Manager Demand Planning

Conagra Brands is a leader among top brands in North America, and is committed to providing great food today’s consumers want.

Manages the development of forecast and inventory planning in anticipation of customer needs and in accordance with the organizations sales and service objectives. Directs the review of historical sales trends and forecasts. Reviews statistical forecast models and evaluates forecast results. Coordinates communication with sales, marketing, finance, purchasing, supply planning and other departments to ensure that current, accurate information and data are available for forecasts. 7 years related experience.

* Manage team of several planners supporting multiple brands and/or business segments. * Owns and facilitates monthly S&OP forecast consensus process resulting in a rolling 18 month demand plans. * Strong project management skills with proven success in delivering complex projects * Strong collaboration and influence management skills as evident by cross functional alignment and delivery of initiatives * Collaborate with key partners in, sales, brand, cpc and finance to obtain consistent forecast inputs. * Systematically identify and work to reconcile discrepancies and close gaps among inputs on an ongoing basis. * Work with production planning and deployment to transfer/translate consensus forecasts for operational purposes. * Ensure successful customer promotion execution through effective planning and leverage of key customer event inputs. * Track weekly/monthly forecast error results versus established targets and identify and report on root cause for forecast error below targets. * Play a lead role in the annual planning process across the S&OP planning team. Ensure linkage to monthly volume forecast as part of financial forecasting process. * Establish annual forecast accuracy targets. * Assume a lead role in the use of APO Demand Planning application. * Hire, train and mentor new planners. Work across peer group to lead and participate in major process improvement activities. * Support ongoing improvements in APO DP other systems * Drive IBP process improvements to improve forecast error * Lifecycle Planning Management leader

* B.S degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Supply Chain, Finance or related field. MBA/advanced degree a plus. * Strong analytical skills and statistical knowledge. Understanding of multiple regression models. * Demonstrated communication, collaboration and leadership skills. * 6-8+ years consumer products forecasting and/or supply chain operations experience. * Experience in and/or exposure to S&OP processes and procedures, customer planning and/or supply planning. * Experience with any forecasting application or supply planning software and/or SAP, APO, DP. * Experience with IRI, Retail Link, and other external customer data sources. * Experience in leading a transformational project * Strong project management skills * APICS certified (American Production Inventory Certification Society) a plus. * Strong working knowledge of Excel, Access, and Word.