Senior Forecasting & Planning Analyst

Branch; United States; Remote; USD 85,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Branch is expanding its Forecasting & Planning team to drive strategic demand planning across Enterprise/B2B channels. You will partner with Sales, Account Management, and Product to translate signals into robust forecasts and scalable workflows.

You’ll own higher-level forecasting methods, build automated data pipelines in BigQuery, and contribute to cross-functional planning reviews. Remote-ready, with room for growth in merch collaboration.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years in demand planning, merchandising planning, or forecasting.
• Experience with B2B/non-DTC planning is a strong asset.
• Comfort operating strategically and upstream with forecasting.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills; able to present forecasts to non-planners.
• Bonus: NPI forecasting or product lifecycle management.

Responsibilities

• Enterprise/B2B channel planning: own forecasts with Sales and Account Management.
• Strategic demand planning: own higher-level forecasting methods and scenarios.
• Tooling & automation: build BigQuery pulls, automate reporting and forecasting workflows.
• S&OP-style cross-functional partnership: represent planning in cross-functional forecast reviews.
• New product introduction (NPI) planning: forecast for launches without history.
• Product lifecycle strategy: guide discontinuation timing and risk management.
• Process & methodology improvement: enhance models and cadences as complexity grows.
• Strategic analysis: ad hoc analysis for assortment and inventory strategy.

Skills

Demand forecasting

Cross-functional comms

Strategic planning

Stakeholder management

Upstream thinking

Tools

Power BI

Tableau

Looker

SQL

BigQuery

Python

Job description

About the Role

We're growing our Forecasting & Planning team to support the business's increasingly complex channel mix - most notably our rapidly scaling Enterprise/B2B business. This role sits upstream of tactical execution, focused on strategic demand planning, cross-functional partnership, and channel-specific ownership. You'll partner closely with the Senior Manager and a Forecasting Analyst to build the planning function's next chapter.

This role is salaried with a compensation range of $85,000-$95,000 based on the candidate's experience, skills, competencies, qualifications and market.

What You'll Own

• Enterprise/B2B channel planning: Serve as the primary forecasting and planning owner for the Enterprise channel, partnering directly with Sales and Account Management to translate pipeline and account-level signals into demand forecasts
• Strategic demand planning: Own the higher-level forecasting methodology and assumptions feeding the overall revenue forecast (DTC, Enterprise, Amazon, Wholesale), stepping back from day-to-day tactical placement to focus on scenario planning, risk-flagging, and forecast accuracy improvement
• Tooling & automation: Build and maintain BigQuery-based data pulls, automate recurring reporting/forecasting workflows, and apply AI tools to speed up analysis - reducing manual, spreadsheet-dependent processes over time
• S&OP-style cross-functional partnership: Represent planning in cross-functional forecast reviews with Sales, Finance, and Product; translate business context into planning assumptions and vice versa
• New product introduction (NPI) planning: Partner with Product Development on demand forecasting for new launches, building forecast logic for products with no historical sell-through
• Product lifecycle strategy: Own the strategic view of lifecycle management - discontinuation timing, overstock/understock risk, and recommendations tied to broader merchandising strategy (with room to grow into deeper merch collaboration as the team scales)
• Process & methodology improvement: Identify and implement improvements to forecasting models, planning cadences, and tools as the team's complexity grows
• Strategic analysis: Contribute ad hoc analysis supporting business-wide decisions (assortment, channel investment, inventory strategy)

What Success Looks Like

Shared accountability with the team on:

• MAPE: ≤10% across all channels (with specific ownership of Enterprise channel accuracy)
• In-Stock Rate: 95% combined / 98% on Enterprise All-Star SKUs / 98% on Top 5 SKUs
• DIO: contributing to inventory efficiency through better upstream forecast quality
• Average Parcel Zone: supporting network/inventory placement decisions that improve transit speed and cost

What You Bring

• 5-7 years of experience in demand planning, merchandising planning, or forecasting, ideally with prior experience in a formal planner-type role
• Experience with B2B/non-DTC planning is a strong asset (account-based, pipeline-driven, or lumpy-demand forecasting)
• Comfort operating strategically and upstream — someone who can build a point of view on "what should the forecast assume" rather than just executing against a set plan
• Strong cross-functional communication skills; comfortable presenting forecasts and recommendations to non-planning stakeholders
• Bonus: experience with NPI forecasting or product lifecycle management

Technical Skills (high priority)

This role requires someone who can build and own tools, not just operate within them:

• BI tools: Advanced proficiency in Power BI, Tableau, or Looker - building dashboards and reports from scratch, not just consuming them
• SQL / BigQuery: Comfortable writing and optimizing queries to pull and model data directly from the warehouse, reducing dependency on other teams for data access
• Automation: Track record of automating manual, repetitive planning processes (e.g., scripting recurring reports, automating data refreshes, building repeatable forecast pipelines) rather than rebuilding spreadsheets each cycle
• AI/LLM tools: Hands-on experience applying AI