Capability Lead Planning & Inventory Management

Overview

Lead demand and inventory planning strategy across multiple business areas, translating financial objectives, merchandising strategies, consumer demand signals and supply chain considerations into forward-looking plans. Serve as subject matter expert in forecasting and inventory decisions across multiple planning horizons.

What you'll do

• Develop demand and inventory planning strategies across multiple categories or business segments.
• Establish performance expectations and improvement strategies for Forecast Value Add, wMAPE, Bias, and other relevant planning metrics.
• Provide functional leadership for forecast development, measurement, and improvement across multiple planning horizons and levels of aggregation.
• Translate enterprise priorities, financial goals, merchandising strategies, and market signals into actionable planning directions.
• Provide a consolidated view of demand, inventory, and business performance to support strategic decisions across stores and digital channels.
• Incorporate early performance signals, short-lifecycle indicators, trend shifts, weather, and promotional response into planning and inventory decisions.
• Lead scenario and sensitivity planning for significant demand shifts, constrained supply, promotions, seasonal events, assortment changes, and other critical business moments.
• Establish planning priorities and decision frameworks that balance sales growth, profitability, availability, inventory productivity, and business risk.
• Guide the integration of statistical forecasts with promotional, seasonal, product lifecycle, financial, market, and merchandising insights.
• Evaluate forecast performance across business areas and identify systemic trends, model limitations, process gaps, and improvement opportunities.
• Provide direction to the larger team on allocation, replenishment, inventory positioning, and availability decisions.
• Lead advanced analysis of sales, demand, inventory, margin, availability, forecast performance, and other key business indicators.
• Synthesize complex data and business context into clear insights, strategic recommendations, and executive-level narratives.
• Identify systemic drivers of forecast misses, inventory imbalances, and performance gaps, and lead cross-functional resolution plans.
• Evaluate alternative business strategies using scenario analysis, financial impact assessment, and risk-based decision frameworks.
• Define analytical approaches and performance measures that improve planning visibility and support timely decisions.
• Ensure insights are translated into actions, with clear ownership, expected outcomes, and performance tracking.
• Serve as a strategic planning advisor to senior leaders and cross-functional partners across India and Minneapolis.
• Lead senior-level planning reviews and decision forums, clearly articulating business drivers, assumptions, risks, opportunities, trade-offs, and recommendations.
• Influence alignment when financial objectives, merchandising strategies, supply chain constraints, and operational forecasts differ.
• Build strong partnerships across Planning, Inventory Management, Supply Chain, Data Science, Technology, and capability teams.
• Represent Planning & Inventory Management in enterprise initiatives and ensure planning perspectives are incorporated into broader business decisions.
• Navigate complex or ambiguous situations by establishing clarity, aligning stakeholders, and driving timely resolution.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in demand forecasting, inventory strategy, scenario planning, and planning performance management.
• Establish standards, frameworks, tools, and best practices that strengthen planning consistency and decision quality.
• Coach and develop Planners and Associate Planners through technical guidance, business context, and structured feedback.
• Build forecasting and analytical capabilities across the team through knowledge sharing, training, and practical application.
• Provide functional direction to project teams and planning partners, ensuring alignment with business priorities and expected outcomes.
• Promote a culture of ownership, curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Define and lead the planning capability roadmap for assigned business areas or strategic priorities.
• Lead enterprise initiatives that improve forecasting methodologies, inventory planning processes, operating models, data, and technology.
• Partner with Data Science, Product, Technology, and capability teams to define and translate business requirements into scalable planning solutions.
• Sponsor pilots and oversee testing, implementation, adoption, and measurement of new planning capabilities.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive activities, simplify workflows, and increase planner capacity for strategic decision-making.
• Establish change management and governance approaches that support sustained adoption of new tools and processes.
• Measure the business impact of transformation initiatives and ensure improvements are scalable, sustainable, and aligned with enterprise priorities.

What you'll need

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Statistics, Economics, Business Administration, Data Science/Data Analytics, Commerce, or a related quantitative discipline.
• 8 to 12 years of experience in demand planning, forecasting, inventory management, merchandise planning, supply chain, or a related discipline, preferably within retail, FMCG, or consumer goods.
• Demonstrated experience leading planning strategies across multiple categories, portfolios, channels, or complex business areas.
• Advanced expertise in demand forecasting, inventory strategy, scenario planning, and business performance analysis.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, lead complex cross-functional initiatives, and drive decisions in ambiguous business environments.
• Experience developing team capabilities, coaching planning professionals, and establishing functional standards or best practices.
• Demonstrated success delivering measurable improvements in forecast performance, inventory productivity, product availability, or planning efficiency.
• Advanced experience with demand planning, forecasting, inventory management, or merchandise planning systems such as o9 Solutions, Blue Yonder (JDA), Kinaxis, SAP IBP, Oracle Demand Planning, or similar tools.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel and experience working with large and complex datasets.
• Experience with SQL and data visualization platforms such as Power BI or similar tools.
• Working knowledge of statistical forecasting methodologies, model evaluation, and demand-sensing approaches.
• Ability to translate technical and analytical findings into clear business recommendations for senior stakeholders.

Nice to have

• MBA or postgraduate qualification in Supply Chain, Operations, Analytics, or Finance; or a relevant professional certification such as ASCM CPIM/CSCP.
• Exposure to Python, R, cloud-based analytics, machine learning, or optimization tools is beneficial.

Details

• Location: L4, Manyata Embassy Business Park, Racenahali & Nagawara Villages, Outer Ring Rd, Bangalore 540065.
• Works with partners across India and Minneapolis.