Associate Manager, Demand Planning

This role involves leading the comprehensive demand planning process across the East Africa region, focusing on developing precise and robust demand forecasts. These forecasts are crucial for achieving business growth, meeting customer service targets, optimizing inventory levels, and fulfilling financial objectives. The incumbent acts as a vital link between various departments including Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance, and Regional Planning, driving improvements in forecast accuracy, facilitating Integrated Business Planning (IBP) processes, and promoting data-informed decision-making throughout the region. The position requires providing insights into demand trends, critically evaluating assumptions using data, identifying potential risks and opportunities, and ensuring that commercial strategies align with supply capabilities. A key aspect of this role is to enhance planning maturity and forecasting excellence across East Africa.

1. Manage the complete demand planning and forecasting process for the East Africa cluster.
2. Develop and continuously refine a 24-month rolling demand forecast at market, customer, and product levels.
3. Improve forecast accuracy and proactively manage forecast bias through detailed analytics and root cause analysis.
4. Lead the monthly Demand Review process and support Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) activities.
5. Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Finance, and Supply Planning teams to ensure forecast alignment and business consensus.
6. Analyze historical sales data, market intelligence, promotional plans, customer developments, and new product launches to create accurate demand assumptions.
7. Identify and communicate demand risks and opportunities, proposing mitigation and contingency actions.
8. Partner with Supply Planning to translate demand signals into supply requirements, highlighting inventory, capacity, availability, and service risks.
9. Support inventory optimization by balancing customer service needs with working capital objectives.
10. Monitor and report forecast performance metrics, offering actionable recommendations for planning improvement.
11. Act as the key user and process owner for demand planning systems, ensuring data accuracy and integrity.
12. Drive continuous improvement, process standardization, and digital transformation within the planning function.
13. Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and influence stakeholders for fact-based decision-making.
14. Prepare and present demand planning insights and performance updates to local, regional, and leadership teams.

1. Hold a Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, engineering, business management, mathematics, statistics, economics, or a related field.
2. Possess a minimum of 3 years of experience in Demand Planning, Supply Chain Planning, Forecasting, or a similar discipline.
3. Experience in the FMCG sector and/or a multinational company is highly preferred.
4. Demonstrated experience in managing demand forecasting and S&OP/IBP processes.
5. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Power BI.
6. Experience with demand planning systems like Blue Yonder or similar platforms is beneficial.
7. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to convert data into valuable business insights.
8. Excellent stakeholder management and influencing abilities, including the confidence to challenge assumptions with data.
9. Capability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced and dynamic business environment.
10. Strong communication and presentation skills.
11. Be self-driven, proactive, results-oriented, and possess high attention to detail.