business analyst is directly engaging with the planning organization, supporting them to drive the right decision making. The business analyst splits the focus areas in inventory management and problem solution in its own domain.

For inventory management, the role enables the organization to use inventory as a leading KPI for delivering the right service, cost and cash targets. The role supports in facilitating the meetings in the inventory review cycle, drives analytical tool development to empower the business to prepare and run the inventory review, and supports in in‑depth analytics.

For problem solution, the business analyst drives advanced analytics, thorough root cause analysis and - if the business problem is reoccurring - the analyst is responsible to translate the business need into a trusted digital solution, driving continuous improvement. Key to this is not only delivery of the digital solution but also driving adoption to the planning teams and ensuring the result is accepted and used.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

• High business acumen in planning and inventory management, ability to listen to feedback, evaluate analytical findings / improvements, provide business insights on different levels of aggregation and clearly communicate to stakeholders in their language.
• Advanced analytical skills and strong technical skills to unlock the data required (e.g. DataBricks, Python, SQL). Also handy to make the data swiftly accessible for the business (e.g. PBI).
• Attention to detail and a passion for data accuracy.
• B.S. or BA in computer science, data science, mathematics, statistics or related natural science; or technical degree like industrial or business engineering. Master or advanced degree preferred.
• 2–3 years of experience working in a technical/analytics role.
• Experience with ERP and Advanced Planning Systems (preferably E2Open or Rapid Response) is a pro.
• Fluent in English.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Define focused, value‑added planning problem statements for balancing service, stock and cost for the business based on use‑cases, design thinking, and value stream analysis.
• Provide insights from data to support the organization in making increasingly data‑driven decisions in forecasting, supply planning, risk analysis in supply & demand, and inventory setting.
• Present results in a compelling and clear manner to drive business decision making.
• Drive implementation of analytical solutions from problem understanding to solution release.