Sr. Demand Planner

About U.S. Cotton

At U.S. Cotton, we pride ourselves on being the leading manufacturer of high-quality cotton products. Our commitment to innovation, sustainability, and excellence drives us to deliver exceptional value to our customers. With a rich history and a forward-thinking approach, we offer a dynamic and inclusive work environment where employees can thrive and grow. Join us and be part of a team dedicated to making a positive impact in the industry and beyond.

Purpose of the Position

The Senior Demand Planner is responsible for developing, owning, and continuously improving the consensus demand forecast to support service excellence, inventory optimization, and financial performance. This role serves as a strategic partner across Sales, Operations, Finance, and Supply Chain, translating market intelligence, commercial strategy, and analytical insights into a disciplined demand plan. The position plays a critical leadership role within the S&OP / Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process, ensuring alignment, visibility of risks and opportunities, and informed executive decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

Consensus Demand Forecast Ownership

• Own the weekly, SKU-level rolling twelve-month demand forecast, with primary accuracy accountability for the current quarter.
• Develop and maintain a consensus forecast by integrating statistical models, sales inputs, promotional plans, market intelligence, and financial assumptions.
• Identify key demand drivers, risks, and sources of forecast variance; translate insights into actionable recommendations.
• Maintain forecast assumptions, version control, and governance to ensure transparency and alignment.
• Ensure demand plans meet required timing, granularity, and format standards for supply planning, finance, and operations.

S&OP / IBP Leadership and Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Lead weekly tactical demand discussions and facilitate the formal monthly Demand Review process.
• Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, and Logistics to align demand, supply, and financial plans.
• Escalate gaps, risks, and trade-offs as needed to drive timely decision-making.
• Support Executive S&OP / IBP cycles by preparing concise summaries of demand outlook, service risks, and mitigation options.
• Represent assigned product lines or sales channels while balancing overall enterprise objectives.

Promotions, New Products, and Demand Shaping

• Own demand planning activities for promotions, events, new product launches, line extensions, and discontinuations.
• Evaluate promotional uplift assumptions, capacity constraints, and service risks.
• Conduct post-event and post-launch analysis to drive continuous improvement.
• Partner with Sales to shape demand where appropriate, balancing customer requirements with operational capacity and service commitments.

Service and Constraint Management Support

• Collaborate with Customer Service and Sales to understand order and shipment variance versus forecast and support response plans for service issues.
• Provide demand prioritization insights to guide supply allocation decisions during constrained environments.
• Perform root-cause analysis on forecast error and bias; implement corrective actions.
• Conduct scenario planning and what-if analyses to support decision-making under uncertainty.

Performance Management and Continuous Improvement

• Own and report demand planning performance metrics including WMAPE, Fill Rate, and OTIF.
• Drive process improvements that reduce volatility and strengthen planning discipline.
• Support the evolution of planning tools, automation, and AI/ML-enabled forecasting capabilities.
• Maintain strong documentation and governance of demand assumptions and decisions.

Preferred Education and Experience

• Five (5) or more years of experience in demand planning, supply planning, or related planning roles.
• Manufacturing and multi-site environment experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional S&OP / IBP demand processes.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Analytics, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience working with customer POS data.
• Promotional planning experience.
• Power BI and/or basic SQL experience.