Lead Analyst, Demand Planning

Lead Analyst, Demand Planning

The Lead Analyst, Demand Planning within the Global Demand Center of Excellence (COE) is responsible for developing, analyzing, and modeling business or market forecast trends, insights, gaps, KPIs, opportunities and risks in forecast projections to ensure a high-quality demand plan for the organization.  The Lead Analyst will focus on enabling high quality, predictability, and reliability of the demand forecast for the assigned business unit(s) and/or regional markets.  This role will serve as the primary liaison between the Demand Center of Excellence and the business demand planners and IBP analysts – building trust and credibility through transparent communication, proactive problem-solving, and consistently delivering results. 

The Lead Analyst will be expected to collaborate with the in-country or region demand planning market experts to improve and optimize key brands and products as required.  This role will also maximize system capability by partnering across the Demand COE and with enterprise systems and technology experts to drive system governance and end user training.  This role will also be responsible for developing and analyzing regional forecast trends and identified gaps or risks in the demand plan to drive the right collaboration with business planners and only make value-added adjustments.

The Lead Analyst must have strong skills in quantitative, analytical and organizational skills with hands-on forecasting and statistical modeling experience.  This role must be capable of being a thought leader, show creativity and efficiency in solving problems, and appropriately communicate and escalate issues as needed.

This role requires someone who can understand large volumes of data, leverage statistical modelling, advanced data analysis, detecting patterns in data, and build an accurate and suitable forecast for the business.

What you will do:

• Create and maintain high quality statistical demand forecasts for the region using the enterprise demand planning system
• Develop and continuously improve statistical forecast quality and build strong relationships with regional / in-country demand planning market experts
• Maintain awareness of industry best practices and the ability to advocate for and translate those into forecasting practices where appropriate
• Outline clear recommendations on statistical excellence in forecast vs. value-add intelligence for the regional planning teams
• Understand the link between plan and actuals, analyze variations, and partner with the business to define future growth plans
• Perform an analytical review of performance vs. budgets and forecasts with recommendations of improvements going forward
• Develop and provide the advanced metrics review, forecast analysis etc. to regional planning teams; highlight gaps / risks to drive the correct behavior of demand overrides and improve the demand planning process performance
• Independently troubleshoot demand signal exceptions
• Develop in-depth business understanding of major products by region and by franchise
• Provide simulation and scenario planning capabilities to the regional planning teams
• Develop risk analysis based on forecast accuracy and bias in the forecast signal
• Design analytical capability to support optimization needs across the supply chain in relation to demand planning and forecasting
• Capable of being a thought partner showing creativity in solving problems and the ability to appropriately communicate and escalate as needed to management
• Preparing internal management reports for executive leadership and supporting their decision making
• Achieve or exceed the forecasting goals and KPI targets, supporting enterprise/function/department goals
• Capable of working on cross-functional/divisional projects to improve statistical and demand forecast signals

What you need:

Required Skills:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Statistics, Economics, Business, Data Analytics, or a related field.

• 5–8 years of progressive experience in demand planning, forecasting, supply chain analytics, or related roles.

• Hands‑on experience with enterprise demand planning or forecasting systems.

• Strong understanding of S&OP / Integrated Business Planning processes.

• Hands-on experience with advanced analytics, AI/ML, advanced Power BI, Python and R.

• Ability to work effectively with global stakeholders across time zones.

Preferred Skills:

• Proven experience working with large, diverse product portfolios; medical devices or regulated industries preferred.