Strategic Demand Planner & S&OP Leader

Job Juncture; Northampton (MA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Job Juncture is seeking a Supply Chain Demand Manager to oversee demand forecasting and planning across product lines, customers, regions, and sales channels to ensure product availability and optimized inventory. You will align Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain to support service levels and cost control.

This role leads the S&OP/IBP process, drives forecast accuracy, analyzes drivers of demand, and provides leadership with actionable insights to fuel growth.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Operations, Statistics, Engineering, or related field.
• Minimum of five years of progressive experience in demand planning, forecasting, supply chain planning, production planning, or related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience leading or actively contributing to S&OP or IBP processes.
• Proven ability to improve forecast accuracy and convert complex data into actionable business recommendations.
• Experience working within an ERP/MRP environment and using demand-planning or supply-chain planning systems.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and experience with reporting, visualization, or analytical tools.
• Strong understanding of inventory management, safety stock, capacity planning, and supply-and-demand balancing.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present information and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Ability to collaborate across multiple departments, influence stakeholders, and challenge assumptions constructively.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and improve statistical and consensus-based demand forecasts across product lines, customers, channels, and regions.
• Lead the demand-planning component of the S&OP/IBP process, ensuring cross-functional alignment on forecasts, assumptions, risks, and business priorities.
• Analyze historical sales, customer demand, market trends, seasonality, promotional activity, new product introductions, and other internal and external factors affecting demand.
• Partner with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Planning to gather business intelligence, challenge assumptions, and establish one approved demand plan.
• Monitor forecast performance using key metrics such as forecast accuracy, MAPE, bias, and accuracy by product or customer segment.
• Identify the root causes of forecast variances and implement corrective actions to improve planning accuracy and reliability.
• Support inventory strategies by providing demand-based recommendations for safety stock, service levels, and inventory positioning.
• Identify and mitigate risks related to shortages, excess inventory, supply constraints, changing customer requirements, and demand volatility.
• Develop demand plans for new product introductions, product transitions, engineering changes, phase-outs, and discontinuations.
• Identify and quantify demand risks and opportunities, develop planning scenarios, and communicate recommendations to leadership.
• Work closely with Supply Planning to balance customer demand with production capacity, material availability, lead times, and inventory objectives.
• Drive continuous improvement in demand-planning processes, systems, reporting, data quality, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Evaluate and apply advanced analytics, automation, and AI or machine-learning forecasting capabilities where appropriate.
• Prepare and present demand reviews, KPI dashboards, forecast scenarios, and executive-level summaries.
• Establish demand-planning policies, procedures, and best practices that support scalable and consistent business processes.

Skills

Forecasting

Demand planning

S&OP/IBP leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management or related field

Tools

ERP/MRP systems

Reporting tools

Job description

Job Juncture is seeking a Supply Chain Demand Manager to oversee demand forecasting and planning across product lines, customers, regions, and sales channels to ensure product availability and optimized inventory. You will align Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain to support service levels and cost control.

This role leads the S&OP/IBP process, drives forecast accuracy, analyzes drivers of demand, and provides leadership with actionable insights to fuel growth.