Demand Planner

Location: Hybrid 2-3 days a week in our Corby office

Contract Type: Permanent

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a collaborative, data‑driven Demand Planner to own and improve market‑level forecasts. You’ll work closely with Sales, Marketing and Category teams, using digital demand sensing insights to enhance accuracy, reduce excess stock, and improve customer service. With a focus on best‑practice processes and continuous optimisation, you’ll drive innovation and help deliver key business performance targets.

About the role

• To be the primary interface between Inventory, Markets and Product and Supplier cell and category teams.
• Establish collaborative relationships with local Sales, Marketing, and Category teams to ensure forecasts reflect market-level economic conditions, customer plans, sales initiatives, and marketing campaigns. Ensure stakeholders are appraised of actual performance v applied uplift.
• Demand sensing using digital data.
• Accountable for adjusting and improving forecasts for all articles sold in their market/cell/category and for enhancing aggregate/market level views. In turn improving service, stock turn and reduction of excess Inventory.
• Ensure best practise forecast processes, methods, parameters and rules are used to enable the delivery of on-going forecast accuracy improvements globally. To ensure forecast exceptions are reviewed and managed to a defined work plan.
• Enable the delivery of downstream benefits of improved forecast accuracy i.e. stock levels, customer service and supply chain efficiencies.
• Promote innovation and optimisation within Demand Planning to support the delivery of business KPIs.

What you will be doing

• Ownership and delivery of article level demand forecasting for assigned Category/Market, based on best practice principles that support and enable achievement of best forecast accuracy performance leading to group service, stock and cost management objectives.
• Act as the voice of the customer for the Supply Chain Function, working with Sales to understand future expected customer demand and applying this as insight into the forecasts.
• Reviews and interprets forecasting exceptions and determine most appropriate actions to resolve by applying Demand Segmentation approach.
• Identifies events or causal factors that impact the forecast and drive divergence from the normal 'run rate' e.g. promotions, supply issues, environmental factors, competitor activity. Enrichment of short-term strategic forecasts through gathering of internal and external insight.
• Reviews forecast accuracy reports; analyses and understands root cause of inaccuracy and acts to address.
• Works with category, cells, and markets to understand forecast and demand issues and determine actions to resolve.
• Able to influence stakeholders to provide information and implement changes to plans to enable the achievement of greater forecast accuracy.
• Validation and adjustment of demand history at article level to improve forecast accuracy.
• Maintenance and optimisation of statistical modelling software parameters according to product characteristics and lifecycle stage.

What you’ll bring

Understanding and application of forecast and demand planning methodology.

• Ability to analyse, interpret and translate data.
• Problem solving ability, addressing root cause and implementing solutions.
• Proactive and forward thinking.
• Knowledge of forecasting systems / applications (Blue Yonder or similar).
• Understanding of business impacts of forecast initiatives.
• Appreciate impact of forecasting on wider business performance.
• Ability to translate complexity into simplicity.
• Build and foster collaborative relationships cross functionally and internationally.
• Strong cultural awareness.
• Confident decision maker and able to influence others.

We Are RS

We’ve been solving industry problems for over 80 years. We turn the ‘what ifs’ into the ‘why nots’, the impossible into the possible.

Our purpose? Making amazing happen for a better world.

We offer service and product solutions to over 1.2 million customers globally, shipping a parcel every 2 seconds to over 130 countries. With over 800,000 stocked and 3 million unstocked products, we’re a trusted partner to the world’s leading industries.

We’re looking for curious, driven, and empathetic professionals to join our journey. People who think differently, act with purpose, and want to make a real impact. 

Rewards

Our Reward Strategy Philosophy is designed to offer market competitive base salaries and provide all of our people the opportunity to participate in a short-term incentive, enabling them to share in the success of the Company.

Our total reward package is more than just the cash; our recognition and benefit offering provide the opportunity for us to recognise, reward and enable the wellbeing of our people at all stages of their journey with RS. Our rewards and benefits vary by country, but include:

• Financial - pension/retirement; life assurance; salary finance (payroll deduction loan scheme)
• Wellbeing - medical plans; health screening; critical illness; disability insurance; holiday / paid time off; employee assistance programme; discounted gym/health club membership
• Lifestyle - transportation assistance schemes (e.g., cycle to work, travel loans, car leasing); onsite catering/lunch vouchers; retail discounts
• Spotlight – our global recognition programme provides a platform to highlight and recognise people role modelling our values

Ready to Make Amazing Happen?

Join c. 9,000 colleagues and help us shape the future of our industry. Whoever you are, wherever you are — it all starts here.

Apply now and make RS a part of your journey.

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