Head of Demand Planning

**Posted**:
26/02/2025

**Closing Date**:
26/03/2025

**Job Type**:
Permanent - Full Time

**Location**:
NSW - North Ryde

**Job Category**:
Strategy & Planning

Are you looking to expand your skills in demand planning within the dynamic agricultural industry? This is a unique opportunity for professionals eager to build their expertise in a fast-paced, high-demand environment.

We’ve been proudly bringing joy to tables and smiles to faces with the delicious food we’ve been crafting for over 100 years. A large part of our strong growth and success is because we're always looking for new ways to do things and thinking about how we can create a better, more sustainable future world together. Our success as an industry leader in providing deliciously good food means we can continue to invest in our future as we work towards becoming Australia and New Zealand’s first choice for poultry.

Job Description

**About the role**:
We are looking for an experienced Demand Planning leader, preferably from FMCG, but will consider other industry experience, who is commercially focused with strong analytical and problem-solving skills and who thrives in a fast-paced environment.

You will use your experience in improving demand forecasting and overall planning capability to provide insights that drive better decision making and business outcomes.

You will be a team player and a team leader, who enjoys being in a hands-on and diverse role, and have a genuine passion for making a positive impact through business process improvement and adding value.

**Key responsibilities**:
Develop the Demand Plan:

- Create a 24-month SKU-level forecast after integrating insights from sales, marketing and the Integrated Tactical Planning (ITP) team, ensuring visibility across the Inghams business
- Work with real-time market data and adjust plans to respond to fluctuations
- Coordinate with internal teams and external stakeholders to optimize inventory levels
- Utilize industry-specific insights to enhance planning accuracy

Maintain the Demand Plan:

- Ensure timely updates to both the short term (13 week) and long term demand horizons and ensure that these are clearly communicated across all Inghams stakeholders

Collaboration with Teams:

- Ensure that a weekly cadence is implemented for collaboration with sales, marketing and ITP teams to understand supply and demand trends thus achieving optimal outcomes through the Demand Plan
- Conduct root cause analysis to understand sales forecast accuracy and bias performance to support the feedback to Sales and Marketing teams

Support the NPD Process:

- Ensure demand and launch dates are captured for New Products. Provide insights on the performance of new and deleted products in a timely manner to reduce waste whilst guaranteeing service

Process Improvement:

- Partner with the Business Process Improvement Team to continually drive process and systems improvements to improve forecast accuracy, demand planning efficiency and the improvement of reporting processes
- Provide input into the design and selection of an end-to-end demand and supply planning platform

Support the ITP and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) Processes:

- Provide key Demand Planning insights to add value to the weekly and monthly processes designed to align the Business around common goals

People Management:

- Lead, grow and inspire a team of 5 Demand Planners

KPIs:

- Be focused on KPIs and metrics such as Demand Plan Error, Bias and Customer Service Levels to evaluate and improve on performance

**Key requirements**:

- Proven leadership experience in a Demand Planning or Supply Chain Managerial role
- Ability to deal with and process multiple data streams
- Strong analytical skills and the ability to adapt to market changes quickly
- Familiarity with livestock supply chains and related variables
- Ability to manage a team and deliver results in a fast paced, high-pressure and complex environment
- Strong communicator with high level of interpersonal and stakeholder management skills
- Experience in FMCG and manufacturing industries
- Previous experience working with forecast tools and software will be highly regarded
- Advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint skills and comfortable presenting to a cross-functional group of senior business leaders

This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone with experience in the agricultural industry to further develop their skills while contributing to a growing and impactful sector. If you thrive in a high-speed environment and have a passion for efficient market strategies, we would love to hear from you

We’re looking for people who are curious, caring, courageous and committed to join us; people who want to contribute their best work every single day and continue delivering deliciously good food that’s Always Good