Demand & Inventory Planner

About the Role

The Demand & Inventory Planner is responsible for developing and maintaining customer and SKU-level demand forecasts and translating those forecasts into effective inventory and purchasing plans. The role balances customer service, product availability, working capital, and inventory productivity across assigned customers and product categories. The planner partners closely with Sales, Merchandising, Sourcing, Distribution, and other Supply Chain functions to understand customer activity, retail trends, promotional plans, seasonality, product launches, and changes in demand.

Key Responsibilities

Demand Forecasting & Predictive Modeling

• Develop and maintain customer, SKU/style, category, and brand-level demand forecasts using historical shipments, customer orders, POS/retail trends, seasonality, promotional activity, and business intelligence.
• Review forecast performance and identify meaningful variances between forecast, customer orders, shipments, and actual consumer demand.
• Partner with Sales to understand customer trends, upcoming programs, promotions, new business opportunities, risks, and changes to shipping projections.
• Adjust forecasts as business conditions change while maintaining appropriate documentation and forecast discipline.
• Monitor forecast accuracy and bias using metrics such as MAPE and WAPE and identify opportunities to continuously improve forecast performance.
• Lead or participate in regular customer forecast and sales projection meetings.

Inventory Planning & Optimization

• Develop inventory plans that balance customer demand, product availability, service levels, and inventory investment.
• Monitor inventory, weeks of supply, safety stock, and future demand to proactively identify shortages, excess inventory, and replenishment needs.
• Manage purchasing and replenishment for assigned categories, determining buy quantities based on forecasted demand, inventory levels, safety stock, and lead times.
• Optimize inventory through rebalancing, SKU rationalization, and management of aged or slow-moving inventory.

Business Intelligence & Reporting

• Utilize Power BI, Excel, demand planning systems, ERP/MRP systems, and other analytical tools to monitor demand and inventory performance.
• Develop reporting and analysis that identifies trends, exceptions, risks, and opportunities requiring action.
• Perform ad hoc analysis and support continuous improvement initiatives to improve forecasting, inventory productivity, and planning processes.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner and conduct regular forecast and inventory reviews with Sales to align demand forecasts with customer shipping projections and business goals.
• Communicate inventory risks and opportunities clearly, including potential shortages, excess inventory, forecast gaps, and purchase recommendations.
• Evaluate customer-specific demand changes and determine whether they represent sustainable consumer demand, inventory builds, promotional activity, or timing shifts.
• Support customer-specific planning requirements while maintaining overall corporate inventory objectives.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Power BI
• Excel
• Demand planning systems
• ERP/MRP systems
• MAPE
• WAPE

Qualifications

• Experience with data transformation and data mapping
• EDI applications support experience is a plus
• Clear and strong verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Excellent time management and problem-solving skills
• Strong operational and development knowledge.
• Experience in support of Customer Service is a plus

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with Apparel Business Solutions (ABS)
• Experience with Gentran, B2Bi or Sterling Integrator Mapping Solutions
• Experience with Pragma Edge PCM
• Experience in ERP and customer service in a pick and pack shipping environment
• Fundamental understanding of EDI transactions development and implementation methodology, strong computer and analytical skills as well as communication skills.
• Experience with Service Now (SNOW)
• Experience with Azure Development Operations (ADO)
• Knowledge and experience with Microsoft SQL server considered a plus