Sales & Operations Manager

Job Summary

The S&OP Manager leads the endtoend Sales & Operations Planning process to deliver a single aligned plan across Demand Supply Finance and Commercial. The role is accountable for balancing customer service cost and inventory and for providing the leadership team with a clear datadriven view of risks opportunities and tradeoffs.

Key Responsibilities

1. S&OP Strategy and Governance

• Design implement and continuously improve a robust monthly S&OP cycle (demand review supply review preS&OP executive S&OP).
  
• Establish and maintain S&OP governance: calendar agendas data standards decision rights and escalation paths.
  
• Ensure the S&OP process is fully aligned with business strategy budget and longrange plan (capacity capex and portfolio).
  

2. Demand Planning and Consensus

• Lead the demand planning process with Sales Marketing and Finance to generate a realistic unconstrained demand plan.
  
• Challenge and validate forecasts using historical data market intelligence promotions and seasonality.
  
• Facilitate consensus forecasting ensuring one agreed demand plan is signed off and used across the business.
  
• Track forecast accuracy and bias and drive rootcause analysis and corrective actions.
  

3. Supply Planning and Capacity Management

• Coordinate with Manufacturing Procurement and Logistics to create an optimized supply plan that meets demand within capacity and cost constraints.
  
• Ensure roughcut capacity planning (RCCP) is in place and aligned with labour line and supplier capabilities.
  
• Identify and quantify supply constraints risks and bottlenecks and propose mitigation scenarios (e.g. overtime subcontracting alternative sourcing inventory strategies).
  
• Align medium to longterm capacity needs with capex and resource planning.
  

4. Integrated Business Planning & Financial Alignment

• Ensure the S&OP process is tightly integrated with financial planning (revenue margin and workingcapital targets).
  
• Provide a rolling 318month view of volume/value highlighting gaps to budget and scenario options.
  
• Work closely with Finance to translate volume plans into financial projections and support decisionmaking on tradeoffs (service vs. cost vs. cash).
  

5. Inventory and Service Optimization

• Define and maintain inventory policies (safety stock reorder points minimum order quantities coverage days) for raw materials WIP and FG.
  
• Balance customer service levels (OTIF) against inventory and operating costs using datadriven segmentation (ABC/XYZ maketostock vs. maketoorder etc.).
  
• Monitor and improve key metrics: OTIF stockouts excess and obsolete stock (E&O) days of inventory (DOI) and expedited freight.
  

6. Data Systems and Analytics

• Own the data and assumptions feeding the S&OP process (historical sales pipeline capacities lead times yields BOMs).
  
• Drive effective use and continuous improvement of planning tools (ERP/MRP APS demand planning software BI dashboards).
  
• Develop and maintain dashboards and reports that provide clear visibility on demand supply inventory and S&OP performance.
  
• Champion data quality and master data governance in collaboration with IT Supply Chain and Finance.
  

7. Stakeholder Management and Change Leadership

• Act as the central orchestrator between Commercial Operations Procurement Finance and Logistics to ensure alignment and ownership of the plan.
  
• Facilitate S&OP meetings at all levels ensuring they are decisionfocused timeefficient and supported by clear analyses.
  
• Drive a culture of accountability and transparency where assumptions risks and decisions are clearly documented.
  
• Lead change management for S&OPrelated initiatives ensuring adoption of new processes tools and behaviors.
  

Qualifications and Experience

Education:

• Bachelors degree in Supply Chain Management Industrial Engineering Business Economics or related field.
  

Postgraduate degree (MBA/MSc) is an advantage; Professional Certifications (preferred)

Experience:

• 6 years in Supply Chain Planning or Operations with at least 35 years directly leading S&OP or integrated planning.
  
• Experience in manufacturing/FMCG/CPG or similar highvolume SKUrich environment.
  
• Proven track record improving forecast accuracy service levels and inventory performance.
  

Technical Skills:

• Strong knowledge of demand and supply planning concepts (MRP DRP RCCP safetystock methods ABC/XYZ etc.).
  
• Handson experience with ERP systems (e.g. Oracle Microsoft Dynamics) and planning tools (APS demand planning software).
  
• Advanced Excel and analytics skills; experience with BI tools (Power BI) is a strong plus.
  
• Comfortable building and explaining scenarios sensitivities and tradeoff analyses.
  

Soft Skills:

• Excellent facilitation and stakeholder management skills; able to challenge and influence senior leaders respectfully.
  
• Strong analytical problemsolving and structured thinking abilities.
  
• Clear communication and storytelling able to convert complex data into simple actionable insights.
  
• High ownership resilience and bias for action in a fastchanging environment.