The Demand Planner plays a pivotal role for developing and coordinating the Sales Operations Planning (SOP) process across the market. The role assumes full business process ownership to develop an operational demand forecast providing governance of process and system, ensuring overall compliance with the global and regional planning cycle and monthly activities. The role is responsible for guaranteeing data integrity aggregation to provide the volume forecast outlook for the regional Supply Chain team as well as the BU MD and Management Team as part of the SOP decision making process.

The role is also the key business reference between the SC and the Business Unit, acting as the bridge between sales, marketing, operations, and finance to ensure products are available at the right time and cost.

Key Responsibilities and activities

- Forecasting Analysis: Leading the Demand Planning processes.
- Develop accurate demand forecasts using historical sales data, market trends, and statistical models.
- Monitor forecast accuracy and adjust models based on real-time data.
- Identify demand patterns, seasonality, and market shifts to anticipate future needs.
- Collaborate with Supply Planning to balance supply and demand to avoid stockouts or excess inventory.
- Be responsible for BUs planning template (IBP/SAP) ensuring that the system is deployed, utilized fully and proper system settings are maintained. Keep responsibility for system maintenance and IT ticket management

SOP and Cross-Functional Collaboration

- Champion SOP to drive the change management and continuous improvement across countries to achieve the SOP vision, objectives,



and desired perks
- Be the Key reference point with regards to SOP activities
- Work closely with sales, marketing, and operations to align forecasts with promotional activities and product launches.
- Provide insights to finance teams for budgeting and revenue planning.
- Act as a central point of communication across departments to ensure consistency in demand planning.
- Conduct ongoing training both process and system to Key Users in Sales, Marketing, FPA Local Supply teams to ensure full understanding of SOP and the planning activities are performed in the correct manner

Reporting Communication

- Prepare regular demand reports for management, highlighting risks and opportunities.
- Communicate forecast changes and inventory implications to stakeholders.
- Support decision-making with data-driven insights.
- Own the forecast accuracy KPIs to ensure definition and measurement is fully embedded in each country and support analysis reporting. Drive forecast accuracy, MAPE and BIAS targets with the local teams.

Continuous Improvement

- Implement forecasting tools and software to enhance accuracy.
- Benchmark performance against industry standards.




- Drive process improvements in demand planning and supply chain efficiency

Summary of Experience

- Minimum 5-10 years of proven Demand / Supply Chain Planning experience
- Strong knowledge of commercial forecasting methods, background in statistical forecast
- Experience of working with Demand Planning systems in a defined planning cycle required.
- Must have a strong understanding and experience of SOP/IBP and demand management principles and processes coupled with end-to-end supply chain operational processes.
- Experience of introducing/working with supply chain solutions, software and systems is beneficial. SAP experience is highly desirable.
- Hands on experience of SAP IBP Demand Planning advantageous.

Education / Professional Qualifications

- College / University degree with a major in Supply Chain management and/or Commercial Business Management
- APICs certification a plus
- Oliver Wight or similar Sales Operations Planning / Integrated Business Management certified courses a plus
- Fluent in English

Personal skillset

- High communication skills and ability to engage with key stakeholders
- Ability to lead and influence
- Ability to educate business partners and to drive change
- Ability to anticipate risks or opportunities
- Out of the box thinking
- Ability to think in the future to deliver results through others

Disclaimer: This job posting has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.

📌 S & OP Lead & Demand Planner (New Delhi)
🏢 Caparo Group
📍 New Delhi