Senior Planning Manager
Overview
The Planning Manager plays a pivotal role in ensuring seamless alignment between operations, supply chain activities, and commercial objectives. This position leads planning initiatives across multiple functions, driving process excellence and enabling strong business performance. The Planning Manager acts as a strategic decision-maker, people leader, and cross-functional connector who elevates planning maturity and organizational capability.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Governance
- Shape the long-term planning vision and translate it into actionable roadmaps that support business growth and operational resilience.
- Champion planning excellence by introducing innovative frameworks, tools, and processes that improve forecasting accuracy, capacity alignment, and service reliability.
- Lead change initiatives that unify stakeholders and drive adoption of enhanced ways of working.
Cross-Functional Partnership
- Collaborate closely with leaders across Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement, Finance, Customer Service, Quality, Regulatory, and HSE to ensure planning activities fully support broader business priorities.
- Serve as a strategic thought partner to senior leadership to inform investment, resource planning, and operational decision-making.
Operational Ownership
- Oversee end-to-end planning activities, which may span multiple plants, regions, or product groups.
- Supervise the creation of production plans, material availability assessments, capacity and constraint analyses, and service-level tracking.
- Elevate planning performance through structured continuous improvement, data-driven insights, and root cause analysis.
Team Leadership & Development
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing planning team, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and proactive problem-solving.
- Support capability-building through coaching, skill assessments, structured development plans, and succession planning.
- Remove barriers to allow planners to execute effectively and support them through operational escalations.
Performance & Improvement
- Develop KPIs and dashboards that accurately reflect planning health (e.g., service level, OTIF, forecast adherence, inventory optimization).
- Own the delivery of planning-related targets and drive initiatives to improve reliability, responsiveness, and efficiency.
- Lead or participate in cross-functional programs aimed at strengthening planning systems, digital tools, and data governance.
Stakeholder Communication
- Prepare and deliver executive-level updates that clearly articulate risks, scenarios, recommendations, and outcomes.
- Ensure transparent communication across teams regarding priorities, constraints, and business-critical developments.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Business, Engineering, or related field.
- Significant experience in production planning, supply planning, or S&OP in a complex, multi-site or multinational environment.
- Demonstrated success leading teams and influencing cross-functional stakeholders.
- Strong analytical skills, with experience using planning tools and data platforms.
- Proven ability to drive change, build structure, and improve processes in dynamic environments.
- Excellent communication, leadership, and decision-making capabilities.
FAQs
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