Job Description:

Demand Planning Manager

• Industry: Manufacturing
• Salary: £40,000 - £45,000
• Location: Harlow

Are you an experienced demand planning professional looking for a role where you can make a real impact on business performance?

We’re looking for a Demand Planning Manager to take ownership of sales forecasting and demand planning within an established manufacturing business. Working closely with Sales, Supply Chain, Operations and Finance, you’ll turn data, customer requirements and market insight into reliable forecasts that support better business decisions.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys working across departments, challenging assumptions and continuously improving how a business plans for the future.

The Role, as the Demand Planning Manager

You’ll play a key role in aligning commercial demand with operational capability, helping the business balance customer service, stock availability, production capacity and working capital.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Lead demand forecasting: Develop and maintain rolling sales forecasts, bringing together historical sales, customer demand, market trends and commercial priorities.
• Drive S&OP: Lead the demand planning element of the Sales & Operations Planning process, ensuring teams have a clear, evidence-based view of future demand.
• Analyse performance: Monitor forecast accuracy, investigate variances and develop meaningful KPIs and reports to support decision-making.
• Optimise inventory: Work with Supply Chain and Operations to reduce excess and slow-moving stock, improve stock availability and support better working capital performance.
• Collaborate across the business: Build strong relationships with Sales, Supply Chain, Operations and Finance, highlighting risks, identifying opportunities and driving agreed actions.
• Continuously improve: Strengthen forecasting processes, reporting tools and data quality to improve planning accuracy and overall business performance.

About You, as a Demand Planning Manager

You’ll have experience in demand planning, forecasting or supply chain planning within a manufacturing environment, with the confidence to take ownership of a process and bring different teams together.

You’ll also bring:

• Experience developing rolling forecasts using sales data, customer requirements and market insight.
• An understanding of S&OP and how demand planning impacts production, capacity, lead times and inventory.
• Analytical skills, with the ability to identify trends, investigate variances and translate data into practical recommendations.
• Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups and working with large datasets.
• Experience using ERP or planning systems to extract and analyse data.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to challenge assumptions constructively and drive accountability without direct line management responsibility.

Why Apply?

This is an opportunity to take ownership of a business-critical planning process, work closely with senior commercial and operational stakeholders, and make a measurable difference to forecast accuracy, inventory performance and overall business efficiency.

If you’re a proactive, commercially minded planning professional who enjoys turning data into action and improving how a business operates, we’d love to hear from you.

Apply now, and contact Jemma at ReeVR.