Requirements
Key Responsibilities
Demand Planning
- Own the rolling demand forecast across all brands, SKUs, markets, and key customers
- Run a structured monthly forecast cycle with sales and commercial teams in each market, validating and challenging promotional uplifts, new listings, distributor orders, and baseline assumptions rather than simply aggregating them
- Reconcile sell-in, sell-out, and distributor stock-on-hand data to separate true consumer demand from pipeline fill
- Measure forecast accuracy and bias at SKU and market level, and close the loop with commercial teams on misses
Supply Planning
- Convert the consensus demand plan into supplier-level purchase plans, accounting for production lead times, minimum order quantities, transit times, customs clearance, and shelf-life constraints
- Sequence purchase orders and shipments so stock lands in the right market, at the right time, with the right remaining shelf life
- Set stock cover targets by SKU and market, balancing service levels against working capital
- Monitor inventory ageing and escalate at-risk stock early, before it becomes a near-expiry liquidation
S&OP and Team Leadership
- Lead the monthly S&OP process, aligning commercial, finance, and supply chain around a single set of numbers
- Manage, coach, and develop the Demand Planner
- Build documented, repeatable planning processes and tools so the function runs on process rather than individual heroics
- Report a monthly planning scorecard to the CEO covering forecast accuracy and bias, service level, stock cover, ageing and near-expiry stock, and liquidation losses
Qualifications & Experience
• 7+ years in demand and supply planning within FMCG, ideally including import/distribution businesses rather than purely local manufacturing
• Proven experience planning across multiple markets and/or through third-party distributors
• A track record of constructively challenging sales and commercial teams on their forecasts, this role requires commercial backbone, not just analytical skill
• Hands-on experience converting demand plans into purchase plans with international suppliers across varying production and transit lead times
• Experience with shelf-life-sensitive categories strongly preferred
• Prior experience managing or mentoring junior planners
• Strong ERP proficiency (SAP Business One an advantage) and advanced Excel and analytical skills
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, or a related field
• Strong written and spoken English; Arabic is an advantage given the regional footprint