Inventory Allocation Analyst

Job Description:

The Customer Allocations Lead owns the end‑to‑end allocation process when customer demand exceeds available supply. This role serves as the central point of coordination across Customer Supply Chain, Sales, IDP/Customer Planning, and senior leadership, ensuring limited inventory is allocated in a disciplined, transparent, and commercially sound manner.

The role balances analytical rigor, operational execution, and stakeholder decision‑making, and is accountable for ensuring allocations protect strategic customers while minimizing downstream operational risk and organizational friction.

Core Responsibilities

Allocation Governance & Decision Support

• Act as the designated owner for allocation execution per established RACI and governing principles.
• Evaluate allocation requests initiated by Sales or Customer Supply Chain when demand exceeds supply
• Develop data‑backed allocation recommendations for leadership decision (IDP leadership, CSC leadership, or escalation to USLT when required)
• Ensure allocations are used sparingly and intentionally, consistent with leadership guidance that allocations should be exception‑based, not routine.

Analytical Assessment & Scenario Modeling

• Analyze demand signals, customer forecasts, inventory positions, production constraints, and distribution center availability to inform allocation decisions
• Quantify risks including:
• Customer distribution loss
• Promotional fill shortfalls
• In‑stock deterioration
• Downstream case‑fill impacts
• Build and maintain allocation workbooks and scenarios used for decision‑making and execution

Execution & System Enablement

• Oversee accurate and timely entry of allocations into S/4 and supporting systems, partnering closely with Order Management and Customer Service.
• Ensure allocation changes, extensions, and customer‑specific adjustments are correctly reflected and communicated.
• Manage allocation timelines (start, extensions, end dates) to align with production ramps, resets, and promotional windows.

Cross‑Functional Partnership

• Serve as the connective tissue between:
• Sales teams advocating for customer needs
• Customer Supply Chain managing physical supply constraints
• IDP/Customer Planning providing forecast and demand context
• Act as a neutral, data‑driven integrator when competing customer priorities arise.
• Support leadership forums (CDAs, deep dives, pre‑reads) by supplying clear allocation insights and implications

Process Improvement & Future‑State Design

• Identify root causes driving allocation volume (forecast accuracy, demand spikes, capacity constraints) and partner with teams to reduce future need for allocations.
• Contribute to longer‑term solutions such as process simplification, automation opportunities, and roadmap alignment with broader Customer Data Integration initiatives.
• Support training and enablement on allocation processes, templates, and best practices.

Key Skills & Capabilities

• Strong analytical and financial acumen (comfort with demand, supply, and scenario tradeoffs)
• Ability to operate calmly under pressure with senior stakeholders and urgent customer needs
• Deep understanding of customer prioritization, supply chain flows, and execution constraints
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail across fast‑moving, high‑impact decisions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, especially in escalation scenarios