Demand Planner APAC

The Role

Ever since, we have expanded rapidly across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in Hong Kong, Macau, China, Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia, South Korea and continue to have ambitious growth plans in new markets and omni channel development for 2025 and beyond.

Demand Planner APAC is the facilitator for overseeing the development and execution of a full integrated demand plan/ forecasting process covering 12-24 month horizon with associated analytics, channel/category segmentation, and metrics. Demand planning will lead a monthly S&OP forecasting process to drive supply chain efficiency.

We are looking for someone with solid at least 3 years of Demand Planning and Supply Chain experience who is an excellent communicator and keen relationship builder. Someone who is diplomatic but isn’t afraid to challenge and have those difficult conversations. Someone with a proven and demonstrable record of improving forecast accuracy and a good understanding of the APAC Beauty market. This role will be the face of Demand Planning in the APAC region.

Note that this is not an entry level position. This role will have substantial autonomy and work with senior stakeholders.

Role Accountabilities

• Analyse historical sales data (sell-in and sell-through), market trends and promotional campaigns to assess product and category performance, ensure trends are appropriately captured in item level demand plans,
• Influencing decision-making on impact, analysis, and reporting of price changes, cannibalisation, PIPO, innovation, assortment changes.
• Maintain and continually develop regional statistical forecast on item and customer level which informs APAC demand plan in FuturMaster.
• Responsible for cross functional S&OP meeting materials to drive alignment between demand forecasts and business strategies involves finance, commercial, marketing and supply chain. Ensure all templates, reports etc are up to date for the region and ready for use in Executive Sign Off sessions.
• Coordinate with marketing and commercial incorporate new product launches into demand planning and forecast cycle, bottom-up view and maintain true post launch and CORE demand vs regional / global feasibility targets.
• Work in collaboration with Supply Planning to ensure an executable and realistic plan is developed to meet forecast requirements and financial budgets.
• Manage and enhance dashboards, KPIS, models and reporting tools to enhance and track forecast accuracy, efficient demand planning actives.
• Conduct root cause analysis on forecast variances, implement corrective actions to improve accuracy, and be able to point out what are the forecast variance drivers and work with key stakeholders to improve demand forecast assumptions together.
• Identify and implement best practices and improvement process in demand planning and forecast with regional and global teams.

Reporting Relationships

Reporting into Senior Demand & Supply Planning Manager and Supply Chain Director.

Key Selection Criteria

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration or equivalent.
• At least 3 years of experience working as a Demand Planner with APAC regional insight is essential. Experience of working in other areas of Supply Chain is also desirable.
• Experience of challenging forecasting assumptions and influencing senior stakeholders.
• Able to demonstrate real examples of taking ownership of projects/improvements right through to the end result.
• Strong process focused communication, interpersonal skills and great relationship building abilities!
• Experience of working with and implementing a forecasting system of FuturMaster, Anaplan, SAP IBP.
• Proficiency in MS Office Suite, Advanced Excel, Power BI or similar tools.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work in a face-paced environment. Strives to attain quality results on time, conveys a sense of urgency, drives issue to closure, and earns a reputation for reliability and dependability.
• Fluency in English and Chinese is essential and proficiency in other regional languages is highly desirable.