Demand & Supply Planning Lead

Business Area: Nestle Purina
Location: Crawley, West Sussex 

Salary: £55,000.00 - £62,000.00 depending on experience.

Some of our other fantastic benefits

• 17 % car allowance – up to maximum of £13,000.00.


• Potential, discretionary annual bonus.


• Generous pension scheme – up to 12% contribution from Nestle.


• 12 flexible days on top of 25-day holiday entitlement.


• 2 paid volunteering days.


• A focus on personal development and growth.

Although this is a full-time opportunity, please speak to us about what flexibility means to you as we are always open to discuss individual’s flexible working needs, don’t let this stop you from applying.

At Nestlé PURINA Pet Care, we're passionately committed to helping pets enjoy happier, healthier and longer lives because we're pet owners too.  As a world leading company in pet care and nutrition, Nestlé PURINA has been helping pets’ live healthy, happy lives for over 85 years. We are proud to produce some of the UK’s best loved brands including FELIX®, WINALOT®, GO-CAT®, BAKERS® and BONIO, trusted and bought by millions of pet owners. We believe that pets and people are better together which is why our employees can bring their dogs to work at our Crawley and Sudbury sites.

As one of the major exporters of the UK and Ireland’s food industry, our supply chain really is at the heart of all operations at Nestlé from sourcing raw materials right through to delivering the end product to our customer. Working closely with these customers and our internal colleagues, we are able to manage one of the FMCG industry’s most complex and sophisticated value chains, putting the consumer at the heart of everything we do.

We take pride in championing inclusion and diversity. We proudly signed the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter, are committed to Disability Confidence, and have been recognised as a Times Top 50 Employer for gender equality for three consecutive years. Additionally, we are a headline partner of Diversity and Inclusion in grocery.

Your impact

As a Demand and Supply Planning lead, you will act a business co-pilot representing Supply Chain for your product portfolio in the MBP Cycle. The key objectives will be to maintain a strong level of availability of our products (on-shelf and online) for our customers and shopper; and generate realistic demand plan with the help of demand and supply planners. You will engage with a wide variety of stakeholders across all areas and levels of the organization. There is significant opportunity to challenge current ways of working and be integral in shaping the future of the Demand and Supply Planning team

These are some of the areas you will be involved in delivering:

• Lead a team of 2 to 3 Demand & Supply Planners. You will be responsible for their development, career and performance.

• Guide the Demand & Supply Planners in creating and developing a rolling 18-month APO demand plan. Ensure effective use of the category statistical forecast alongside the capture of qualitative customer exceptional events and insights.

• Ensure a close co-operation with the European Operations Team. Be the point of escalation for supply issues as well as coach the Demand & Supply Planner on Supply decisions (allocation, stock policies, future projections).

• Play a pivotal role as a co-pilot in the MBP Process (equivalent of S&OP) in alignment between Sales, Category Insights, Marketing and Finance to drive forecast accuracy. Proactively flag any unbalance between Demand and Supply and lead the resolution with the cross-functional team.

• Communicate future service risk to our Commercial and Customer Facing Supply Chain teams.

Your ingredients for success

To be successful in this role you will have experience in leading others, to not only succeed in delivering great business results but importantly to support them thrive as an individual. You will be confident to make choices and identify where to invest your time to make the most meaningful difference to the business and your team.

You’ll demonstrate great passion, initiative and tenacity to deliver against ambitious targets. This is a challenging role and will collaborate cross-functionally across a number of areas in the business, including Senior Stakeholders.  We’re looking for candidates with significant experience across the end-to-end Supply Chain, preferably in Demand Planning, Product Supply or Customer Facing Supply Chain.

You will also have: 

• Demonstrated analytical skills; the ability to synthesise multiple data sources to create insights and recommended actions.

• Excellent Excel skills and it would be advantageous to have experience working with and analysing using Power BI


• Understanding of the end-to-end supply chain, and the capability to understand what impact a decision could have on the upstream and downstream operations.


• Open to new ways of working; a catalyst for identifying and implementing change within peer group and upwards.


• Clear demonstration of an inclusive leadership style and use of excellent coaching skills to build high performing teams.

In return, the Supply Chain team will offer you all the support and guidance necessary to succeed. This is a great opportunity to work within a talented and dedicated team.

What you need to know

Advert posting date: 09/02/2026
Advert closing date: 23/02/2026

We will be considering candidates as they apply and we will occasionally close job advertisements early in the event we receive sufficient applicants, so please don’t delay in submitting your application.

At Nestlé, our values are rooted in respect and we believe that embracing diversity and fostering an inclusive environment allows everyone to reach their full potential and drives innovative thinking. We strongly encourage applications from individuals of all gender identities, ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities, parents, carers and members of the LGBT+ community. Please let us know if we can provide accommodations to ensure your full participation in the application process.

To find out more about Nestle’s commitment to DEI: Nestlé's Commitment to a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace

Right to work in the UK

In accordance with Home Office guidance successful candidates will be required to evidence their right to work in the UK before commencement of employment.  We have assessed this role and do not consider that we would be able to sponsor a successful candidate under the Skilled Worker route as the role does not meet the relevant Home Office criteria; the successful candidate therefore must be able to demonstrate their own right to work during the recruitment process without Nestlé sponsorship.

To find out more about your recruitment journey with Nestle: Recruitment Journey | Nestlé UK & Ireland