Forecast Manager

Job Description

Job Description

The Forecast Manager leads Sunny Sky Products’ demand forecasting and consensus planning process across products, customers, and channels. This role turns customer orders, sales inputs, market signals, and statistical models into a clear demand plan that supports reliable production, inventory, procurement, and financial decisions. The manager partners across Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Finance, Planning, Procurement, Manufacturing, and leadership to surface risks early, improve forecast quality, and align demand with supply.

Key responsibilitiesDemand planning and forecasting

• Own the monthly statistical forecast cycle and publish the consensus demand plan for the agreed planning horizon, using a statistical baseline and documented commercial overrides.
• Build and review weekly forecasts; incorporate material changes in customer orders, sales pipeline, partner inventory, promotions, new products, and other demand signals.
• Lead seasonal demand and inventory planning across product categories, evaluating sales projections, customer needs, capacity, and inventory constraints.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing to include promotions, visible-impact orders, customer opportunities, launches, and channel changes in the aggregate demand plan.

S&OP and cross-functional alignment

• Participate in the monthly S&OP process and meeting, aligning demand, supply, capacity, inventory, and financial assumptions and documenting decisions, owners, and follow-up actions.
• Lead weekly S&OP pre-meetings to identify demand and supply gaps, assess scenarios, and recommend actions to the appropriate leaders.
• Prepare concise weekly status updates and executive pre-reads that communicate forecast performance, inventory position, key risks, opportunities, and decisions required.
• Communicate forecast changes, promotional assumptions, new-product timing, and launch updates to Manufacturing, Planning, Procurement, Customer Service, and other affected teams.

Performance, analytics, and continuous improvement

• Monitor forecast accuracy, bias, lost sales, and related KPIs by customer, SKU, and product family; investigate meaningful variances and agree corrective actions with Sales and Planning.
• Analyze demand and supply constraints, inventory exposure, potential risks, and opportunities; translate findings into practical recommendations.
• Standardize forecasting methods, reports, definitions, and analytics across the business to support consistent, scalable decision-making.
• Maintain procedures, role documentation, and standard work; identify and implement improvements to the forecasting and S&OP processes.

Systems, data, and execution support

• Use SAP S/4HANA, Salesforce, and available reporting tools to review order intake, pipeline, MRP exceptions, partner inventory, and other demand signals.
• Work with Sales, Finance, and data/IT partners to ensure reliable, timely data is available in the enterprise data environment for forecasting and analytics.
• Coordinate with Planning and Procurement on forecast-driven material requirements, purchase requisitions, supplier constraints, open purchase orders, and expedite needs.
• Review master data and planning parameters, including lead times, lot sizes, and safety stock, with the appropriate Planning, Procurement, and systems partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, Operations, Business, Analytics, Engineering, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• At least 5 years of experience in demand planning, forecasting, S&OP, or a related supply chain discipline, including ownership of cross-functional planning processes.
• Experience working with ERP; hands-on SAP S/4HANA and Salesforce experience is highly preferred.
• Strong analytical skills and advanced Excel capability; experience with business intelligence or forecasting tools is preferred.
• Experience in food, beverage, consumer products, or another environment with seasonal demand, promotions, short shelf life, or co-manufacturing is preferred.