Business Planning and Analytics Manager

Darigold; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 124,000 - 188,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Business Planning & Analytics Manager to drive demand planning and pricing strategies. This dynamic role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to optimize pricing policies and support sales efforts. The ideal candidate thrives in fast-paced environments, possesses strong analytical skills, and is adept at navigating complex data systems. With a commitment to excellence, you will play a key role in shaping the future of the business while enjoying a comprehensive benefits package and a flexible work environment. Join us to make a significant impact in the dairy industry!

Benefits

401k competitive employer matching

Comprehensive medical, dental & vision benefits

Employer paid life & disability coverage

Paid time off and paid holidays

8 weeks paid parental leave

Education assistance

Employee assistance program

Flexible hybrid working arrangement

Qualifications

• 6+ years in supply chain or commercial operations with analytics focus.
• Experience with diverse data sets and reporting tools.
• Strong business acumen and analytical rigor.

Responsibilities

• Manage pricing strategies and negotiations for customers.
• Analyze pricing performance and deliver insights.
• Develop and manage demand planning processes.

Skills

Statistical Analysis

Financial Analysis

Demand Planning

Negotiation Skills

Project Management

Problem-Solving

Communication Skills

Analytical Skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business

Master’s degree in Business

Tools

Microsoft Excel

PowerPivot

PowerQuery

PowerBI

ERP Planning Tools

Job description

Darigold is seeking an experienced Business Planning & Analytics Manager to join our team. This role’s principal responsibilities include demand planning, pricing maintenance and development and financial analysis efforts for the Fresh Milk and B2C Private Label portfolio. This position will manage pricing and performance for the Fresh Milk and B2C Private Label business, owning pricing analysis, pricing builds and rules for RFPs, commercial proposals and day-to-day quotes and pricing activities.

This role serves as the first contact for the Sales team in preparation for negotiating and executing deals, working cross-functionally with Commercial leaders, Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Transportation, Production and Procurement to establish profitable pricing policies and programs that enable strategic growth. This position is also responsible for the delivery of demand plans and forecasts as part of Darigold’s integrated business planning and tactical planning processes where they will develop, consolidate and synchronize the demand signal and support teammates. The role is partially customer-facing and will support Sales with direct customer communication, presentations, and negotiations.

The ideal candidate is customer-focused and thrives in a fast-moving, high-accountability atmosphere, being comfortable making progress in an ambiguous environment. The candidate has an affinity for numbers, with an aptitude for objective statistical and financial analysis, complemented by strong interpersonal skills to build rapport and solid working relationships across the organization. High in business acumen and with a commitment to analytical rigor, the candidate will have intellectual curiosity and a natural inclination to want to dig deeper, learn more and figure out how things work and why. The candidate will have perseverance, with the ability to navigate efficiently through complex systems and data, as well as the flexible tenacity to push through adversity and roadblocks. The candidate will have determination and drive to get things done, particularly in a dynamic and evolving organization and industry.

Darigold is the fifth largest dairy cooperative in the United States based on milk volume and one of the largest privately held organizations headquartered in the state of Washington. Since 1918, our producers have taken pride in producing dairy products with unsurpassed quality. Today, we are one of the nation's largest agricultural cooperatives, producing over 8.5 billion pounds of milk every year.

Through innovative technology and our efficient, flexible production capabilities, we deliver value-added products and customer-driven solutions. Darigold is now known throughout the world for bringing fresh, wholesome dairy products and ingredients from the Northwest to people all around the globe.

What You Will Do:

Pricing & Performance Management

• Primary point of contact for Sales team to determine pricing and negotiation strategies for a set of customers/channels, in line with broader commercial goals and strategies.
• Drives P&L performance via smart, accurate and fast pricing decisions, handling day-to-day pricing requests and approvals in a timely and results-oriented manner.
• Makes pricing recommendations with an understanding of the implications to sales, finance, operations and supply chain and overall business objectives.
• Leads tactical pricing builds and execution for a set of customers/channels.
• Collaborates with cross-functional team members in driving data accuracy in pricing cost builds.
• Owns pricelist design and management in line with customer, channel and business strategy.
• Leads large, strategic RFPs – builds a tactical framework, gets alignment with internal stakeholders, develops a negotiation strategy and enables feedback/learning loops with the customer-facing team members.
• Leads development and communication of customer-specific price and mover updates, i.e. quarterly freight updates.
• Monitors win/loss data for insights and early indicators for competitor/customer/market moves and provides proactive, data-backed recommendations for actionable tactics.

Pricing & Performance Reporting / Analytics

• Owns tracking the opportunity pipeline and RFP/contract renewal calendar for a set of customers/channels, supporting the annual and monthly operating planning process.
• Responsible for proactively analyzing pricing performance and delivering key insights on pricing for customers and channel opportunities.
• Drives margin analytics and data gathering (e.g. pricing, market data, contract data, customer order information, standard and actual costs).
• Creates and establishes cadence of pricing reports that track and monitor performance for set of customers/channels.
• Supports development and monitors the performance of movers and pricing rules (i.e. fixed vs. variable, price update methodologies, timing and frequencies, service levels).
• Builds reports for exception management and outlier identification.
• Builds ad-hoc economic and financial models to enhance and drive smart, agile commercial decision-making.
• Proactively identifies and recommends improvements and efficiencies in systems and processes relating to pricing, reporting and analysis, as well as data management.

Pricing Systems Management

• Manages overall pricing update processes, including setting up and executing the weekly, monthly, and quarterly standard and custom cycles.
• Ensures all data is entered correctly and in time for cycle updates.
• Responsible for ensuring pricelists and price points are set up and maintained.
• Owns pricing system set up step for new customer and new product set up processes.
• Leads the development, maintenance and validation of analytics supporting data and invoice accuracy.
• First point of contact for invoice related inquiries.
• Builds reports that enable routine maintenance of pricelists and price points (i.e. clean up of active price points with zero shipments).
• Works closely with various stakeholders to action findings of inactive or incorrect data (price lists/products/sell-tos) by following up with Sales team and Finance team, elevating the organization's commitment to clean, reliable and accurate customer, product and pricing data.

Demand Planning

• Responsible for development and management of unconstrained item level consensus demand plan, to include integration of statistically based sales forecasts with sales account and promotional plans.
• Manages synchronization and integrations of demand plans across all time horizons including both the tactical (0-3 months), operational (3-36 months) and strategic (3+ years) horizons.
• Represents the unconstrained demand signal to the rest of the organization by acting as process leader of the Demand Review as part of the Integrated Business Planning process.
• Drives improvement of key performance indicators of demand signal health such as accuracy, bias and forecast value-add through disciplined measurement and reporting across all input sources and levels of granularity required by the business.
• Responsible for integration of product and customer lifecycle activities into unconstrained demand plan.
• Manages and designs customer demand planning process and tools critical to effective integrated business and tactical planning success in a predictable and repeatable manner.
• Collaborates with and hold accountable sales partners to deliver accurate and timely customer volume, pricing and trade spending forecasts by developing effective communication, KPI’s, metrics and by implementing performance reporting and performance management meetings.
• Provides sales and demand performance reporting to support business performance management processes.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Supply Chain or a related field required.
• Master’s degree in Business, Finance, or related field preferred.
• 6+ years of increasing responsibility in supply chain, manufacturing or commercial operations supporting the delivery of insights and analytics for a business unit.
• Ability to work across diverse data sets & reporting tools to provide relevant insights across planning, pricing and business performance.
• Experience leading projects and programs with high degree of independence.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel to deliver required analytics.
• Experience with PowerPivot, PowerQuery and PowerBI preferred.
• Experience using ERP Planning, Promotion Management and Pricing Management tools preferred.
• Experience in food & beverage, agribusiness or a commodity based industry preferred.
• Agility to make decisions with limited information and using commercial acumen.
• Very strong problem-solving, critical thinking and analytical skills.
• Advanced quantitative skills (statistics, financial/quantitative data modeling, ROI/cost-benefit).
• Knowledge of agricultural economics.
• Ability to communicate and present (proposals, market insights) directly to customers.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills and ability to work cross-functionally.
• Ability to influence decision-makers at all levels of the organization internally and externally.
• Excellent negotiation skills.
• Well-organized, detail-oriented, and accountable for results.
• Project management and ability to manage multiple high-priority projects simultaneously.
• Ability to work independently within a transformational team environment.
• Ability to self-train quickly and pick up new skills as necessary.
• Ability to lead by example and to also assign work to peers.

Benefits of Working at Darigold:

We understand that as an employee, benefits that support you and your family in and out of work are important. We’re proud to offer eligible positions a competitive total rewards package that includes:

• 401k competitive employer matching
• Comprehensive medical, dental & vision benefits
• Employer paid life & disability coverage
• Paid time off and paid holidays
• 8 weeks paid parental leave
• Education assistance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible hybrid working arrangement where applies (up to 2 days/week after initial 90 days and approval by hiring manager and HR)
• Compensation range: $124,875 - $187,313 (individual wage based on previous experience, knowledge and skills)

Our Commitment to Diversity:

Achieving our vision to Lead Dairy Forward requires cultivating and supporting a team with varying backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We are committed to providing a workplace based on mutual respect where all employees feel included and can bring their best and authentic selves to work every day. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and Affirmative Action Employer. We welcome all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, marital status, creed, religion, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. As a condition of employment applicants offered a role will be required to successfully pass our pre-employment background screen, receive a negative drug screen result & confirm eligibility to work in the U.S. We participate in E-Verify - please follow the links for details, English / Spanish & view our Right to Work Statement, English / Spanish.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.