Demand Planner
Operations
Remote
USD 120k-140k / year + Equity
About the Role
Blueland is looking for a highly analytical and collaborative Demand Planner to own demand planning across our omnichannel business. In this role, you will partner closely with channel and cross-functional leaders to develop accurate, actionable demand forecasts that translate commercial plans into a clear view of future demand. You will lead the demand consensus process, bringing together historical performance, channel plans, promotions, launches, and business insights to establish a single aligned demand plan. This role reports to the Director of Supply Chain and sits at the intersection of Sales, Growth, Finance, Operations, playing an important role in helping Blueland balance product availability, inventory efficiency, and growth.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain SKU-level demand forecasts across DTC, retail, and marketplace channels, across appropriate weekly and monthly planning horizons.
- Build forecasts using historical demand, trends, seasonality, promotions, customer and retailer plans, marketing activity, new product launches, and other relevant demand drivers.
- Develop forecasts for new products and channels where historical demand may be limited, establishing assumptions and analogs and refining forecasts as actual performance develops.
- Identify changes in demand patterns and proactively adjust forecasts as new information becomes available.
- Maintain an appropriate view of baseline demand versus incremental demand from promotions, launches, distribution gains, marketing events, and other commercial activity.
- Support Blueland’s recurring demand consensus process, bringing together channel leaders and cross-functional partners around a single aligned demand forecast.
- Prepare materials and insights that highlight forecast changes, key assumptions, risks, opportunities, and areas requiring business decisions.
- Challenge assumptions constructively and use data to reconcile differences between statistical forecasts, channel expectations, and business targets.
- Document forecast assumptions and decisions to create transparency and accountability across teams.
- Translate the agreed demand plan into clear inputs for supply, inventory, and financial planning.
- Establish and monitor demand planning KPIs, including forecast accuracy and forecast bias at the appropriate SKU, channel, and category levels.
- Conduct regular forecast-versus-actual analysis to understand drivers of variance and continuously improve forecast quality.
- Identify systematic forecast bias and recommend changes to assumptions, processes, or forecasting methodologies.
- Distinguish true consumer demand from inventory constraints, out-of-stocks, retailer ordering patterns, and other factors that may distort historical sales.
- Develop reporting that gives stakeholders visibility into demand trends, forecast changes, and key risks and opportunities.
- Maintain demand forecasts and associated SKU and channel data within Blueland’s planning systems.
- Ensure SKU attributes, product hierarchies, channel mappings, lifecycle statuses, launch dates, and other planning inputs remain accurate and up to date.
- Support new SKU, customer, and channel setup within planning systems.
- Maintain forecast versions and planning assumptions to ensure a clear and reliable source of truth.
- Identify opportunities to improve planning tools, reporting, automation, and data quality.
- Work closely with Supply Planning and Operations to translate demand forecasts into inventory and supply requirements and surface potential availability risks.
- Partner with DTC and Growth/Marketing teams to incorporate acquisition plans, promotional calendars, subscriptions, campaigns, and other demand-driving activity.
- Partner closely with Finance on the annual budgeting and planning process, translating channel and SKU-level demand assumptions into inputs that support revenue and unit targets.
- Reconcile the operational demand plan against financial targets and clearly identify and communicate gaps, risks, and opportunities.
- Provide demand forecasts, assumptions, variance analysis, risks, and opportunities as key inputs into monthly consensus and Stage Gate meetings, ensuring leadership and cross-functional teams have a clear and current view of expected demand and the drivers behind changes to the plan.
- Support scenario planning and sensitivity analysis to help the business understand the inventory and supply implications of changes in demand.
Qualifications
7+ years of experience in demand planning, forecasting, supply chain planning, inventory planning, or a related analytical role, ideally within a consumer products or omnichannel environment.
Experience forecasting across multiple channels such as DTC/E-commerce, Amazon or other marketplaces, and wholesale/retail.
Strong analytical skills with the ability to turn complex data into clear insights and recommendations.
Strong understanding of demand planning fundamentals, including forecasting methods, seasonality, promotional impacts, new product forecasting, forecast accuracy, and bias.
Experience working with large SKU-level datasets and maintaining strong data accuracy and discipline.
Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to facilitate consensus among teams with different perspectives and objectives.
- Comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where priorities, channels, and demand signals can change quickly.
- A proactive problem solver who identifies risks and opportunities rather than simply reporting them.
Additional Skills
Experience in CPG, beauty, personal care, household products, or another high-growth consumer brand.
Experience with an integrated business planning or S&OP process.
Experience forecasting for retail customers and working with retailer forecasts, POS data, and purchase orders.
Experience with subscription or replenishment-based DTC businesses.
Experience with Amazon or other marketplace forecasting and inventory dynamics.
