Director, Planning & Inventory Management

Director, Planning & Inventory Management

Location: South Jersey

Compensation: $180,000–$225,000 base salary, plus annual company bonus

Employment type: Full-time

Overview

This is a senior leadership opportunity for someone who can connect demand forecasting with supply execution, improve customer service, and make thoughtful decisions about inventory investment and working capital. The Director will own the end-to-end planning agenda, including demand forecasting, inventory optimization, supply planning, and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP).

The role will initially be an individual contributor. The person hired will assess current practices, establish a roadmap, and define the processes, technology, and team needed to support a growing global business. They will work closely with Procurement, Sales, Finance, Operations, and executive leadership.

What You’ll Do

Build the planning function

• Assess current planning capabilities and create a roadmap for more consistent, scalable processes across regions and business units.
• Design and lead an S&OP process that brings demand, supply, inventory, and financial planning together.
• Define the future planning organization, including team structure, responsibilities, systems, and performance measures.
• Lead change across functions and build a planning team as the function grows.

Improve demand and supply planning

• Develop statistically driven demand forecasts using sales history, customer trends, market intelligence, and commercial input.
• Establish measures for forecast accuracy and bias, investigate gaps, and drive continuous improvement.
• Partner with Procurement to account for supplier lead times, minimum order quantities, capacity constraints, and sourcing strategies.
• Identify supply risks and develop plans to protect service levels.

Optimize inventory and working capital

• Lead inventory analysis across domestic and international operations, with a focus on turns, aging, service levels, and working capital.
• Develop inventory segmentation and SKU-location policies, including safety stock, reorder points, and service-level targets.
• Identify excess, slow-moving, and obsolete inventory and develop strategies to reduce it.
• Balance customer availability with inventory carrying costs and cash flow objectives.

Turn data into business decisions

• Establish a global planning KPI framework covering forecast accuracy, inventory turns, fill rate, stockouts, inventory aging, and working capital efficiency.
• Present planning performance, inventory investment recommendations, and supply risks to senior leadership.
• Partner with IT and business leaders to evaluate and improve planning systems and tools.

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Business, Engineering, Finance, or a related field.
• 10 years of progressive experience in supply chain planning, inventory management, demand planning, or S&OP.
• Experience leading planning and inventory strategy in a complex, multi-site or global organization.
• Strong knowledge of statistical forecasting, inventory optimization, supply planning, and working capital management.
• Experience building, implementing, or leading an S&OP process.
• The ability to influence executive stakeholders and bring multiple functions together around planning decisions.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

This role offers the chance to build a global planning function from the ground up, with strong executive visibility and a direct impact on customer service, growth, and profitability.