Senior Manager, S&OP and Customer Fulfillment

Vaco by Highspring; Raleigh (NC); On-site; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Vaco by Highspring seeks a Senior Manager of S&OP and Customer Fulfillment to lead demand planning, inventory coordination, order fulfillment, and customer operations. The role sits at the intersection of sales, forecasts, production, and service delivery, translating forecasts into executable plans while ensuring timely order processing.

The successful candidate will manage a team of 4–5 professionals, balance inventory with service levels, and drive analytics via Excel and Power BI.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in S&OP, SIOP, demand planning, supply planning, customer operations or related functions.
• Experience supporting industrial manufacturing, durable goods, or similar environments.
• Demonstrated experience balancing demand forecasts with inventory, production capacity, and customer requirements.
• Prior leadership experience managing customer service, order management, planning, or fulfillment teams.
• Strong inventory management and operational planning experience.
• Advanced Excel skills and comfort analyzing large, high-SKU datasets.
• Experience with ERP, MRP, EDI, and business intelligence tools.
• Experience collaborating with international manufacturing or supply chain operations.
• Strong communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to operate in both strategic planning and daily execution.
• Willingness to work onsite in Raleigh five days per week and participate in occasional evening calls with global teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the S&OP, Demand Planning, and Forecast Management functions, connecting customer forecasts with production and inventory plans.
• Analyze historical demand, forecasts, open orders, market activity, and trends across hundreds of SKUs.
• Identify changes in demand and communicate potential impacts on production, inventory, and service levels.
• Develop early-warning indicators for forecast changes and supply constraints.
• Partner with sales, operations, customer service, and international manufacturing teams to reconcile demand and supply assumptions.
• Improve forecast accuracy and establish consistent planning cadences, assumptions, and reporting.
• Support capacity planning and production prioritization based on customer needs and constraints.
• Prepare demand, inventory, and fulfillment reporting for senior leadership.
• Balance service levels with inventory investment and obsolescence risks.
• Coordinate inventory releases, customer pickups, returns, and product transitions.
• Lead ERP transformation efforts and define functional requirements for planning and execution.

Skills

S&OP

Demand planning

Inventory planning

Order fulfillment

Customer operations

Leadership

Excel

Power BI

ERP

MRP/EDI

Global collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in a related field

MBA or similar certification

Tools

ERP systems

MRP

EDI

Data analytics tools

Excel (Advanced)

Job description

Senior Manager, S&OP and Customer Fulfillment

Schedule: Fully onsite, 5 days per week, with reasonable flexibility as needed

About the Role

A privately held, global industrial manufacturing and distribution organization is seeking a Senior Manager, S&OP and Customer Fulfillment to lead demand planning, inventory coordination, order fulfillment, and customer operations.

This role sits at the intersection of sales, customer demand, inventory, global production, and supply chain execution. The Senior Manager will translate customer forecasts and market signals into actionable inventory and production plans while ensuring that current orders are processed accurately and delivered on time.

This is not a traditional customer service management role or a warehouse execution position. It requires someone who understands S&OP or SIOP principles and can balance customer demand, production capacity, inventory investment, and service levels across a high-SKU industrial product portfolio.

The position also directly leads a team of customer service and order management professionals. The successful candidate must be comfortable working strategically with forecasts and analytics while remaining closely involved in daily execution, escalations, and problem resolution.

Key Responsibilities

S&OP, Demand Planning, and Forecast Management

• Lead the demand planning component of the S&OP or SIOP process, connecting customer forecasts and sales expectations with production and inventory plans
• Analyze historical demand, customer forecasts, open orders, market activity, and product trends across hundreds of SKUs
• Identify significant changes in demand and communicate their potential impact on production, inventory, and customer service
• Develop early-warning indicators for forecast changes, supply constraints, inventory shortages, and excess inventory
• Partner with sales, operations, customer service, and international manufacturing teams to reconcile demand and supply assumptions
• Improve forecast accuracy and establish consistent planning cadences, assumptions, and reporting
• Support capacity planning and production prioritization based on customer needs, supply availability, and business priorities
• Prepare demand, inventory, and fulfillment reporting for senior leadership

Inventory and Supply Planning

• Monitor inventory availability, customer requirements, global production schedules, and inbound supply
• Balance service-level expectations with inventory investment, working capital, and obsolescence risks
• Identify potential shortages, backorders, aged inventory, excess inventory, and slow-moving products
• Partner with global manufacturing and sourcing teams to expedite critical orders and address supply disruptions
• Recommend inventory actions based on forecast changes, lead times, order activity, and production constraints
• Coordinate inventory releases, customer pickups, returns, and product transitions
• Support product lifecycle planning as SKUs are introduced, revised, or discontinued

Customer Fulfillment and Order Management

• Oversee the end-to-end order management process from order receipt through delivery
• Ensure orders received through EDI and email channels are processed accurately and on time
• Monitor pricing, product availability, fulfillment status, shipment timing, backorders, and customer exceptions
• Resolve escalated issues involving shortages, pricing discrepancies, delayed orders, returns, and order changes
• Partner with customers, sales representatives, and internal teams to resolve issues and protect customer relationships

Analytics and Business Intelligence

• Use Excel, Power BI, ERP data, and other analytical tools to monitor forecast accuracy, inventory levels, service performance, and supply risks
• Develop dashboards and reporting that connect customer demand, production plans, inventory, and order fulfillment
• Analyze trends and anomalies to identify emerging operational risks before they affect customers
• Improve the quality, consistency, and accessibility of operational data used in planning decisions
• Explore automation and AI-assisted tools that can improve forecasting, exception reporting, and operational visibility
• Translate complex data into clear recommendations for leadership and operational teams

ERP and Systems Transformation

• Serve as a key business lead in the future implementation of a global ERP platform
• Help define functional requirements for demand planning, order management, inventory, sales and distribution, and materials management
• Participate in process mapping, system design, data validation, testing, implementation, and user adoption
• Ensure new workflows support both planning requirements and daily customer operations
• Improve coordination between systems currently used across international locations
• Help document and standardize processes before and during the ERP transition
• Lead and develop a team of approximately four to five customer service and order management professionals
• Provide daily direction, coaching, training, and support for complex customer and fulfillment issues
• Establish clear expectations for order accuracy, communication, responsiveness, and customer service
• Ensure customer coverage during vacations, absences, and peak periods
• Support hiring, onboarding, performance management, and employee development
• Build cross-training so team members can support multiple customers and responsibilities
• Remain directly involved in operational work rather than delegating all execution to the team
• Work closely with manufacturing, sourcing, and support teams across multiple international locations
• Participate in occasional evening calls to address time-sensitive supply, production, and customer issues
• Communicate clearly across cultures, functions, and time zones
• Drive timely resolution of issues so decisions are not delayed by international handoffs

Required Qualifications

• 10 or more years of experience in S&OP, SIOP, demand planning, supply planning, customer operations, order fulfillment, or related functions
• Experience supporting industrial manufacturing, durable goods, heavy equipment, construction products, trucking, agricultural equipment, engineered products, or a similar environment
• Demonstrated experience balancing demand forecasts with inventory, production capacity, and customer requirements
• Prior leadership experience managing customer service, order management, planning, or fulfillment teams
• Strong inventory management and operational planning experience
• Advanced Excel skills and comfort analyzing large, high-SKU datasets
• Experience working with ERP, MRP, EDI, and business intelligence tools
• Experience collaborating with international manufacturing or supply chain operations
• Strong communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to operate effectively in both strategic planning and detailed execution
• Willingness to work onsite in Raleigh five days per week and participate in occasional evening calls with global teams

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct S&OP, SIOP, or integrated business planning ownership
• Experience with demand reviews, supply reviews, inventory planning, and executive S&OP reporting
• ERP implementation or major systems transformation experience
• Experience with Sales and Distribution, Materials Management, MRP, and BOM functionality
• Power BI dashboard development or advanced business analytics experience
• Experience developing forecast exception reports, early-warning indicators, or demand anomaly reporting
• Bachelor's degree in supply chain, operations, engineering, business, analytics, or a related field
• MBA or other relevant graduate degree
• APICS, ASCM, CPIM, CSCP, or similar certification

By submitting to this position, you are agreeing to be included in our talent pool for future hiring for similarly qualified positions.

Equal Opportunity Notice

Highspring LLC (d/b/a Vaco by Highspring) and its parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries ("we," "our," or "Vaco by Highspring") are committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race (including but not limited to traits historically associated with race such as hair texture and hair style), color, sex (includes pregnancy or related conditions), religion or creed, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, status as a veteran, union membership, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, political affiliation, or any other protected characteristics as required by applicable law. The company is also committed to ensuring that persons who need them are provided with reasonable accommodations; if an accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact [e-mail] .

Vaco by Highspring also wants all applicants to know their rights that workplace discrimination is illegal.

Representation Notice

By submitting to this position, you agree that you will be giving Vaco by Highspring the exclusive right to present your as a candidate for the foregoing employment opportunity. Additionally, you agree to be included in our talent pool for future hiring for similarly qualified positions. You further agree that you have represented information about yourself accurately and have not affirmatively misrepresented your qualifications. Lastly, you agree to maintain as confidential, to the fullest extent permitted by law, any information you learn from Vaco by Highspring about the position and you will limit disclosure of information about the position only to the extent necessary to perform any obligations in furtherance of your application. In exchange, Vaco by Highspring agrees to exercise reasonable efforts to represent you through all solicitation, job screening and resume dispersal.

For residents of Ontario, Canada only:

to the extent the position for employment is not with Highspring or not otherwise noted as vacant above, candidate should be informed that this role is to replace a presently employed person at Vaco by Highspring's client.

Privacy Notice

• California residents may access Vaco by Highspring HR Notice at Collection for California Applicants and Employees here.
• Virginia residents may access our state specific policies here.
• Residents of all other states may access our policies here.
• Canadian residents may access our policies in English here and in French here.
• Residents of countries governed by GDPR and UK GDPR may access our policies here.

Additionally, submissions to this position are subject to the use of AI to perform preliminary candidate screenings, focused on ensuring minimum job requirements noted in the position are satisfied. More details about Vaco by Highspring's use of AI can be found here (https://www.highspring.com/ai-use-notices/). Further assessment of candidates beyond this initial phase will be conducted by recruiters and hiring managers. Vaco by Highspring does not know and cannot opine on if its client's use of AI products in hiring.

Pay Transparency Notice

Determining compensation for this role (and others) at Vaco by Highspring depends upon a wide array of factors including but not limited to:

the individual's skill sets, experience and training;

licensure and certification requirements;

office location and other geographic considerations; and

other business and organizational needs.

With that said, as required by local law, Vaco by Highspring believes that the following salary range referenced above reasonably estimates the base compensation for an individual hired into this position in geographies that require salary range disclosure. The individual may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses and/or participation in medical, dental, and vision benefits as well as the company's retirement plan (or similar retirement benefits).