Product Planning Manager

Role purpose

Planning and portfolio

• Build multi-year strategy and annual or quarterly plans, including service levels, safety stock, and minimum/maximum policies.
• Lead cross-functional Sales and Operations Planning, scenario planning, and trade-offs across availability, cost, and cash.
• Manage lifecycle governance and category strategies across automotive product lines and channels.
• Forecast demand and translate it into SAP supply and replenishment plans; optimize inventory settings and deployment.

Suppliers, inventory, and costs

• Lead supplier selection, performance reviews, and long-term agreements; negotiate commercial terms, service levels, and risk mitigation.
• Partner with Finance on cost-to-serve, landed cost, cost reduction, and product mix improvements.
• Manage stock availability, fill-rate and OTIF performance, inventory turns, cash targets, excess and obsolete stock, and planning exceptions.
• Oversee order placement and import/export and customs calendars with Logistics and Warehousing.

Analytics and process improvement

• Build Power BI planning analytics, health dashboards, and exception alerts.
• Drive process digitization, workflow and approval improvements, master-data hygiene, and Lean/Six Sigma process improvement.
• Embed HSSE and quality standards in planning and warehouse flows.

Team leadership

• Lead and coach a planning team of four direct reports; define roles, objectives, and development plans.
• Collaborate across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Logistics, and Service Centers.

Qualifications and experience

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, procurement, business, engineering, or a related field.
• Master’s degree in business administration, supply chain, or operations is preferred.
• Requires 10+ years of progressive planning or supply chain experience in automotive distribution, trading, FMCG, or retail.
• Requires contract management, cost optimization, multi-branch or retail network leadership, and strong end-to-end planning expertise.
• Requires proficiency with SAP and Power BI, plus strong negotiation and risk management skills.
• PMP and Lean/Six Sigma credentials are advantageous; workshop or retail inventory familiarity and HSSE exposure are desirable.
• Automotive category knowledge is required; GCC import/export and customs knowledge is a plus.

Business context