[Hiring] Demand Planner & BI Lead @Activate Talent

Role Description

We're seeking a detail-oriented and data-driven Demand Planner & BI Lead to own forecasting, S&OP process management, and business intelligence infrastructure across the organization. This is a high-impact, cross-functional role sitting at the intersection of supply chain, finance, and analytics.

• Own the full demand planning cycle across DTC (Shopify) and retail (Sephora) channels.
• Lead our monthly S&OP process in partnership with departmental leads.
• Build out the BI tooling and reporting infrastructure needed to operate at scale heading into 2026 and beyond.
• Work closely with our CFO and VP of Marketing to support plan builds.
• Partner with the Chief of Staff and CEO on strategic analysis and decision-making.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years of experience in demand planning, supply chain, or analytics—preferably in beauty, CPG, or retail.
• Strong understanding of Sephora's retail planning and replenishment systems (required).
• Hands-on experience with Shopify as a DTC platform (required).
• Demonstrated experience owning or meaningfully contributing to an S&OP process, including cross-functional facilitation and consensus forecasting.
• Experience building BI dashboards and reports using tools such as Looker, Tableau, Power BI, or equivalent.
• Experience with Cin7 and/or DEAR Systems for inventory and demand planning (preferred).
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and Google Sheets with comfort working across large, complex datasets.
• Strong financial acumen—ability to connect demand plans to P&L, working capital, and inventory implications.
• Excellent communicator who can translate data into clear, actionable narratives for both operational and executive audiences.
• Highly organized, proactive, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, resource-constrained environment.

Requirements

• Identify and proactively address inventory risks, including stockouts, overstock, and product discontinuation.
• Support product launch planning by coordinating with marketing, product development, and supply chain teams to ensure readiness.
• Prepare and present weekly and monthly demand planning reports, including KPIs such as forecast accuracy, inventory turns, and service levels.
• Own and facilitate the monthly Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process end-to-end.
• Lead monthly S&OP meetings with departmental leads to review demand signals, assess risks and opportunities, and align on a consensus forecast.
• Collect, consolidate, and challenge demand inputs from stakeholders across the business.
• Partner with the CFO on financial plan builds—translating demand forecasts into revenue, COGS, and inventory projections.
• Partner with the VP of Marketing to incorporate campaign calendars, new launches, influencer activations, and promotional plans into the demand signal.
• Build bottom-up demand plans by channel, SKU, and time horizon that reconcile to the top-down financial plan.
• Track S&OP cycle performance, flag variances, and drive continuous improvement in forecast accuracy and process efficiency.
• Lead the buildout of BI infrastructure, with a focus on creating a scalable, centralized reporting environment ahead of 2026.
• Evaluate, implement, and manage BI tools to replace ad hoc reporting and create a single source of truth across the business.
• Build and maintain dashboards and automated reports covering key commercial, operational, and financial metrics.
• Partner with the Chief of Staff and CEO on ad hoc analysis and cross-functional reporting to support strategic decision-making.
• Serve as the internal owner of data integrity across planning systems, identifying gaps and driving resolution.
• Define and maintain the data architecture and reporting standards that will support growth and eventual investor and board-level reporting requirements.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work in a modern hair care brand.
• 100% remote work environment.
• Collaborative and cross-functional team structure.