Piscataway
Job DescriptionBenefits: • Dental insurance, • Health insurance, • Vision insurance Snack Innovations is a fast-growing consumer packaged goods company with a passion for better-for-you snacking and the parent brand behind Drizzilicious, Natural Endurance, Smart Fries, and Sunday Snacks. Operating as both a private label manufacturer and direct-to-consumer snack brand innovator, were rapidly expanding and looking for driven, entrepreneurial people to grow with us. Position Overview The Demand Planner is a critical, cross-functional role responsible for building and maintaining a rolling demand forecast that connects shipment sales, POS data, promotional calendars, and customer-level dynamics into a single, integrated view. The forecast will directly inform financial planning, supply and production scheduling, and MRP inputs, making this role a foundational piece of the companys operational infrastructure. Forecast Development & Maintenance • Build and own a rolling 1218 month forward demand forecast at the SKU retailer / shipment / first receiver level, ensuring the model accommodates multiple pack size configurations as well as club rotation and seasonal/limited-time SKUs, • Anchor the forecast to POS data where available (Nielsen, IRI, retailer portals) to reflect true consumer takeaway rather than relying solely on shipment history, • Translate the demand forecast into actionable inputs for the financial forecast, supply and production planning, and MRP, • Incorporate promotional lift factors and account for all demand-shaping events, including, but not limited to: new distribution resets and pipe-fills, display and shipper activity, club channel rotations, seasonal SKU introductions and wind-downs, and pricing and trade promotional periods, • Maintain a shared input calendar for cross-functional teams (Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations) to submit planned events, promotional activity, distribution changes, and other demand drivers on a defined cadence ahead of each forecast cycleS&OP Process Leadership, • Be a key resource in building and running a structured monthly Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process, including owning the demand planning meeting cadence, pre-read materials, and post-meeting action tracking, • Align cross-functional stakeholders (Sales, Finance, Operations, Supply Chain) around a single consensus forecast, • Maintain a running Risks & Opportunities (R&O) log tied to promotions, new launches, distribution changes, seasonality, and customer-specific events and updating it monthly and presenting it as a standing agenda item in S&OP reviewsCustomer Inventory & Allocation Intelligence, • Leverage retailer and distributor inventory data to monitor customer inventory positions in near real-time, using that visibility to inform shipment timing recommendations by customer, • Serve as a thought leader on inventory allocation strategy, proactively flagging customers at risk of over- or under-stock and recommending corrective actions, • Partner with the Sales and Operations teams to plan for secondary display events, including forecasting incremental volume for shippers, off-shelf displays, pallet drops, case stack deals, and similar in-store execution vehicles, • Support draw-down and load-in planning around promotional events and seasonal peaksForecast Accuracy & KPI Reporting, • Establish a forecast accuracy measurement framework (MAPE, bias, SKU-level error tracking) and publish a recurring KPI scorecard covering forecast accuracy vs. actuals by customer and SKU, forecast bias trends, inventory position vs. target, and fill rate / service level metrics, • Use KPI learnings to continuously improve forecast methodology, model inputs, and cross-functional input qualityAnalytics & Ad-Hoc Support, • Analyze category dynamics (seasonality, competitive pricing moves, promotional elasticity, and inventory load-ins and drawdowns) to sharpen forecast inputs and provide context to leadership, • Support volume productivity analytics at retail on an ad-hoc basis (velocity, shelf productivity, penny profit); primary focus remains demand planning and retail analytics is a secondary, growth opportunity for the role.Qualifications & Skills Required • Bachelors degree in Supply Chain, Business, Finance, Statistics, or a related field, • 26+ years of experience in demand planning, supply chain, or CPG forecasting, • Proficiency with syndicated data platforms (Nielsen, IRI, SPINS) and/or retailer portals, • Advanced Excel skills including pivot tables, Power Query, and structured financial/operational modeling, • Experience in a multi-customer retail environment (grocery, club, mass, natural/specialty), • Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skillsPreferred, • Experience with S&OP process design, facilitation, and continuous improvement, • Familiarity with ERP environments (NetSuite, QuickBooks, SAP, Sage, or similar), • Club and natural/specialty channel experience, • Background in snack, better-for-you, or perishable CPG categories, • Retail analytics or category management experience