Strategic Demand Planner & S&OP Lead

Top Echelon LLC; Northampton (MA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Top Echelon LLC in Northampton, MA seeks a Supply Chain Demand Manager to lead forecasting and planning across product lines, customers, channels, and regions, ensuring alignment among Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain.

You will drive S&OP/IBP processes, improve forecast accuracy, identify risks, and deliver actionable insights to leadership, partnering to optimize inventory, service levels, and cost.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required in Supply Chain Management, Business, Operations, Statistics, Engineering, or related field.
• Minimum of five years of progressive experience in demand planning, forecasting, or related discipline.
• Experience leading or contributing to S&OP/IBP processes.
• Proven ability to improve forecast accuracy and translate data into actionable recommendations.
• Experience with ERP/MRP systems and reporting/analytics tools.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and improve forecasts across product lines, customers, channels, and regions.
• Lead the demand-planning component of S&OP/IBP with cross-functional alignment.
• Analyze historical sales, demand, market trends, seasonality, promotions, and new product introductions.
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Planning to establish one approved demand plan.
• Monitor forecast performance using metrics such as forecast accuracy, MAPE, and bias.
• Identify root causes of variances and implement corrective actions.
• Support inventory strategies through demand-based recommendations for safety stock and service levels.
• Identify and mitigate risks related to shortages, excess inventory, and volatility.
• Develop demand plans for new product introductions, transitions, and changes.
• Quantify risks/opportunities, develop scenarios, and present to leadership.
• Work with Supply Planning to balance demand with capacity, lead times, and inventory objectives.
• Drive continuous improvement in demand-planning processes, data quality, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Evaluate advanced analytics, automation, and AI/ML forecasting where appropriate.
• Prepare and present demand reviews, KPI dashboards, and executive summaries.
• Establish demand-planning policies and best practices.

Skills

Forecasting

Demand Planning

S&OP/IBP

Excel

Analytics

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management

Master’s degree in Supply Chain Management or related field

Tools

ERP/MRP systems

Job description

Top Echelon LLC in Northampton, MA seeks a Supply Chain Demand Manager to lead forecasting and planning across product lines, customers, channels, and regions, ensuring alignment among Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain.

You will drive S&OP/IBP processes, improve forecast accuracy, identify risks, and deliver actionable insights to leadership, partnering to optimize inventory, service levels, and cost.