Demand Planning Business Process Owner

Detailed Description From Employer:

Demand Planning & Advanced Planning Transformation Lead

Location: United States (Hybrid - 2-3 days per week onsite as required) - may consider someone fully remote who has implemented Kinaxis
Duration: 12+ Months (Contract or Fixed-Term Assignment, opportunities for extension)
Ideal Compensation: $60 p/hr ideally with flex

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced Demand Planning & Advanced Planning Transformation Lead to support a major planning transformation initiative. This individual will be responsible for defining, implementing, and driving adoption of demand planning processes, capabilities, and best practices while supporting the rollout of advanced planning technologies, with a strong preference for Kinaxis experience.

This role will serve as a key Business Process Owner (BPO) for demand planning, acting as the bridge between business stakeholders, IT teams, implementation partners, and project leadership. The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in demand planning processes, planning transformation, testing and validation activities, and advanced planning system implementations.

This is a highly visible role supporting a broader enterprise planning transformation across Demand Planning, Supply Planning, and SAP S/4HANA initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

Demand Planning Leadership

• Lead the design and implementation of future-state demand planning processes.
• Establish and govern demand baseline methodologies.
• Drive demand construction and consensus planning processes across functions.
• Implement and monitor forecast accuracy and forecast bias management practices.
• Develop planning standards, process governance, and performance metrics.
• Support Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and Demand Review processes.

Advanced Planning Transformation

• Serve as a business process lead for the deployment of advanced planning capabilities.
• Partner with implementation teams to translate business requirements into system design.
• Validate solution designs against business needs and process objectives.
• Lead business testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and process validation activities.
• Support change management, training development, and user adoption initiatives.
• Influence key business stakeholders to align on future-state planning capabilities.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Supply Chain, Commercial, Operations, Finance, IT, and external implementation teams.
• Facilitate alignment between regional and global stakeholders.
• Drive decision-making and resolve planning process issues and gaps.

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 10-15+ years of experience in Demand Planning, Supply Chain Planning, or Integrated Business Planning.
• Demonstrated experience leading business process transformation initiatives.
• Proven experience supporting advanced planning system implementations.
• Experience operating as a Business Process Owner (BPO), Process Lead, or Planning Transformation Lead.
• Strong experience working within complex cross-functional organizations.

Core Functional Expertise

• Demand Baseline Development & Governance
• Demand Construction & Consensus Planning
• Forecast Accuracy & Forecast Bias Management
• Statistical Forecasting Methodologies
• Demand Planning Process Design
• Business Process Transformation
• Testing, Validation, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

Systems Experience

Strong preference for:

• Kinaxis

Additional experience with:

• SAP S/4HANA
• SAP IBP
• OMP
• Blue Yonder
• Other advanced planning platforms

Preferred Qualifications

• Consumer Goods, FMCG, or other highly dynamic demand-driven industries strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting enterprise planning transformations.
• Knowledge of IBP (Integrated Business Planning) processes.
• Experience developing training materials and supporting organizational change management.
• Experience working with large-scale planning deployments across multiple business functions.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a hands-on planning transformation leader who combines deep demand planning expertise with advanced planning system implementation experience. They are comfortable challenging existing processes, designing future-state capabilities, and partnering with technical teams to ensure successful deployment and adoption.

This individual will not be responsible for system development but will play a critical role in:

• Defining business requirements
• Designing process frameworks
• Testing and validating solutions
• Driving stakeholder alignment
• Ensuring business readiness and adoption

EOE Statement: Specialist Staffing Group is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

To find out more about Real, please visit www.realstaffing.com