Analyst, Customer Planning, Small Format

Location: Hershey, PA

Department: Integrated Dynamic Planning

Summary of Role:

The Analyst Planning is accountable for the scrutiny, entry, and maintenance of sales forecasts and promotional plans into PlanEx.  The Analyst also leads cross-functional meetings with Sales and Customer Finance to develop initial plans and contingencies. The planner is responsible for providing guidance, analysis, and oversight for their assigned customer group to ensure alignment with business direction and consistency with market trends.  Responsibilities include assessment of Gross Sales and Trade plans and the assumptions behind them and communicating plans through the Integrated Dynamic Planning platform, the IBM Demand process, and Supply Chain. 

Role Responsibilities:

• Develop accurate forecasts of all line items for their accountable customer/segment of the business by using a combination of statistical forecasting integrated with insights gained via partnering with Sales and Finance departments.
• Ensure consistent integration into the forecast of customer insights, base business trends, merchandising promotional plans, new item volumes, plan-o-gram changes and seasonal volume with the goal of reducing working capital and minimizing forecast error.
• Manage Trade Promotion planning for assigned customer/segment.
• Work cross functionally toward continuous improvement of forecast accuracy and improve the error rate, leveraging WMAPE and Bias.
• Comprehensively analyze the business to understand implications to Plan and Consensus.
• Work collaboratively with Key Stakeholders in the development of KPIs to track and monitor in-year performance

Desired knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Work with relevant teams to identify, isolate, and appropriately size R&Os; grasps challenges and topline/bottom line impact associated with gap-filling activities, assesses solutions and understands trade-offs, and influences/enables key decision making to maximize financial targets, minimize costs, and protect customer relationships.
• Maintain thorough and explicit record of key planning assumptions by building block and key driver/initiative within PlanEx.
• Serves as the voice for both Sales and IDP in core organizational processes

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements: 

• Education –
  • Bachelor’s degree
• Experience –
  • At least 3 years of experience in Marketing, Sales, Category Management, Analytics, Finance, or Demand Planning
  • Foundational understanding of the P&L, building blocks, mix implications, and growth levers
  • Experience in PlanEx a plus

#LI-TL1

#LI-Hybrid

The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The policy of The Hershey Company is to extend opportunities to qualified applicants and employees on an equal basis regardless of an individual's race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other categories protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.
 
The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Minority/Female/Disabled/Protected Veterans.  

You may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our online application process as a result of a disability.
You can request an accommodation via phone or email.  

To request an accommodation via phone, please call 1 877-804-1794 and leave a voicemail with your contact information.  You may also email a request for accommodation to ApplicationHelp@hersheys.com. Please be sure to include “Accommodation Needed” in the subject line. This will ensure that your email is routed to the appropriate contact who will handle your request.