Demand Planner

Russell Stover Chocolates, LLC; Kansas City (MO); On-site; USD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Russell Stover Chocolates, LLC is seeking a Demand Planner to join our Supply Chain Planning team in Kansas City. You will develop quality forecasts, manage inventory, and support production planning through data analytics.

You will collaborate with Sales, Marketing, and Operations to improve service levels, drive sales, and ensure alignment with organizational strategies. Strong analytical and communication skills are essential in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, analytics, or a related field.
• Experience with SAP and IBP in a planning environment.
• Advanced Excel skills and proficiency with PowerPoint for storytelling of results.
• Strong analytical mindset with ability to translate data into actionable insights.
• Excellent communication and ability to collaborate cross-functionally across Sales, Marketing, and Operations.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the statistical forecast model and input data to generate a consensus forecast.
• Improve forecast accuracy by accounting for seasonality, promotions, and new items.
• Align demand plans with business objectives and S&OP processes.
• Pull data, run analyses, create presentations, and lead discussions with account managers and leadership.
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Finance, and IT to drive planning, execution, and risk management.
• Develop dashboards and reports to monitor missed sales, bias, and demand/supply balance.

Skills

Forecasting

SAP/IBP

Excel

BI tools

Data analytics

Cross-functional

Python/SQL

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

SAP

IBP

Power BI

Tableau

SQL

Python

Job description

At Russell Stover, not only do we love chocolate, but we love our jobs! Every day we go to work exhibiting our values of excellence, innovation, entrepreneurship, responsibility, and collaboration. Working at Russell Stover you'll be part of the leading manufacturer of boxed, seasonal, and sugar-free chocolates. For over 100 years, Russell Stover Chocolates, Whitman’s, and Pangburn’s have been crafted with the finest ingredients to bring happiness to generations. Today, we produce over 55 million pounds of chocolate annually, and our legacy brands can be found in 13 company-owned stores and over 9,000 wholesale accounts. Join our team and let’s continue making chocolate lovers happy!

A day in the life…

As the Demand Planner, you will be an integral part of the Russell Stover Supply Chain Planning team. You will develop quality forecasts and maintain high forecast accuracy for effective execution of production planning, inventory management, and deployment of product. In this position, you will also focus on leveraging external data sources to improve cross-functional planning processes. As a key point of contact between Sales, Marketing, and Supply Chain, you will play a key role in improving service levels, driving sales, consumer off-take, and supporting organizational strategies through data analytics. As the ideal candidate you must: be able to analyze data effectively and efficiently, be adaptable and open to change in a fast-paced environment, and be able to effectively communicate complexity to all levels of the organization.

What you will be doing…

• Maintain the statistical forecast model and sales input to facilitate a consensus forecast.
• Improve forecast accuracy by accounting for seasonality, new items, new customers, promotional activity, and other market factors.
• Align demand plans to business objectives through understanding Seasonal, Base, Promotional, New Product, and Cannibalization processes.
• Support Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) cycle meeting series by pulling data, conducting analysis, building PowerPoints, and facilitating conversation and resolution of planning opportunities with account managers and senior leadership.
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and alignment with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and IT to drive business results in planning, execution, and risks/opportunities.
• Prepare and present demand analytics including, but not limited to: missed business/lost sales, forecast accuracy and bias, customer sell-through, monthly and annual pacing, and demand/supply balancing.
• Develop alerts, reports, and predictive models to support the organization in identifying potential gaps and issues before they arise.
• Drive Production Planning and Inventory Management strategies to improve customer fill rates and minimize excess inventory.
• Support demand planning initiatives to drive continuous improvement in global demand planning processes, systems, and integration into the business.
• Participate in global projects that support “Best Practice” alignment of Lindt, Ghirardelli, and Russell Stover supply chain systems/processes.
• Support Vendor Management processes/initiatives as needed.

If visiting our manufacturing plants, you will be expected to:

• Adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to ensure product quality and maintain compliance with food safety standards.
• Complete and follow FSQA training and programs to comply with regulatory requirements, ensure consumer safety, and support the plant’s food safety and quality objectives.
• Promptly report and take appropriate action on any observed or potential food safety hazards, process deviations, or non-conformities by notifying the designated plant supervisor, in accordance with your role and responsibilities.
• Actively contributes to the continuous improvement of the company’s Food Safety Culture through engagement and actions aligned with your role.

This job posting is not all inclusive and other duties may be assigned.

Do you have what it takes?

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or 2 years of experience in Supply Chain, Statistics, Financial Planning, or Market Analysis
• Experience using SAP and/or SAP-Integrated Business Planning IBP
• Advanced Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint skills
• Analytical, critical thinking, and multi-tasking skills
• Strong interpersonal skills, must be able to work cross-functionally at various levels of the organization
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to speak, read, and write English fluently, with or without an accommodation.

Do you stand above the rest?

Preferred Qualifications

• At least 5 years of experience in Supply Chain, Planning, or a highly technical role
• Experience using customer data portals, IRI, or other external market intelligence tools
• Expertise in a programming language such as SQL, VBA, or Python
• Experience building dashboards using Business Intelligence tools, such as Tableau, SAP Analytics Cloud, Power BI, etc.
• Ability to work directly with Russell Stover customers—must possess leadership qualities and the ability to maintain/build customer relationships.
• Experience working in the CPG industry
• APICS, IBF, or any type of forecasting certification

At Russell Stover Chocolates, we don’t just accept difference — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Russell Stover Chocolates is proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace.

We provide equal employment opportunities to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, protected medical condition, genetic information, military service, veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by law.

Employment by Russell Stover Chocolates is contingent upon I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification, passing the urinalysis drug screen, education verification, and satisfactory reference and background checks.

Make Happy. Work Happy.