For a quarter of a century, the Jellycat family have brought joy, wonder and playful fun to people of all ages, in every part of the world. Utterly original and in a class of their own, they are currently among the most loved and collected toys of their kind. How has this gentle tribe endeared themselves to so many? Perhaps it is their whimsical expressions. Or the deliciously soft fabrics. Or the beautiful way in which they sit in your hand. Whatever it is, there is something magical and unmistakeable about each one of them.

The objective of the role is to deliver best in class demand plans for the eCommerce channel to ensure forecast accuracy, financial alignment, optimization of inventory flow and effectiveness of the S&OP process by identifying trends, risks and opportunities.

The scope of this role is to generate, analyse and publish the 18-month rolling forecast for the full eCommerce product portfolio.

The demand plan will feed into the sales and operations plan (S&OP) process to be consolidated, reviewed, and signed off by the management team.

You'll be;

• Developing the 18-month rolling Demand Plan at SKU and Category level to the financial plans in collaboration with the eCommerce, Finance, Marketing and Operations functions.
• Analysing demand data and working closely with eCommerce team to gain valuable consumer insights to make any necessary forecast adjustments.
• Performing root cause analysis of supply/demand issues, providing commercial solutions and escalate where necessary.
• Analysing forecasting accuracy for the monthly performance management cycle, ensuring all forecast variations and exceptions are understood and supported with a recovery plan where necessary.
• Leading cross-functional S&OP alignment meetings by providing forecast performance insights to help shape and align monthly forecast change.
• Undertaking regular data integrity checks of all demand planning master data fields to ensure all forecasts can be passed over to Production Planning without error.
• Ensuring application of product status and product lifecycle planning.
• Adjusting demand plans to reflect seasonality, trends and uplifts due to marketing activities, product lifecycle changes, category strategy, consumer demand.
• Planning around new product introductions, considering cannibalisation of existing products due to the newness launch.
• Overseeing inbound shipments and optimising cross channel inventory opportunities.
• Owning and maintaining inventory reporting, including statistics on sales, inbound deliveries, stock holding, out of stock prevention and reorder analysis.
• Ensuring optimal inventory levels are held to maximize sales and minimize inventory liability risk.
• Partnering with Production Planning to ensure SKUs subject to OOS or Excess Inventory risk have a recovery plan.
• Communicating risks/opportunities to the business.
• Ensuring supply constraints are considered, and supply chain information is communicated to the relevant teams.
• Analysing and reporting on forecast accuracy and bias measures, quantitative and qualitative insights, root cause analysis and GAP reporting of forecasts to budgets.

You'll have;

• Ideally 5+ years relevant experience in a Merchandising or Demand Planning role.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with high business acumen are required to be able to convert complex problems into actionable solutions.
• Experience with sales & operations planning (S&OP)
• The ability to communicate effectively and build cross-functional relationships with a range of business stakeholders.
• The ability to multi-task in a fast-paced, dynamic and high growth environment with multiple deadlines.
• Good presentation skills - ability to articulate potentially complex and vague concepts clearly; take a data-led approach to meetings and updates
• Advanced Excel skills (essential)
• Demonstrable knowledge of end-to-end supply chain and different teams’ roles & responsibilities.