Demand Planner II

About the Opportunity

Partnering with Aquent, our client-a celebrated luxury design and manufacturing brand-is seeking an autonomous Demand & Inventory Planner to step into a high-visibility role on their Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) team.

Serving as the standalone demand planning subject-matter expert, you will build ground-up forecasting models, translate demand into actionable buy plans for purchasing, model inventory scenarios for a newly launching e-commerce channel, and design executive inventory-health dashboards to guide leadership decisions. While starting as a 3-month contract, the hiring manager is filling a permanent capability gap and intends to extend and convert the right candidate to a full-time role.

What You'll Do

• Ground-Up Demand Planning & Buy Plans: Own the end-to-end demand forecast across stocked product categories and sales channels. Net approved demand against on-hand and in-transit inventory to deliver clear, actionable buy plans and receipt timing to the purchasing team.
• Global Sourcing & Vendor Optimization: Incorporate global supplier constraints into inventory planning, accounting for extended ocean lead times, minimum order quantities (MOQs), and full container load (FCL) consolidation.
• E-Commerce Launch Readiness: Build demand scenarios (conservative, expected, higher-growth) for a newly launching e-commerce channel, monitoring early selling behavior and adjusting replenishment assumptions dynamically.
• Inventory Strategy & Risk Mitigation: Establish safety-stock targets, weeks of supply (WOS) benchmarks, and reorder strategies. Proactively flag stockout risks, backorders, and excess/slow-moving inventory before they impact service levels.
• Executive Dashboards & Leadership Storytelling: Transform raw data extracts into clear visual inventory-health dashboards using Advanced Excel and Power BI, presenting risks and financial trade-offs directly to leadership.
• Cross-Functional S&OP Alignment: Measure forecast accuracy and bias (MAPE), conduct root-cause analyses on deviations, and facilitate collaborative reviews across Purchasing, Operations, Logistics, Merchandising, and Marketing.

What You'll Bring

• Experience: 3-5+ years of autonomous experience in demand planning, inventory planning, or supply-chain analytics, with proven ability to build forecasting and replenishment models from scratch without hand-holding.
• Technical & Data Visualization Mastery: Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (complex formulas, XLOOKUP, Power Query, scenario modeling) and strong experience building visual reports in Power BI (experience with Microsoft Copilot or Databricks is a plus).
• Systems: Comfort working with raw ERP data extracts (SAP familiarity is helpful, though not required).
• Supply Chain Acumen: Solid grasp of safety stock calculations, WOS, forecast error/bias tracking, and global vendor lead-time/container dynamics.
• Communication: Ability to distill complex supply-and-demand data into clear business recommendations for non-technical stakeholders and senior leadership.