Senior Demand Planner

The Sterling Choice; Greater Manchester; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

The Sterling Choice is seeking a Senior Demand Planner in Greater Manchester to own demand planning across a complex customer and product portfolio. You will drive forecasts for key customers, SKUs and categories and partner with Sales, Operations and Planning to enable informed decision making.

You'll challenge assumptions, improve forecast accuracy and understand promotional uplifts and NPD impacts. Proficiency in Excel, Power BI and ERP systems is essential, as is a commercially minded

Qualifications

• Several years' Demand Planning experience in food, FMCG, or fast-paced consumer environments.
• Experience with promotions forecasting and NPD is valuable.
• Strong Excel skills; Power BI and ERP familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of forecasting across customer, SKU and category levels.
• Improve forecast accuracy and bias, understand promotional uplifts.
• Help the business predict demand around NPD.
• Collaborate with Sales, Operations, Planning and Stock Control.
• Explain what the numbers mean and challenge assumptions when needed.

Skills

Forecasting

Demand planning

Analytical thinking

Stakeholder management

Tools

Excel

Power BI

ERP systems

Job description

Senior Demand Planner

Greater Manchester

Food Manufacturing

£50,000 - £55,000

There are Demand Planner roles where you maintain a forecast.

And there are roles where the business genuinely relies on you to tell them what is coming.

This is the latter.

You'll join a successful, fast-moving food manufacturer supplying some of the UK's biggest grocery retailers, taking ownership of demand planning across a complex customer and product portfolio.

Promotions. Seasonality. NPD. Range changes. Customer forecasts. Long lead times.

There are plenty of moving parts.

Your job is to take all of that information and turn it into one credible demand plan that the commercial and operational teams can actually make decisions from.

Reporting into senior commercial leadership, you'll work closely with Sales, Operations, Planning and Stock Control, but this isn't a role where you simply accept the numbers you're given.

You'll look at what the customer is saying, what historically happened, what promotions are coming, how similar launches performed and where the risks sit.

Then you'll challenge assumptions and build the forecast the business can confidently plan around.

That means taking ownership of forecasting across customer, SKU and category level, improving accuracy and bias, understanding promotional uplifts and helping the business get much better at predicting demand around NPD.

You'll also have the opportunity to improve how demand planning is done.

The business wants someone who can look at its forecasting models, reporting, systems and processes and ask: how can we make this better?

You'll have the data to do it, using Excel alongside tools including Power BI and ERP systems, but the real value will come from what you do with that information.

Because ultimately, they don't need somebody who can just produce a spreadsheet.

They need somebody who can explain what it means.

Someone commercially minded enough to work closely with Account Managers and major retailers, analytical enough to spot what others miss and confident enough to challenge when the numbers don't stack up.

You'll probably already have several years' Demand Planning experience within food, FMCG or another fast-paced consumer environment, with exposure to major UK grocery retailers particularly valuable.

Experience of promotional forecasting, NPD, S&OP and complex product portfolios would all translate well.

Most importantly, you'll be joining a successful and ambitious food business where Demand Planning has genuine visibility and influence.

You won't be sitting on the edge of the operation producing reports nobody reads.

You'll be helping determine what the business makes, what it buys, how it services its customers and where it needs to react next.

If you're a Demand Planner who wants more ownership, more commercial exposure and the opportunity to genuinely shape how a business forecasts, this is worth a conversation.