What are the responsibilities and job description for the Inventory Planner position at Simplehuman?
Day to day life has room for improvement.
That was our basic thinking when we founded simplehuman in 2000. Our mission is to bring high-performance innovation to basic but essential tasks in our daily routine. Through new technologies, meticulous engineering and an obsession for improvement, we find new and better ways to achieve basic but important daily tasks.
About The Role
Simplehuman is seeking a Inventory Planner to join our Operation team. You will own supply planning and inventory management for a portfolio of products, balancing demand forecasts, production timelines, and logistics to keep the right inventory in the right place at the right time. You will be part of a multidisciplinary team of demand planning, product leads, and cross-functional partners working to keep our products flowing efficiently from contract manufacturers to customers. This is a full-time, on-site position located in our Torrance, CA office.
Responsibilities
We’re a mature company with the soul of a start-up. We value ingenuity, precise communications, fast iteration and scrappiness. Our teams are tight-knit with a work hard, play hard tradition – we take pride in individual and team success and push boundaries to make the best products. And we only build products we love to use ourselves. Great benefits, competitive compensation, and generous simplehuman product discounts.
That was our basic thinking when we founded simplehuman in 2000. Our mission is to bring high-performance innovation to basic but essential tasks in our daily routine. Through new technologies, meticulous engineering and an obsession for improvement, we find new and better ways to achieve basic but important daily tasks.
About The Role
Simplehuman is seeking a Inventory Planner to join our Operation team. You will own supply planning and inventory management for a portfolio of products, balancing demand forecasts, production timelines, and logistics to keep the right inventory in the right place at the right time. You will be part of a multidisciplinary team of demand planning, product leads, and cross-functional partners working to keep our products flowing efficiently from contract manufacturers to customers. This is a full-time, on-site position located in our Torrance, CA office.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain supply plans and purchase orders to align inventory with demand forecasts and business goals.
- Communicate with Contract Manufacturers for production planning, order status, capacity, lead times, and coordinating shipments with logistics.
- Oversee planning for inventory positions by reviewing and maintaining inventory levels across all locations relative to demand.
- Partner regularly with internal and external teams, including Product, Sales, Supply Chain, Demand Planning, Accounting, and manufacturing, to ensure alignment on supply needs.
- Leverage historical order/ship data, PO trends and promotional activities to develop the accurate supply forecast for new and existing products.
- Identify, communicate and escalate supply risks to management to ensure incoming product inventory is sufficient to meet demand plans.
- Track key inventory metrics (fill rate, weeks of supply, turns, aging) and drive continuous improvements in inventory performance.
- Hold cross-functional teams accountable to supply and demand forecasts commitments.
- Analyze historical inventory cycles and distribution channel forecasts to inform planning decisions.
- Analyze and understand forecasting data, maintain communication and partner with demand planning to reconcile forecasts.
- Utilize AI, BI and other tools to ensure data integrity and ease of view.
- Maintain accurate planning data and parameters in ERP and planning systems.
- Ensure that the inventory allocation processes are running smoothly and efficiently
- across channels.
- Identify and drive process improvements across supply planning workflows.
- Bachelor's degree in Operations, Supply Chain, Logistics, Business Operations, or a related field.
- 1-3 years of experience in a forecasting/planning analyst or related supply chain role.
- Strong communicator with excellent organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to deliver timely, clear updates across cross-functional teams
- Sharp and analytical, with a strong sense for numbers.
- Possess a strong sense of urgency and initiative.
- Strong understanding of key financial and inventory metrics (e.g., gross margin, GMROI, weeks on hand, weeks of supply) and how planning decisions impact them.
- Advanced Excel skills
- Strong analytical, mathematical, and problem-solving ability.
- Experience with large ERP systems and visualization/reporting software for planning is a plus.
- Flexible and adaptive to changing priorities and moving deadlines.
- Familiarity with import logistics, customs, and container/freight planning is a plus.
- Mandarin Chinese language proficiency is a plus
We’re a mature company with the soul of a start-up. We value ingenuity, precise communications, fast iteration and scrappiness. Our teams are tight-knit with a work hard, play hard tradition – we take pride in individual and team success and push boundaries to make the best products. And we only build products we love to use ourselves. Great benefits, competitive compensation, and generous simplehuman product discounts.